Rock Candy

We had some fun making this rock candy! It's quick and easy to do and I've learned it is a good lesson in patience. My kids get to watch it slowly grow and get to practice their waiting skills!

There are quite a few different ways to make this. I’ll tell you what we did and at the end I’ll mention some variations.


What You Need:

• Glass Jar (We used a 32 oz jar)
• 1 cup water
• 4 cups sugar
• Food coloring (optional)
• Saucepan*
• A stick or other variation – something that will not go into the sugar concoction
• String or popsicle stick – i.e. floss, cotton string, pipe cleaner, etc.
• Optional – paper clip and tape

 *Warning – Parent supervision needed if you use the saucepan on the stove.


Directions

Add water to the saucepan

Add 2 cups of sugar

 Sometimes I let the kids scoop it up themselves with a little 2 Tlbs scooper we have. It's mess, but they enjoy it.

Heat on the stove to dissolve the sugar, but do not boil.

Once dissolved add a few drops of food color (optional) and then add the rest of the sugar. I had my kids squeeze my finger first before they squeezed the bottle for the food coloring and they did great at adding it by themselves.

Once all the sugar is dissolved, add the liquid into the glass jar. Place string/stick into the jar and attach to the stick that you will lay across the jar. Tape in place, if necessary. I used a popsicle stick we already had and the base was wide enough that it will not fall into the jar. I tied a piece of floss to the top of the stick and tied it around the stick inside of the jar. Make sure it is long enough to go into the liquid. The instructions I saw said that crystals should appear within a few hours….it didn’t quite work out that fast and it has now been 3 days and we have a few on the sticks.

The blue jar is sugar with no flavor and the pink we tried adding a little Crystal Light instead of adding color. I do not know if it will work as well, but we shall see.

From all the different recipes I have seen, it should take anywhere between 7 and 14 days to become a good size crystal. I will update when it is finished.


If I Did It Again, I Would…

I would make the string longer. Probably about 1/2 - 2/3 the length of the jar. I would also tie a paper clip to the end of the string to weigh it down. I had to stick a butter knife in to help guide the string down.

Other Variations 

I saw the recipes vary all the way to us 2 cups water and 4 cups sugar and from using warm water from the tap in a bowl to stirring it until it was at a rolling boil, so the water must not mater as much as making sure that the sugar was dissolved. My little sister has made these multiple times and she has never put it on the stove top.

You can add various flavors.

You can use borax and pipe cleaners to make different shapes. It sounds like it goes faster, but it is not edible.