How to make your snow day sweeter!

The snow is upon us again! Maybe you're snowed in and maybe you aren't but nothing makes a snow day better than something sweet both you and your kids can enjoy. We gathered up a few fun and simple candy treats and activities to help you curb your sweet tooth while we are closed today.

1.) Melted candy bar hot chocolate
Okay, so nothing really gets any better then this. After a long day of playing in the snow everyone wants something warm to snuggle up with and Momtastic has the perfect recipe!

Heres what you need: A chocolate bar of your choice, milk, whipped cream for garnish, and other candies for garnish.

Serving size: 2

- 1/2 cup chopped up chocolate bar
- 1 3/4 cup of milk
- 1/4 cup of candy to garnish

Combine the milk and chopped up chocolate bar together in a pot over medium heat and whisk until chocolate is melted and everything is mixed together.
Remove from heat, pour into your favorite mug, and garnish as you please!

2.) Reese's S'mores

We love s'mores here at SugarPop's, we have s'more buffets, in house s'more toasting, and we can even make you s'mores to give as gifts and favors! We know you love s'mores, so as a small gift from us to you, we are going to teach you how to step up your s'more game in a very very easy way. 

Here's what you need: Marshmallows, graham crackers, and reese's peanut butter cups. 

Toast your marshmallows how you like them, you can either do this by fire or by wrapping marshmallows in tin foil and toasting them in the oven. Next, carefully assemble your S'more: graham cracker, reese's peanut butter cup, marshmallow, and then graham cracker! 

Candy activities! 

Maybe the snow isn't for you or you want to keep the fun going after you've come inside from the cold! 

1.) Glossy skittles paint 

Here's what you need: craft paint brushes, skittles, small plastic jars or cups, corn syrup. 

First divide skittles up into different jars according to their color. Add corn syrup over the skittles until they are completely covered. Next, you wait. Some colors may start to divide their pigment before others, so wait a few hours for everything to completely divide. 

Now, paint what ever you please! These paints smell delicious and look beautiful and glossy! You can paint these on regular paper but card stock works best. Set them aside to dry, depending on how thick the paint is it could take a day or two to completely dry.  

2.) Candy chromatography from Mama Miss 

Here's what you need: Nerds, water, and coffee filters. 

In this activity you will be separating the dye from the nerds onto the coffee filter to create colorful sheets of paper! 

For the best results you should use two coffee filters and less water. 

Lay nerds out onto your coffee filter and carefully drop water over the nerds. Wait 30 seconds to a minute in between drops. Keep adding nerds little by little, dropping water over them, and repeat until your whole coffee filter is covered with beautiful color! 

After the nerds dye is mostly washed off the nerds, remove them from the filter and throw them away. Hang your coffee filters to dry and enjoy the color pointillism! 

  

Make sure to stay safe and warm on this snow day!! 

-SugarPop's Candy 

248 North Main St.

Mooresville, NC 28115

(704) 799-0959  

Swedish Fish!

It's rare that a bag of candy leaves SugarPop's without at least one Swedish Fish nestled between various other candies! Swedish fish are hugely popular in the candy scene and for a good reason. Their delicious cherry-esque flavor and sweet aroma has captured many hearts throughout the years, dating back to the late 1950's.

Swedish Fish first arrived in the states around the late 1950's as an import from the Swedish confectionery company Malaco. While Swedish Fish is considered a gummy candy, it is very different from the usual gummies one is used to eating. Swedish Fish contains no gelatin and is actually a wine gum candy (it doesn't actually contain wine), that is where its denseness comes from and it makes it a wholly vegetarian candy! After its debut in the states it became fully accepted into the candy scene between the 1960-1970's.

There has been much debate over what a Swedish Fish "Original red" flavor actually is. It has a very aromatic cherry smell upon first opening up a jar or bag filled with these treats and the tastes can go from cherry to raspberry, fruit punch or even lingonberry! Not even the candy company who produces Swedish Fish can tell consumers what the actual flavor is because it is a special flavor specifically crafted for Swedish Fish. Cadbury currently owns and distributes Swedish Fish in the U.S and produce the original red flavor, green, yellow, orange, and purple. 7,000 metric tons of Swedish Fish are produced each year, that could approximate to 1,929 orca whales!

In Sweden you can find a Swedish Fish called salmaik which is a salty black licorice flavor that is hugely popular and can be found almost anywhere in Sweden. In 2009 Rita's Italian Ice company released a Swedish Fish flavor that was hugely popular in the United States!

-SugarPop's Candy

248 North Main St.

Mooresville, NC 28115(704) 799-0959

Jaw Breaker

We have all had a jawbreaker in our lifetime and I think everyone can agree that a jawbreaker is a real commitment! Jawbreakers can range from the size of a small pebble to as big as a golf ball, some are hard all the way through and some have soft chewy centers. Here at SugarPop's we have brightly colored and marbled jawbreakers the size of golfballs and tiny jawbreaker that have a soft chewy center. 

Jawbreakers, or gobstoppers, rose to popularity due to Ferrari Pan Candy Company in Forest Park, Illinois. The term gobstopper comes from British slang being that gob refers to ones mouth and jawbreaker refers to how hard the candy is and how it can cause a substantial amount of dental problems due to the high sugar count and if one where to chomp down onto the jawbreaker. These candies can take a few hours to dissolve or weeks depending on their size or how determined a purchaser is. Jawbreakers take about a week to manufacture due to the many layers of sugar and color that has to be added to get the giant size and flavor! 

Fun trivia: 

The cartoon Ed, Edd n Eddy,  featuring three adolescent boys, had many episodes centered around the three boys trying different schemes to obtain a jawbreaker and in 2003 they released an Ed, Edd n Eddy game called Jawbreakers that centers around you trying to obtain 100 different jawbreaker flavors! 

See how Jawbreakers are made! 

Nerds!

According to Laurnie Wilson, "Some say that [Nerds were] named after a reference in the Dr. Seuss Book, If I Ran the Zoo, where a 'nerd' is mentioned as one of the creatures the narrator would collect for his zoo." Nerds are crunchy, sour, sweet and bright! Kids love this box full of treats because of the bright colors and delicious flavors. They were launched in 1983 by Angelo Farggos of the Nestle candy company and by 1985 they were voted "Candy of the Year" by the National Candy Wholesalers Association.
Nerds were very popular in the 1980s but had big competitors like Pop Rocks, Candy Buttons, and Mike and Ike's. They were generally, and still are today, sold in one box with two separate chambers to hold two different flavors of nerds. In the UK they once sold Nerds in a box with three separate chambers with a strawberry cola flavor that the United States never got to distribute. Nerds is a unique candy in its shape, size, and flavor but had a close cousin called Dweebs. Dweebs were slightly larger then an average Nerd, less sour, and were sold in three different flavors in one box; Dweebs only lasted a short time on the market. Nerds also tried to take off in the cereal market by creating a Nerd Cereal that came packaged just like the candy. Two separate cereal flavors in one box and it even came with a mail-in coupon to receive a nerds cereal bowl that you could separate your cereal into! Unfortunately, this cereal did not last long and is now discontinued.

This iconic candy comes in many flavors and forms! The most popular are the nerd boxes with these current flavors:

• Strawberry and Grape (Pink and Purple)
• Wild Cherry and Watermelon (orange or red and green)
• Double Dipped Lemonade-Wild Cherry and Apple-Watermelon (red and yellow)
• Sour-Lightning Lemon and Amped Apple (yellow and light green) 
• Surf n' Turf- Totally Tropical Punch and Road Rash Raspberry (red and blue) 
• Wildberry and Peach (blue and orange) 
• Wildberry and Punch and Watermelon (Green and Blue) 

Nerds has also morphed into different and just as unique products such as:

• Sour Nerds
• Nerds Rope- The factory makes about 60 miles of Nerd Ropes each day! 
• Rainbow Nerds
• Jumbo Nerds
• Nerds Gum ball 
• Theme Nerds
• Nerds Cereal 
• Techno-nerds
• Nerd Gum 
• Dweebs 
• Neon nerds- now only sold in Australia and New Zealand 
• Nerd Jelly Beans
• Wonkalate- A UK only chocolate bar that is purple in color and contains snozzberry flavored Nerds. 

See how Nerd Ropes are made! 

Wilson, Laurnie. "Candy Favorites – Wholesale Candy & Bulk Candy Suppliers Since 1927." A Nerd-tastic History. Candy Favorites, 1, Feb.2015.

SugarPop's Candy and Soda 
248 N. Main Street
Historic Downtown
Mooresville, Nc
28117
704-799-0959