National Hard Candy Day

Also sometimes known as “boiled sweets”, hard candy dates back as far as the Ancient Egyptians who would make their own version of candy which was made from honey that they would mix with various nuts as well as fruit. Of course, today’s hard candies are made almost exclusively from sugar.

Used since the 13th century, the English word ‘candy’ was likely derived from the Arabic word ‘qandi’ which literally translates to “made of sugar”. In the 14th century the candy industry grew in Europe when candy makers would boil sugar and combine it with nuts and fruits like their Ancient Egyptian predecessors.

By the 19th century, as sugar began to become more accessible, hard candy was becoming more popular in England as well as in North Amer.