Gobstopper
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gobstoppers, known as jawbreakers in the United States, are a type of hard candy. They are usually round, usually range from about 1 cm across to 3 cm across (though much bigger gobstoppers can sometimes be found in US candy stores, up to 8 cm in diameter) and are traditionally very hard.
The term gobstopper derives from 'gob', which is United Kingdom slang for mouth.
Gobstoppers usually consist of several layers, each layer dissolving to reveal a different coloured (and sometimes different flavoured) layer, before dissolving completely. Gobstoppers are sucked or licked, being too hard to bite without risking dental damage (hence the US title).
Gobstoppers have been sold in traditional sweet shops for several decades, often sold by weight from jars. As gobstoppers dissolve very slowly, they last a very long time in the mouth, which is a major factor in their enduring popularity with children.
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[edit] Manufacture
Gobstoppers are made by slowly depositing layers onto a core (such as a single sugar grain or anise seed). Gobstoppers are made in large, rotating, heated pans. The candies take several weeks to manufacture, as the process of adding liquid sugar is repeated multiple times (more than 100 times over two weeks to make a one inch ball). Colour and flavour are also added during the panning process.
[edit] Everlasting Gobstoppers
The Everlasting Gobstoppers sold under Nestlé's Willy Wonka Candy Company brand were first introduced in 1976 by Breaker Confections, and are named after the Everlasting Gobstoppers in Roald Dahl's children's book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (and the movie Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, which was based on the book). In Dahl's story, Everlasting Gobstoppers are purported to last forever.
[edit] Exploding jawbreakers
In 2003, a nine year old girl in Starke, Florida, Taquandra Diggs, suffered severe burns, allegedly from an exploding jawbreaker.[1][2]
A 2004 episode of the Discovery Channel television program MythBusters then demonstrated that heating a jawbreaker in a microwave oven can cause the different layers inside to heat at different rates, yielding an explosive spray of very hot candy when compressed; MythBusters crew members Adam Savage and Christine Chamberlain received light burns after a jawbreaker exploded.
