"Hard candy"

[nancylebov]

As we discovered recently, the bon bon is a very ill-defined candy, and probably needs a Venn diagram.

When I was talking about it with dcseain, it turned out that we don't mean the same thing by "hard candy". I specifically take that to be candy made almost entirely out of sugar which is usually sucked, while dcseain includes caramels and, I think, at least some of what I consider taffy-- candies which are a chewy and possibly stuck-on-teeth experience.

We may be able to pin down a regional/cultural variation for "hard candy". "Bonbon", on the other hand, seems more like a subject for a dessertation.

Comments

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

There's a brand of Turkish taffy called "bonomo." Perhaps this has implanted a misleading mental image.

[angevin2.livejournal.com]

It isn't hard candy if it doesn't crunch when you chew on it.

[madfilkentist]

It isn't hard candy if you can chew on it.

[captain-button.livejournal.com]

Just to throw another term around, the British sometime talk about "boiled sweets", which I'd assumed were what I call "hard candy". An example of what I mean is the "Life Savers" brand candy sold in the USA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_Savers

[cellio]

My definition of hard candy matches yours. (I grew up in western PA.)

I don't think I've ever met a bon bon, but my mental image is something chocolate-based, round, and closer to candy than cake. Maybe like a truffle, but not quite that.

[terriwells.livejournal.com]

That also matches my mental image of bon bon, though I don't think I've ever had one as such. My mental image of "hard candy" includes the "mostly sugar, hard, sucked, crunches when bitten into" apparent consensus here. Anything chewy is not a hard candy. I grew up in New York.

[gildedacorn.livejournal.com]

In my opinion, hard candy = mostly sugar, usually sucked, crunches when chewed.

Life Savers, cough lozenges, barley sugar, cinnamon drops, round stripy peppermints, etc.