Materials Needed

• cooking pot
• stove or hotplate
• heat resistant gloves
• spoon
• 2 glass jars
• 2 tongue depressors
• sugar
• water
• food coloring

Procedures

1. Mix 2 ¼ cups sugar with 1 cup water in the cooking pot. The sugar may not completely dissolve until the mixture is heated.
2. Heat the mixture over medium heat until it boils.
3. Let the mixture boil for two minutes without stirring it. In the meantime, get the glass jars warm by filling them with hot water. Empty and dry them out.
4. Add a few drops of food coloring to each jar, and stir with a tongue depressor.
5. Leave the tongue depressors in the jars and put them somewhere where they won’t be disturbed for at least a week.
   (*IMPORTANT* Do not touch or disturb the glass or move the sticks)
6. When crystals have formed on the sticks, the rock candy is ready to eat!

*Troubleshooting: After a few days a crust may form on top of the water. Carefully break it so the water can continue to evaporate. Once the rock candy mixture cools, if you coat the tongue depressor in sugar and stick it back in the jar, it can help speed up the process of crystal growth.