Assembly Line

How popping candy is made

Pressurized gas is locked inside the sugar, and every pop is one tiny bubble reaching the air.

stations
6
things upstream
11
raw sources
6
steps from the ground
4

The short version

Popping candy is hard candy with carbon dioxide gas trapped inside. A sugar syrup is boiled down, cooled to a thick melt, and stirred under pressurized carbon dioxide. It sets while still under pressure. When the pressure is released the candy shatters, and the sealed bubbles pop as saliva dissolves the sugar around them.

  1. Dissolve the sugars

    Sugars, including lactose from milk, are dissolved in water to make the syrup. The patent for the product describes sugar as the main ingredient, with flavoring added.

    Goes in
    SugarWater

  2. Boil it nearly dry

    The syrup is boiled down at about 160 degrees Celsius until only about 3 percent water is left. What remains is a thick melt.

    about 3% water

  3. Stir in the gas

    The melt is cooled a little and intensely stirred in a pressure vessel filled with carbon dioxide. The gas is forced into the melt as many small bubbles.

    Goes in
    Carbon dioxide

  4. Set under pressure

    The mixture is kept under pressure while it cools and hardens, which locks the bubbles into the solid candy.

  5. Release and shatter

    When the pressure is let off, the hard candy fractures into irregular pieces. Most of the trapped bubbles are between 225 and 350 micrometers across.

    225 to 350 µm bubbles

  6. Sift and seal

    The pieces are screened to size and sealed in small packets right away, because humid air would dissolve the sugar and release the gas.

End of the linePopping candy

Worth repeating

  • A packet of popping candy holds less carbon dioxide than half a can of soda.
  • A rumor in the 1970s said mixing it with soda could make your stomach explode, so General Foods mailed letters to school principals to say it was false.
  • Two General Foods chemists patented the idea on December 12, 1961.

Back to the ground

Follow every input upstream and popping candy starts as these 6 raw sources.

WaterSugarcaneSugar beetNatural gasCornLimestone

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Water 4 stations Corn syrup 6 stations · 2 raw sources Phosphate rock 3 stations Durum wheat 3 stations Toluene 5 stations · 4 raw sources Contact lens 6 stations · 9 raw sources

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Sources

Cite this page: "How popping candy is made." Assembly Line, 2026-11-03. https://assemblyline.org/make/popping-candy

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