Why do strawberry laffy taffy’s start sticking to the wrapper faster than banana laffy taffy’s?

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Why do strawberry laffy taffy’s start sticking to the wrapper faster than banana laffy taffy’s?

In: Chemistry

Anonymous 0 Comments

tl;dr there’s oil in banana laffy-taffy.

Laffy taffy is basically just several types of refined and processed sugar. (with added flavours, colours and other stuff).

when it comes out of the factory, it contains a very specific amount of water (because if it didn’t, it’d be a boiled sugar sweet, like a Jolly-Rancher), and it will have been stretched slightly, so that it incorporates a certain amount of air.

Over time, it’ll start to absorb water out of the atmosphere. ..and as it does, the outer layer of the candy will get softer and softer, and because the taffy has been pulled to incorporate a certain amount of air, there’s really a LOT of surface area.

other than the food colouring used, the only difference between Strawberry flavour, and banana flavour, is that the banana flavouring happens to be oil based, and the strawberry flavoring is (probably) alcohol based. Because there’s a very small amount of oil in there, and because oil and water dont mix .. there’s a natural barrier that stops water from absorbing so fast.

(that’s also why if you leave a jollyrancher in a draw for a long time, when you unwrap it, the outer layer of the candy has turned to goo.. it’s absorbed water, and “melted slightly”)