Cotton from the bowl
Friday, August 5, 2005 8:25 AM PDT
By Marissa Harshman
Printable version
E-mail this articleBags of yellow, green, blue and pink fluff hang in bags from the ceiling of a small stand selling snacks at the Cowlitz County Fair.
But creating the sweet taste in a bag of cotton candy can be a sticky, and sometimes painful, experience.
Within seconds of turning on the machine, Lehua Kawaha, 31, of Portland is covered with sticky pieces of feathery candy. It covers her arms and her bright blue apron. The green strips of candy cling to her dark hair.
"I usually wear a hat. I take my hair down and it'll be like this from the cotton candy stuck in it," she said holding her hands out above her head. "It's awful."
The sticky sugar coating on her skin is not the only hazard of being a cotton candy maker.
"I have little burns on my arms from pieces of hot sugar spitting out," she said as she looked at the little white scars on her forearms.
Despite the sticky mess and painful moments, Kawaha has been making cotton candy for six years. Over the years she has learned the hard way how to avoid going home with wounds.
"I wear a glove on this hand," she said. "The sugar is hard on your skin. When you twirl (the paper cone) in your fingers with sugar on them, it hurts.
"I've finished (a shift) with my fingertips raw."
Creating cotton candy does require technique and delicacy, she said.
Sugar, mixed with powdered dye, is scooped into a hole no bigger than the size of a 50-cent coin, in the middle of the machine. When the machine is turned on, the sugar is spun inside a small compartment. It is heated up to 190 degrees, when it turns to liquid, she said.
As the sugar continues to spin, it is pushed out of tiny holes where, upon contact with air, it is turned into a solid thread of candy. The cotton candy gathers in a large bowl and a hand-spun paper cone collects the colorful treat.
Wetting the edge of the barrel causes the first pieces of cotton candy to stick to the edge and turn into sugar crystals. The sugar catches the fluffy candy as it spits out of the machine, making it easier to swirl onto a cone and put into a bag, Kawaha said.
"You have to be really careful so you don't smash it against the side of the barrel," she said.
If the candy gets too close to the warm center of the bowl, it will melt and turn rock hard, she said.
Kawaha said she turns the cone until she has a base, then slowly pulls it up, creating a long, puffy bundle of candy.
"Making the candy is easy," she said. "It's tying the bags that's hard."
It's important to make sure air is trapped inside of the bag, to keep the candy fresh and fluffy, Kawaha said. As long as air is in the bag, the candy can stay fresh for about 10 days, she said.
A quarter-cup of dye mixed with 25 pounds of sugar creates the brilliant colors of the candy. Twenty-four ounces of the mixture makes about eight to 10 bags of fluffy candy, Kawaha said.
The dye is flavored, but a larger amount would need to be added in order to notice a flavor, she said.
"Cotton candy is cotton candy," Kawaha said. "It all pretty much tastes the same."
The cost of making a bag of candy is about $2.50, with the $55 cans of dye --- no bigger than a can of soup --- being the primary expense, she said. The bags are sold for $3.
Going home with burns and sticky skin has not spoiled Kawaha's own love for cotton candy.
"Oh, I love it. I wouldn't (make) it for as long as I have if I didn't," she said.
"I'm like the little kids that come up and say, 'Can I have a bag of cotton candy?' "
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