“Tight, tight, tight, yeah”

Hi Rhonda. I’m glad that the candy itself turned out well, but I’m sorry for the problems with the coloring and flavoring. Not sure if you saw the tip section on the blog post, but I wanted to share some tips about preventing green coloring. This is the #1 problem people have with this recipe. There are 2 possible culprits: overcooking the candy, and using the wrong food coloring.

First, overcooking. The sugar syrup, if allowed to cook to a high temperature, will eventually turn yellow, then amber, then brown. This recipe calls for syrup to be cooked to 290 F, which should produce a near-colorless mixture that will not interfere with food coloring. (It will have a slight yellowish tinge.) If your candy is already a yellow or brown color when you’re adding the food coloring, chances are you have overcooked it, and the yellow color of the candy will mix with the blue dye and turn your candy green. The solution is to check to make sure your thermometer is accurate and to watch the candy like a hawk when it’s cooking.

Secondly, using the wrong type of food coloring (gel coloring vs liquid coloring). I have made this several times with Americolor Sky Blue gel food coloring, and have always had the color turn out well. I can’t guarantee other colors or brands will turn out the same. Liquid coloring, especially, can be weaker and is more likely to produce a greenish shade.

Here are a few colorings other readers have recommended: one reader says that the neon blue McCormick’s liquid food coloring produced a great blue color. She also recommends using a packet of Duncan Hines Frosting Creations in Cotton Candy, stirring it in at the very end and omitting any other flavoring and coloring. Another reader had great success with Adeco brand Electric Blue, and recommends using 5 drops for a great blue color.

I’m guessing the flavoring you used was clear, but just had a bad taste? I recommend LorAnn’s flavorings and extracts. They have a lot of clear colorings with really nice flavors. You can always go with a classic vanilla flavor. Here are some other flavors that have turned out really well (all by LorAnn’s): Cool Crème de Menthe, Honey, Key Lime, Pineapple, Lemonade, and Wintergreen.

I hope that helps and that your next batch turns out amazing. Please let us know if you have any other questions and we will try to help. Best!

In reply to Elizabeth.

I am also using this for a Frozen party instead of Breaking Bad. I used Lorann blue raspberry flavoring and it was a huge disappointment. For one that flavor stinks and turned it greed. So I will be starting over, I wanted a flavor 5 year olds would like. The recipe wasn’t a disappointment; it turned out fine as far as hard candy goes, just the color and flavor were a disappointment.

So glad to hear it, Brianne! Please come back and tell us what you end up making. 🙂

This homemade rock candy recipe is amazing! I love how easy it is to customize the flavors. Can’t wait to try it out with some fruity extracts. Thanks for sharing!

Hi Carol! This recipe is really versatile and can be paired with any clear flavoring you like (clear flavoring is a must if you want your candy to stay clear and blue). You can always use clear vanilla, but Elizabeth typically recommends fruit flavors for hard candy. She really likes LorAnn’s extracts and candy flavorings because the quality, consistency, and flavors are awesome. Many of the larger LorAnn bottles are tinted so you can’t tell the color inside, but most of the 1-dram bottles are clear. So, you can either view the online product descriptions/pictures to check the color, or order them as an experiment before committing to a larger bottle. This Key Lime Flavoring is a good one to try. I hope that helps.