| Dragon's beard candy | |||||||||||
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| Traditional Chinese | 龍鬚糖 | ||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 龙须糖 | ||||||||||
| Literal meaning | dragon beard candy | ||||||||||
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| Alternative Chinese name | |||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 銀絲糖 | ||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 银丝糖 | ||||||||||
| Literal meaning | silver silk candy | ||||||||||
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Dragon's beard candy (or Chinese cotton candy) is a handmade traditional art of Ancient China. It is also a traditional Chinese sweet similar to spun sugar, which can be found in many Chinese communities. Dragon’s Beard Candy was initially created in China, but soon spread in popularity and became a regional delicacy in other parts of East Asia, as well as (and more recently) Canada, Singapore, the United States, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan. Dragon's Beard Candy is highly prized sweet within the Korean royal court as well.
Originally, Dragon’s Beard Candy was available only with a coconut flavor, but later chocolate was added to appeal to children. Modern Dragon's Beard Candy contains a flavored mixed with chocolate, coconut and peanut. It is not sold to any company, and it retails at the price of 3 Canadian dollars, before tax. Dragon’s Beard Candy is not conceived as an easily marketable candy because it requires rare specialized skill to produce. Moreover, because the method involved in making Dragon’s Beard Candy is an inherited trade, only a few people know the proper way to make it. As a result, Dragon’s Beard Candy is becoming quite rare, especially due to the lack of a substantial public advertising campaign. Though its availability is limited, Dragon's Beard Candy can still be found in specific areas such as tourist destinations including the Takayama Historic District in Takayama, Gifu. The target group of this product includes all ages, not only children as the "candy" piece of the name may perhaps denote.
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Dragon’s Beard Candy has been described as an old-fashioned candy characterized by a “rich, sweet flavor” with a threaded, chewy texture. Its appearance resembles that of a white cocoon or pillow shape.[1] It has a very high sugar content (29%), and may be considered additionally unhealthy due to its 4% saturated fat content.[2] For comparison, comparing Dragon’s Beard Candy with cotton candy, cotton candy has no fat content.[3] Despite the fact that the candy is well-known traditionally, it is typically not popular to keep within a household since it primarily has a very short shelf life, due to its high sensitivity to moisture[4], as well as the tendency of the candy to melt when exposed to higher temperatures, including atypically warm weather conditions.
The following table presents the nutritional information of Dragon's Beard Candy per serving (37g).
| Amount per Serving | Daily value | |
| Calories | 141.2 | |
| Calories from Fat | 54 g | 38% |
| Total Fat | 6.1 g | 9% |
| Saturated Fat | 0.8 g | 4% |
| Cholesterol | 0.0 g | 0% |
| Total Carbohydrate | 21.1 g | 7% |
| Dietary Fiber | 1.0 g | 4% |
| Sugars | 7.2 g | 29% |
| Protein | 3.2 g | 6% |
The legend of Dragon’s Beard Candy was first notably practiced during the Chinese Han Dynasty.[5] As the story recounts, an imperial court chef entertained the Emperor one day by performing steps involved in making a new confection. The process of making the candy involved stretching a dough-like mixture composed from rice flour into small, thin strands. These strands reminded the Emperor of a dragon’s beard, and were sticky enough to adhere to one's face quite easily, so thus the concoction was there-forth named as Dragon's Beard Candy. The name may also be attributed to the status of the mythical dragon as a symbol of Chinese Emperor,[6] so presenting the confection as Dragon’s Beard Candy was deemed acceptable due to the social nature of the candy, as it was reserved only for the ruling class, likely due additionally to the complexity of the preparation process. Dragon's Beard Candy provided a source of conflict several centuries later, however, as during the Chinese Cultural Revolution the Red Guard, acting in accordance to the orders of the Communist Party of China, forbade the Chinese populace to hold activities that could be attributed to the Han Dynasty[7]. Because the initially rare nature of the candy was at this point combined with government enforcement of disdaining this art, the craft of making Dragon’s Beard Candy became even more isolated and sparsely practiced. Nevertheless, in recent years, the art has resurfaced in tourist destinations such as various street festivals, and has even spread to farther reaches of the globe through dedicated masters of the task. One of the more famous instances of this occurrence involved the spread of Dragon's Beard Candy to Montreal, Canada, through a Hong Kong-born Canadian named Johnny Chin[8] who began practicing the theatrical candy-making art in Montreal in 1991.
In Singapore, since 1988, Ho Lili took over the reins of making Dragon Beard Candy from her grandfather, a chef whose ancestor heritage dates back to a long line of imperial chefs of the Forbidden City, and became the first lady in Singapore (and perhaps the world as it is usually the men who make dragon beard candies) who continued the tradition and popularize the making of Dragon Beard Candy by ensuring that each and every dragon beard candy nugget served to her guests is of thumb sized portion (read: authentic Dragon Beard Candy) and even accomplished the feat of making the world's longest dragon beard candy threads at 3.7 meters long. Here's an international report on Singapore's Dragon Beard Candies: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KMIJgtPDLE&feature=related
Ho Lili has since passed on her unique Dragon Beard Candy making skills to her cousin Roger Poon. Roger is also the creator and creative producer of The Dragon beard Candy Show (titled: 龙飞凤舞 in Mandarin), the first ever "live" performance that combines the visual feat of making the silky fine Dragon Beard Candy threads with the gastronomic feast of letting the audience taste and eat freshly made dragon beard candy nuggets. A segment of the show clips is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08CGYr3RttQ
Traditionally, Dragon's Beard Candy is made from sugar and maltose syrup, although recipes based on corn syrup are now used in the United States. The main ingredients[2] of Dragon’s Beard Candy include approximately 75 grams of fine white sugar, 75 grams of peanuts, 75 grams of desiccated coconut, 38 grams of white sesame seeds, 150 grams of corn syrup, and 1 bowl of glutinous rice flour. Due to the presence of large amounts of syrup, the candy is very high in fat and sugar.
For preparation of Dragon's Beard Candy, the preparer must initially[9] boil and melt the saturated maltose solution (which may include sugar or corn syrup) for 5 minutes until thickened, followed by leaving the mixture to chill for 10 minutes until a solid state is reached. This resulting solid, which is somewhat flexible or elastic, is then formed into a torus. Next, the preparer must dip the gooey sugar, corn syrup or sugar cane based gel and dip it into the sugar dough. Thirdly, the gooey chunk must be shaped into a ring resembling a donut, the key feature being the large hole. This step must by followed by repeatedly pulling, twisting, stretching and folding the dough over on itself, doubling the number of strands created after each repetition. While the candy is being folded, it is recommended to keep the dough covered in toasted glutinous flour to prevent it from sticking to surfaces. The dough must then be stretched into paper thin strands, where each strand should be three to four inches long. Then, the strands should be tangled into a circular shape, and dipped into corn flour to keep the strands from sticking together. Finally, the ring should be cut into small pieces and wrapped around crushed peanuts, sesame seeds, crunched chocolate or coconut inside. Specific Dragon's Beard Candy filling depends on several factors, such as region, purpose, and respective chef.
The candy is recommended to be consumed immediately after its preparation is complete, but it should remain fresh for up to six minutes in heat.
Dragon’s Beard Candy contains[9] high sugar and corn syrup. Thus, unregulated consumption of Dragon’s Beard Candy may lead to increased levels of blood fat, when consumed in high quantity. Corn syrup belongs to a family of added sugar[10]and is added in Dragon’s Beard Candy to act as a sweetener to enhance the flavor. However, when consuming large quantities of corn syrup, it adds extra calories to one's diet and can lead to an increase in weight, which may further contribute to both obesity[11]and cardiovascular disease.[10] In order to avoid the above disease, the World Health Organization[10] recommends not to intake more than 10% of added sugar in one's diet per day. The American Heart Association[10] also recommends women and men should not take more than 100 and 150 calories of added sugar each day.
Both cotton candy and Dragon’s Beard Candy are made of sugar and share the characteristic of notable stickiness and a high sensitivity to moisture. Both substances will clump together when exposed to the air for a certain amount of time. However, cotton candy has a larger surface area, thus allowing a small amount of sugar to generate into a greater volume of product. Its serving on each stick is 37 grams, including food dyes [12] and flavor, containing around 110 calories per serving. [3]While Dragon’s Beard Candy contain a lower content of sugar (7.2 grams), it contains a slightly higher caloric content of 141.2, as well as a higher fat content (6.1 grams), compared to Western-style cotton candy, typically containing 0g of fat.[2]
| Dragon's Beard Candy | Western-style cotton candy | |
| Calories | 141.2 | 110 |
| Total Fat | 6.1 g | 0 g |
| Saturated Fat | 0.8 g | 0 g |
| Cholesterol | 0.0 g | 0 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1.0 g | 0 g |
| Sugars | 7.2 g | 28 g |
| Protein | 3.2 g | 0 g |
It is common for street vendors of Dragon's Beard Candy to carry out the folding process involved in preparation of the confection at their stall, which can attract customers fascinated by the process as much as by a desire to purchase the candy. However, customers can purchase Dragon’s Beard Candy through online stores.