What is floss sugar?

Floss sugar, also known as fairy floss, spun sugar, candyfloss or cotton candy, is a confection that consists of thin strands of sugar. Originally invented as a novelty treat as sugar spun by machinery, cottoncandy today remains popular globally.

Its preparation involves rapidly heating and melting granulated sugar and then spinning it by centrifugal force until it cools and condenses into fine spun, fluffy hair-like threads. While pure white on its own, food flavours and colouring ingredients are usually added. As floss sugar easily melts away with the humidity present in air, it usually does not last over a day due to reabsorption of atmospheric moisture and subsequent liquefaction into syrup. If kept sealed for preservation then its structure might last intact to retain that texture and taste in which it was initially prepared in. Its structure is delicate, often airy when fresh that easily collapses on application of some external mechanical pressures to it when fresh whereas it become sticky afterwards upon absorbing atmospheric moisture