cotton candy fails

I saw some videos on youtube of people making cotton candy (which I love) and thought it looked fun and easy.  Groupon sent me a $10 off of $20 coupon, and they just happen to have a cotton candy machine, so I gave it a go.

regular sugar worked up to be fluffy, but it wasn't as soft and fluffy as regular cotton candy - sort of had a stiff glassy texture.  it also has a flavor that tasted like it was starting to burn.  but the boys liked it.

I added some watermelon Kool-aid to regular sugar and that was kinda hit and miss - mostly miss.  it was a crunchy tube most of the time.  but the boys still liked that, too.

  

I tried grinding up some candy canes and peppermints in the coffee grinder, which gave mixed results.

I had chocolate peppermint candy canes which probably worked the best texture-wise.  this one was the most like regular cotton candy.

the regular peppermint candy cane had that glassy texture, and wouldn't stick to the stick after it got to a certain size - probably the biggest fail.

  

crushed mints                                                                                                                 whole mints

I tried peppermints ground up and just by themselves, and I think I like keeping the candy whole rather than grinding it up, but it still got to a point that it let loose of the stick and I couldn't turn it around to gather the floss anymore.

 

I don't like peppermints, but this was a more enjoyable way to eat them because it was light and the flavor wasn't as strong.  the boys liked these mint ones at first, but when I offered them more they declined, and Jack actually handed it back to me.  maybe this is more of a peppermint-lover or adult kinda cotton candy.

I got some Jolly Ranchers and used two whole candies at a time like with the peppermints.  I wanted to try them because I'd seen other people have success with them in their machines, but my machine temp must be different because it just never really worked right :(  I tried crushing the candy to see if that helped and it wasn't any better.  tasted great, but it was more like batten insulation than cotton candy - it clung to the stick and became dense the more that was wound on the stick, so the center was crispy by the time it was finished.

I think I'll try finding some other hard candies and see what happens with those.  I'm also wondering if a larger bowl would help... or maybe this machine just isn't so great.  I dunno - we'll see if I come back to it!  I might be more inspired as the weather gets cooler to try and mess with it again.