Make YOUR OWN Crystals!

Sugar Crystals

You may know Sugar Crystals by their other name, rock candy, or perhaps by their most common adjective, delicious! These take a little longer than the Needle Crystals to build, but they are easy enough to do and their taste is well worth the wait!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup water
• 3 cups table sugar
• clean glass jar
• pencil or butter knife
• string or yarn (do not use nylon string)
• pan for boiling water and making solution
• spoon for stirring
• (optional) food coloring

Directions:

1. Tie the string to your pencil or butter knife. The string should be able to hang into your jar without touching the bottom or sides.
2. In the pan start boiling the water. You may want to ask an adult for help or let them know you're using the stove, just in case.
3. Stir in the sugar one spoonful at a time. You want to make sure there is lots of thesolute (in this case sugar) in the solution, but not so much that it doesn't all dissolve into the solution. If you have some undissolved sugar your Rock Crystals will start building onto those molecules rather than your string.
4. Add a few drops of food coloring if you want some color to your candy.
5. Carefully pour the solution from the pan into your clean glass jar. Make sure it's clean, otherwise crystals will build onto those molecules on the jar and not on your string.
6. Balance the pencil or butter knife (with the string tied to it) on the lip of the jar and let the string dangle into the solution. Again, don't let the string hit the sides or bottom of the jar.
7. Find a safe spot for your jar so it won't get knocked around or exposed to too much dust and debris.
8. Check on your Rock Crystals the next day and notice how they're started to take form on the string.
9. Whenever your Rock Crystals are the right size for your taste or when they stop growing go ahead and take them out of the jar and let them dry.
10. Enjoy their sugary goodness!