Thanks to Mary M.
By Rosie Wolf Williams
The red and white candy cane has a long and storied past. But is there a right way to eat one?
Dangling from the Christmas tree, tucked into party favors, or bathing in a cup of hot chocolate, candy canes are winter sweets that show up as a familiar guest to many winter holiday gatherings.
“Americans love the tradition of including chocolate and candy in their celebrations of the winter holidays – and nothing is more iconic during this time than candy canes,” says Carly Schildhaus, spokesperson for the National Confectioners Association.
The first canes were made entirely of white candy and without the trademark hook, but sometime in the early 1900s the familiar red and white canes appeared. Today they are available in traditional peppermint, along with fruit, sour or even cereal flavors.
The Sweet Beginnings of the Candy Cane
When it comes to the origins of the candy cane, we only have legends. Some say a creative choirmaster in Germany in the 1600s handed out the sweets to the child singers to keep them quiet during a Christmas ceremony, bending the canes to give a nod to the shepherds in the story of the Nativity. (cont)