I don’t know what happened. I have never made hard candy before. I learned to make tincture so I could make strong candy. But this candy isn’t delicious.
1 c sugar
1/2 c corn syrup
1/4 cup filtered water
2 tsp lemon extract
2 tsp citric acid
Blue food color (way too much)
2 oz. Tincture
Can anyone tell me why these taste so bad? It is supposed to be candy right?
Hello there, I can’t help but I know @blackthumbbetty does a heap of cooking so maybe she can help. I’ve tagged her so she will be along shortly for a chat. Good luck on your quest 
Thank You I appreciate that.
Food coloring is generally bitter especially when used in excess. It carries a very artificial and chemically taste.
I’m also wondering about the citric acid/lemon juice situation- is that a powder coating on the outside or was that mixed directly into the melted sugar for lollipop flavoring? Citric acid also tastes bitter/sour and generally like garbage. If you overdid it, that could be a contributor.
Last thought is if the tincture is bitter/weird, that isn’t helping.
Here’s a standard lollipop recipe - check out the ratio of citric acid to lemon zest/juice.
- 134 grams (1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon) light corn syrup
- 200 grams (1 cup) sugar
- 75 grams (1/4 cup plus 4 teaspoons) water
- 7 grams (1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon) finely grated lemon, lime, tangerine or grapefruit zest
- 2 to 3 drops of natural food coloring, plus more as needed
- 2 grams (1/2 teaspoon) citric acid
Then add in the desired portion of tincture liquid to make it an edible. If you’re incredibly heavy handed, it may take reducing the water (down to an even 1/4 cup perhaps) to encourage it to solidify. Most likely, you won’t be needing to add that much and the original recipe will be fine.
Finally- consider lemon flavoring instead of real lemon. It’s easier and eliminates the possibility that your lemon was just gross. That happens on rare occasion.
@blackthumbbetty or @GreenJewels I believe was the other cooker here search their cooking journals and I’ll be amazed what they do. I’m thinking on trying some with all the frozen stuff I have lol.
I don’t think @blackthumbbetty is around these days, but you can still search for her posts/threads to find a lot of good information and recipes.
I knew there was someone else I just couldn’t remember who 
I think we can eliminate lemon. I used an extract so I’m sure that was ok.
The first thing you said, about the coloring. I’ve been suspicious that was at least part of the problem. The other which you also mentioned. I put the citric acid in the recipe and also added it to the outside. The part I cooked in could be a contributor as well.
I way over used that blue color. It doesn’t even look blue. I’ve never really used it before so it is very excessive. I just have to redo this.
Do you think the 2oz of alcohol tincture could have caused any of this? I am trying to make the candy potent.
No, not unless you taste the tincture by itself and it tastes exactly like the lollipop. It really looks like way too much citric acid (use 1/2 tsp at most) and way too much food coloring. One to two drops should be plenty - hard candy is naturally clear so a little will go a long way in terms of coloring.
Looks like graysin covered what I would have said. The only hard candy I’ve made was butterscotch’s. It’s a good recipe if you want me to post it. I thinks it’s already somewhere on the forum. I think @Caligurl also makes edibles ?
I would just follow a hard candy recipe with the LorAnn flavor of your choice. Add the tincture at the end when the candy has cooled
2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cup light corn syrup
3/4 cup water
A few drops of food coloring
1 tsp LorAnn flavoring (found anywhere candy making supplies are sold)
Mix sugar corn syrup and water, cook and stir until it reaches 260°F add food coloring, continue stirring untill 300°F exactly ( use a candy thermometer!) then remove from heat, stir in the LorAnn flavoring and the tincture when your temp starts dropping and is less than 300°F the cannabinoids will cook off at 300° or greater
Now ya gotta work fast to fill your candy molds, it hardens off quickly
Happy edibles making 
Lemme know if you want the butterscotch’s recipe
I think you would need to evaporate off the alcohol somehow. I think that would definitely help with the taste. I had gummy’s that someone just used the alcohol extraction in their recipe, they were absolutely aweful, and I believe the alcohol was a major contributor in the effects.
The alcohol will evaporate off fairly quickly at a temp >190°F
It would depend on how much alcohol is in the tincture as to how long you would need to cook it off.
For the candy, it
You can always reduce the amount of alcohol in the tincture prior to using it by evaporation or carefully cooking it off in a well vented area. Please read up on it before trying to cook it off. It can be dangerous.
I use a tincture of 1gm cco/10ml alcohol for ease of measurement in recipes
She makes an appearance here and there lol.
@blackthumbbetty taught me a bunch! Both growing and edible making. Here’s her thread that has a ton of valuable info
Going heavy on good coloring can change taste more than you might realize. I’d guess you need to make a small handful of little tweaks. Was your green dragon a little too green?
Yeah butterscotch sounds good. Thank you
No it came out like gold. No sign of green.
They are delicious 
If you use a tincture, make sure it’s not too dilute. I wouldn’t add more than 20ml of tincture.
Hi all!
Yes, I have some recipes on my journal below. At the beginning I show how to make a AWET concentrate and evaporate all of the alcohol out. Midway through, I switched to evaporating with my Source Turbo. It reclaims the ever clear and is much quicker than letting it air dry and less chance of killing the THC by evaporating in an oven.
I also explain how to figure out dosage!
Let me know if you have any questions!
I love my Source Turbo as well. Definitely worth the scrimping and saving I had to do to get 
It also comes in handy for making plant oils for cooking and medicinal lotions. Happy extracting
