Why does cotton candy dissolve in your mouth?

Moment of Um

American Public Media

Kids & Family, Education For Kids

4.4 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 23 November 2023

⏱️ 6 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today’s question was sent in by a curious listener who wondered why fluffy, sugary-sweet cotton candy dissolves on your tongue. We asked food scientist Craig Sherwin to help us find the answer.

Got a question that’s cotton you all confused? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help find a sweet answer for you.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	From the brains behind brains on, this is the moment of yum. Moment of Yum. Um, um, um, um.
0:13.0	Moment of Um, comes to you from APM Studios.
0:16.0	I'm Ruby Guthrie.
0:17.0	Happy Food Week.
0:19.0	It's a whole week of delicious episodes leading up to Thanksgiving.
0:22.0	Um. episodes leading up to Thanksgiving.
0:23.0	Um...
0:25.0	Oh, hey!
0:27.0	Are you here for the fair too?
0:29.0	I know it's the best.
0:31.0	There's giant slides, balloon animals, maybe a ferrous wheel if you're lucky and not afraid of heights but the best part is the food pretzels as big as your face.
0:42.6	Bags of kettle corn, the size of a hefty corgy.
0:46.4	And you can get pretty much anything on a stick.
0:49.4	Pickles, corn dogs, and cotton candy is my absolute favorite. We got to get some and hey this is perfect because I know a guy who makes the best cotton candy in the world. It's fluffy, it's sweet, it comes in every color you can think of.
1:07.0	Oh, there he is now, Randy the Cotton Candy Man.
1:11.0	The fair is fun, it's fine and dandy. Come taste a cloud and get some cotton candy.
1:16.5	Randy, my man, long time no see.
1:19.9	Ruby, it's been a minute. So glad to see you at the fair. What will it be?
1:24.6	Pink, blue, green, magenta, orange, red, super orange, yellow, orange.
1:32.4	Whoa, pink all the way.
1:34.0	Is it even a question?
1:36.0	Coming right up, here you go.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from American Public Media, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of American Public Media and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.