Not Too Sweet

One of my favorite compliments that we receive from customers is that our lollipops are “not too sweet”. It’s one of the factors that I think makes our candy such a hit with grownups once they get a taste of what we do. One customer recently left us this feedback on Etsy:

“I didn't know what to expect from Pistachio Marshmallow so I peeled one open right out of the box and just about died it's so good. Not too sweet like how commercial marshmallows can be, more that warm fresh marshmallow flavour and unique taste of pistachio. It's completely fantastic.”

How do we accomplish this, given that all hard candy lollipops are ~99% sugar, no matter who’s making them? In some of our fruit-based flavors, we do it by adding acids that occur naturally in all fruits such as Citric Acid or Malic Acid. These have the effect of cutting the sweetness and sharpening the fruit flavors. We experiment with different acidity proportions until we find a recipe that our taste testers rave about.

In other cases, I think it’s simply the fact that we blend multiple high-quality flavors together, and their interactions cut the sweetness. Hazelnut-Coffee, for example, combines a bitter flavor (Coffee) with a nutty one. Our spice flavors such as Tangerine-Clove and Nutmeg Crème reduce the perceived sweetness by introducing a complimentary spice.

If you’ve had any of our flavors before, what do you think? Are any of them too sweet for your grown-up taste buds?