My Twizzler has a hole i nit

October 25, 2006 10:01 PM

Why do Twizzlers have holes in them?

Same for any other liquorice-style candy, name-brand or generic, long or short. The only exception are the pull-apart variety.

posted by BradNelson to food & drink (14 comments total)

They're extruded that way?
posted by owhydididoit at 10:05 PM on October 25, 2006

Oh oh oh!! Pick me! I've known this since I was 5 five: So you can bite off the ends and use it as a straw, works best with 7up or Sprite. Yea!
posted by youngergirl44 at 10:08 PM on October 25, 2006 [3 favorites]

Because air is cheaper than colored flavored starch.
posted by Good Brain at 10:09 PM on October 25, 2006

I think it's so you can get a good amount of Twizzler per inch without having it an unpleasantly solid texture. Those thin licorice strings you have to eat too many inches of to get a bite worth of candy.

btw: I love it when it Twizzles.
posted by aubilenon at 10:59 PM on October 25, 2006

Not Sprite, Coke! Nothing better than hot popcorn and cold Coke with a Twizzler straw while at the movies. Red Vines, though they offer a hole of greater diameter, simply won't do.

But seriously: If you pick up some proper, Scandinavian black licorice you'll find that it's solid. It's the machining/extruding process that results in the hollow center, as owhydididoit suggests.
posted by aladfar at 11:08 PM on October 25, 2006 [1 favorite]

It may also have something to do with bite-ability, mouthfeel, and easy chewiness. Hollow might be easier to work through than solid candy.

Also, totally great for using as a straw or blowing air through it at your little brother during a movie.
posted by mostlymartha at 11:24 PM on October 25, 2006

I can't definitively say this is right, it may just be extrapolated memories from Mr. Rogers' Neighbourhood episodes or something, but I think it's due to the traditional way that long, thin candies are made.

If I remember correct, you start with a "loaf", for lack of a better term, a huge mass of the candy, probably also heated and just-mixed, and then you squish it down and roll it up and squish it down and roll it up until you can then extrude (as mentioned) the candy at the desired diameter. I imagine Twizzlers were originally done this way and then twisted during the final extrusion process, and I can see that resulting in a hole in the middle (unavoidable, sometimes, when rolling things up.)

I'm sure they don't do it exactly that way anymore, but perhaps people were used to the hole in the middle, and then when you're 8 you can use it as a straw and feel cool.
posted by blacklite at 12:05 AM on October 26, 2006 [1 favorite]

Think about the process of making it: hot goo pushed through an extrusion plate. Now, you can make it solid, but becaue of the vicosity, you'll get some pretty severe defects due to uneven cooling. Try this for fun: melt some crayons into a thin layer and let cool. It will look fine. Melt them into a shot-glass sized paper cup and when they cool, the thickest part will deform, sink, crack, what have you.

The way to fix the uneven cooling is to make the cooling process slower. This can be done by extruding them into a bath of hot water or hot air and letting the temperature drop slowly.

But they're not going to do that because throughput drops tremendously. It's far easier and faster to make them hollow, and fairly uniform in thickness.

Licorice whips work because of the relatively thin diameter. We're talking a good balance of the ratio of surface area to volume.

By the way - try Red Vines instead of Twizzlers - they're superior in most every way.
posted by plinth at 5:15 AM on October 26, 2006

As others have said: So you can use it as a straw! With soda!
posted by Sprout the Vulgarian at 8:35 AM on October 26, 2006

There is a competitive candy that I've had up here in the great white north that is basically a solid twizzler. Nibs perhaps? Anyway, they're much harder to bite and chew. Plus you seem to get "less" in a package of the same weight since they're a lot denser.
posted by GuyZero at 9:53 AM on October 26, 2006

Nibs are far superior (either the little stubby variety, or the longer whips) partly because they are solid, and partly because they are cherry instead of strawberry. I love me some Nibs.
posted by Robot Johnny at 10:25 AM on October 26, 2006

It's totally possible to extrude flavored starch in solid form without having severe defects due to uneven cooling. I know because I used to be a big fan of the thick, 2-3 foot long ropes of red liqorice that had a solid core.

It's not metal, glass or even wax. It's hydrated starch + flavor and coloring and various stabilizers and preservatives, and maybe a little oil. It's flexible, elastic and deformable.

However, they may still make it hollow to cool it faster, because the faster it cools, the sooner it can be packed without risk of turning into a single, inseparable block.

I still think it's so it looks like you are getting more than you really are. The idea that it makes it easier to chew is also interesting: easier to chew = you eat/buy more.
posted by Good Brain at 10:37 AM on October 26, 2006

How is licorice made?
posted by phearlez at 11:00 AM on October 26, 2006

Should have mentioned - I know that doesn't address the hole question but it does talk about extrusion...
posted by phearlez at 11:02 AM on October 26, 2006