Dessert is a course that concludes a meal. The course consists of sweet foods, such as cake, biscuit, ice cream and possibly a beverage such as dessert wine and liqueur. Some cultures sweeten foods that are more commonly savory to create desserts. In some parts of the world there is no tradition of a dessert course to conclude a meal.
Confectionery is the art of making confections, or sweet foods. Confections are items that are rich in sugar and carbohydrates although exact definitions are difficult. In general, however, confections are divided into two broad and somewhat overlapping categories: bakers' confections and sugar confections.
Candy, alternatively called sweets or lollies, is a confection that features sugar as a principal ingredient. The category, also called sugar confectionery, encompasses any sweet confection, including chocolate, chewing gum, and sugar candy. Vegetables, fruit, or nuts which have been glazed and coated with sugar are said to be candied.
A chocolate bar is a confection containing chocolate, which may also contain layerings or mixtures that include nuts, fruit, caramel, nougat, and wafers. A flat, easily breakable, chocolate bar is also called a tablet. In some varieties of English and food labeling standards, the term chocolate bar is reserved for bars of solid chocolate, with candy bar used for products with additional ingredients.
Twizzlers are a licorice-type candy manufactured by Y&S Candies, Inc., of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a division of The Hershey Company. Twizzlers were first produced in 1929 by Young and Smylie, as the company was then called. The licorice company was founded in 1845, making it one of the oldest confectionery firms in the United States. Twizzlers ingredients consist of corn syrup, wheat flour, sugar, cornstarch, and smaller amounts of palm oil, salt, artificial flavor, glycerin, citric acid, potassium sorbate, Red 40, and soy lecithin. Despite only the black Twizzlers containing extracts of the licorice plant, Twizzlers products are collectively referred to as licorice-type candy. Seventy percent of the annual production of Twizzlers are strawberry, the most popular Twizzlers flavor.
Jolly Rancher is an American brand of sweet hard candy, gummies, jelly beans, lollipops, and sour bites, and a line of soda put out by Elizabeth Beverage Company in 2004. Originally created in Colorado in the 1950s, the Jolly Rancher brand has been owned by The Hershey Company since 1996.
Sugar candy is any candy whose primary ingredient is sugar. The main types of sugar candies are hard candies, fondants, caramels, jellies, and nougats. In British English, this broad category of sugar candies is called sweets, and the name candy or sugar-candy is used only for hard candies that are nearly solid sugar.
Liquorice or licorice is a confection usually flavoured and coloured black with the extract of the roots of the liquorice plant Glycyrrhiza glabra.
Chocolate-covered raisins are a candy consisting of individual raisins coated in a shell of milk, dark or white chocolate.
Trolli is a German manufacturer of confectionery. Its American arm was sold in 1996 and became a confectionery brand used by Ferrara Candy Company. Trolli sells gummy candies, marshmallows, and soft licorice gums in over 80 countries and has factories in Germany, Spain and China.
Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cocoa beans mixed with fat and powdered sugar to produce a solid confectionery. There are several types of chocolate, classified primarily according to the proportion of cocoa and fat content used in a particular formulation.
Ptasie mleczko or bird's milk is a Central European confectionery originating in Poland. It is a small, chocolate-covered bar with a soft marshmallow-like interior.
Oatfield was a chocolate and confectionery manufacturer located in Letterkenny, County Donegal, Ireland. The company was the oldest confectionery manufacturer in Ireland.
Push Pop is an American brand of fruit-flavored lollipops produced in Taiwan. It debuted in 1986 and comes in many flavors.
Gummies, gummi candies, gummy candies, or jelly sweets are a broad category of gelatin-based chewable sweets. Gummy bears, Sour Patch Kids, and Jelly Babies are widely popular and are a well-known part of the sweets industry. Gummies are available in a wide variety of shapes, most commonly seen as colorful depictions of living things such as bears, babies, or worms. Various brands such as Bassett's, Haribo, Albanese, Betty Crocker, Hersheys, Disney and Kellogg's manufacture various forms of gummy snacks, often targeted at young children. The name "gummi" originated in Germany, with the terms "jelly sweets" or "gums" more common in the United Kingdom.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to chocolate:
