They fascinated and frustrated most of us as children - what is in the middle of that damn gobstopper? After 24,234,029 licks was it actually getting any smaller?!
So what makes jaw breakers so hard, and how are they made? The jaw breaker is formed around its center, either a gum or hard candy. Once the center has been made, they’re thrown into a coating pan along with a mixture of hot water, corn syrup and food coloring, along with a liberal sprinkling of dextrose. The pan rotates 20 minutes to dry the added ingredients before repeating the process again, up to 10 times: this is what creates the various layers of color and size of the breaker. After being left to dry for 24 hours, a worker will add a pinch of powdered carnauba wax that gives them their shiny finish. From start to finish, it takes an incredible four days to make a single jaw breaker. No wonder it's so strong!
These guys obviously have even less patience than the rest of us however, because instead of throwing it at a wall or giving it a crack with a hammer, they decided to superheat a nickel ball and place it on top of a giant gobstopper…because you know, why not?
It makes for some oddly fascinating, but for some reason slightly uncomfortable, viewing.
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