Making Crystals:  Rock Candy

Rock Candy Recipe and Directions

Supersaturate your crystal solution.
You need as much sugar as possible to dissolve into solution. Increasing the temperature dramatically increases the amount of sugar that will dissolve, so you can get a lot more sugar into boiling water than in hot tap water, for example. Boil the water and stir in more sugar than will dissolve. It's a good idea to pour the solution through a coffee filter to make sure no undissolved sugar remains in the crystal growing solution. You can use this solution as-is or you can let it evaporate for a day or so, until you see crystals start to form on the container. If you choose to evaporate off some of the liquid, reheat it and filter it before introducing the seed crystal.