THE ART OF SWEET MAKING The sweets selected are made by skilled confectioners who are bearers of genuine sweet making craftsmanship. Established in different French regions, they are specialised in the making of sweets specific to their region. The art of sweet making is very technical, delicate and precise. Here are some of the confectioners’trade secrets: Cooking the sugar Sweet making requires perfect mastering of the different sugar cooking techniques. As a result of heat and being mixed with a little water, sugar undergoes substantial transformation phases: Candying fruit The art of candying fruit has been used since Antiquity for the preservation of fruit. Westerners discovered fruit pastes, jams and candied fruit during the Crusades in the East. In France candying fruit became the speciality of the town Apt, and in the 19th century, not less than eighteen manufacturers supplied England with candied fruit. The traditional method for candying fruit is very time consuming. It is based on the principle of osmosis. Firstly the fruit are blanched as to break down slightly their cellular structure and make them permeable to sugar. They are then plunged into syrup whose sugar content gradually increases. The candying of the fruit in the sweets we have selected (fig, melon, orange rind) is undertaken by one of the last craftsmen in provincial France who uses this technique. Sugar coating process The sugar coating process is comprised of coating a core with a thin layer of hard and smooth sugar. In our products the core can be almond, chocolate, marzipan... or fruit paste for the bilberry and raspberry beads. Although it has greatly modernized since Antiquity, the process is still traditional. Today confectioners use modern coating machines which enable to control factors such as temperature, humidity, flow rate and syrup concentration. Still, the sugar crystallization process requires technical skills and true craftsmanship.