Add the sugar and water to a medium pan and heat over high heat, stirring constantly, until it reaches a rolling boil. Be careful not to boil it too long or the candy will start to harden.
Remove the pan from the heat and keep stirring until all of the sugar granules have dissolved. The mixture will suddenly get clearer when this happens.
Carefully pour the hot sugar mixture into the three jars and put them into the fridge to cool for approximately 30 minutes. You don't want the mixture to be cold, just room temperature.
While the mixture is cooling, prepare the wooden skewers by dampening them and rolling them in sugar. Tie baker's twine to the top of each and put them aside to dry.
Once the mixture has cooled to room temperature, remove the jars from the fridge and add food coloring and/or flavoring and stir.
Dangle the prepared skewers into the sugar mixture, without touching the sides/bottom of the jar, or other sticks. Once the picks are placed in the jar, hold the strings along the sides of the jar screw the top on to hold the strings in place. (Plastic wrap can also be used)
Set the jars aside somewhere where they won't be disturbed and wait 3 -10 days for the sugar crystals to grow. The longer you wait, the larger the crystals will get.
When the crystals reach your desired size, they are ready to dry. Tie two straws into an X and balance it on top of a clean jar. Carefully remove the rock candy sticks from their jars and tie the strings onto the straw X’s. Don’t let them touch each other, let them hang in the jar from the X until they are dry.
Once they are dry they are ready to eat!
Notes
Divide the mixture between at least two 12 oz jars. You can easily double (or triple) the recipe to make additional colors/flavors. How many sticks you make will depend on how many jars you choose to use but it should make 10-12 as written.Jars will have sugar crystals growing on their sides and maybe even across the top, you can break this to get your rock candy out. Just be careful not to knock the crystals off of your skewer sticks.To clean the jars, soak in hot water for a bit to loosen the crystals.Baker’s Twine can be used in place of the wooden skewers if desired. To do this, tie a Life Saver candy to the end bottom of the string to act as a weight and place it into the sugar mixture instead of the skewers. Please note that although this method does work, we have found that wooden skewers work better.Possible flavor/color combos -
Mint flavor with red or green coloring
Raspberry flavor with blue coloring (blue raspberry)