Cream of tartar or vinegar to keep the sugar crystals as small as possible, creating a smoother dough (though you can skip these ingredients if you want)

Add peppermint oil. Once the mixture reaches about 300 degrees, remove it from heat, add the peppermint oil and stir. Peppermint is a strong smelling hybrid plant, a cross between a watermint and spearmint. Peppermint is one of the world’s oldest medicinal herbs used to treat stomach-related illnesses such as indigestion and nausea, in both eastern and western medicine. Repeat steps 8 and 9 until there is no dough left. Voila! You have homemade candy canes to share with all the sweet-toothed loved ones in your life. Kingsway Liquorice Candy Canes - Add some festive fun to your parties with these red and white stripped Liquorice Candy Canes, a fruit flavoured candy that comes shaped like a long cylinder with red and white stripes similar to a traditional candy cane cut into smaller bite-size pieces. According to the National Confectionery Association, a U.S.-based group that advocates for the confectionery industry, candy canes are the No. 1 selling non-chocolate candy in the month of December — 90 per cent are sold between U.S. Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Candy Canes

Remove most or all of the leaves from the stem. When you have a small container like this, the leaves tend to get in the way.

The first documented example of the use of candy canes to celebrate Christmas occurred in 1847, when August Imgard, a German-Swedish immigrant, fromCandy canes are a classic Christmas treat and the Kingsway Sugared Candy Canes are no exception. These delicious strawberry flavoured jelly sweets are perfect for the festive season and many say they are so tasty you can enjoy them all year round. Legend holds that the choirmaster used his ingenious design to encourage the children to watch how the shepherds of the Nativity used their canes to direct the live animals. More importantly, the choirmaster could instruct the children to consider how Jesus became the “Good Shepherd.”