Free interactive tool
Interactive Candy Temperature Chart
Thread to hard crack — slide the thermometer and see what each stage makes.
Ride the thermometer through the sugar stages
Slide the syrup temperature; the stage, its cold-water behavior, and its classic candies follow.
Candy stages are concentrations wearing temperature as a name: as water boils away, the syrup climbs the scale, and a few degrees separate fudge from caramel from brittle.
- Find the stage window for fudge — how wide is it?
- What changes between soft crack and hard crack, in water and in candy?
Candy stages are concentrations wearing temperature as a name: as water boils away, the syrup climbs from thread (106 °C) through soft ball (fudge), hard ball (marshmallow), and on to hard crack (149 °C) for brittle and lollipops.
Slide to your recipe's target and read the stage, its cold-water behavior, and its classic uses — and note how narrow some windows are, which is why candy demands a thermometer.
What temperature is soft ball stage?
112–116 °C — the fudge and fondant zone.
Why did my caramel turn bitter?
Past ~154 °C sugar itself browns fast; a few unattended degrees separate amber from burnt.