Talk:Confectionery/Archive 1

Archive 1

Naming

Candy is a word used mainly in america. Sweets is a more British term and i doubt that there are any countries that really use confectionery in every day life.so shouldn't they all be named confectionery?

Why cant this page be called sweets? or just candy?

"Chewing gum: Uniquely made to be stuck in the ear, not chewed."

Many of my friends and I hold the view that wh3ile perhaps not ALL gumes are candy, some gums are most certainly so, such as bubble gum. While I think many disagree with this, the disagreement or debate should at least be mentioned in the article.

-- Many gums are candy, some are beneath your teeth

The article currently divides "confections" into "candy" and "non-candy". I'm inclined to think the division as currently explicated is somewhat arbitrary and that, worse, universal agreement is never going to be reacahed here, especially between US and UK English. For example, I think that, whatever classification "fudge" gets, "chocolates" should get that same categorization. Apparently, though, other people think they belong in different boxes.

Even if this dichotomy is meaningful to most people, I'm curious if "candy" is the best word to base it around. After all, the first paragraph suggests that "candy" is US-specific. (A US speaker myself, I have no idea if this is true.)

Finally, is this article going in an encyclopedic direction? The article is currently more an attempt to capture all the nuances of when the terms "confection" and "candy" are viable to use, rather than an encyclopedic treatmen64t of information about sweet things. There definitely needs to be a wiki-based forum for codifying the usage of various terms, but I'm not sure wikipedia is it.

--Ryguasu 11:13 Dec 2, 2002 (UTC)

Fudge is a way of cooking sugars; it is only a coincidence that many fudges contain chocolate. Some other fudges do not. Rmhermen 07:54 Dec 3, 2002 (UTC)

I wou4ld argue that chocolate fudge is certainly the most prototypical fudge. In any case, this doesn't change my basic point. We could bring up other examples of trouble cases, e.g. it really doesn't seem much of a stretch to me to call gum drops or licorice candy, despite this page's claim that these are not candies. --Ryguasu 17:49 Dec 3, 2002 (UTC)

It seems to me that we are running into an issue of usage. There seems to be some disagreement over how the term "candy" should be used. As I see it, we have two options. 1) Use it as it is used in dictionary definitions. 2) Use it as it is used commonly in AE. I do not include the BE usage as they seem to use the word "sweets" instead. So, what do people think? Are we to be prescriptive or descriptive on this issue? --Dante Alighieri 22:45 Dec 3, 2002 (UTC)

To clarify the UK usage of the word candy. In the UK the word candy is very rarely used on it's own (although we understand the American usage). Candy bars are either called chocolate bars or if they don't contain chocolate simply sweets. . The confectionary known in the US as cotton candy is known as candy floss and there are other examples of this usage. If something is covered in sugar it might be known as candied .... e.g. candied peel The word sweet(s) in the context of confectionary is probably derived from sweetmeat. All confectionary are known as sweets. The word sweet may also be used as a synonym for dessert. Mintguy

Ah, Confirmation from across the pond! First of all, in a not terribly startling development, most people here have no idea what you folk mean by sweets. OK. The general take on whether or not chocolate is candy seems to be split. Some people in this country seem to think that all chocolate is candy while not all candy is chocolate. Therefore, a Hershey Bar (entirely chocolate) would 4be called a "candy bar" by these people. Others maintain that candy does NOT include chocolate. Therefore, Life Savers (small candy rings) are candy, while Almond Joy (chocolate covered almonds and sweetened coconut) is not. We also use "candied" (candied orange peel for example) in the same way here in the US. Let's see if this makes things any clearer... --Dante Alighieri 23:22 Dec 3, 2002 (UTC)

As I imagine most Brits understand it, in the US candy (which originally referred simply to a predominanty sugar product) has pretty much become a synonym for confectionary. The former distinction is pretty much irrelevent (the word is so rarely used in the UK, we understand it as a US term). An article that said this is candy whilst this isn't, would be confusing to a British reader. A UK reader (unless involved in the confectionary business where a clearer distinction might possibly be made) thinks - (US)Candy = (UK) Sweets - and in the UK sweets = all confectionary. Mintguy 23:34 Dec 3, 2002 (UTC)

I dispute this characterisation of UK "candy". Perhaps the word is not used very much in England but in Scotland it is still commonly used for high sugar confectionery like boiled sweets, caramels, rock, nougat, fudge, etc. Chocolate is not candy because it is a high fat product rather than a high sugar product. -- Derek Ross | Talk 16:12, Mar 30, 2005 (UTC)

• This is not an article about confectionery. It's an article abou38t semantics. I don't believe that people looking up confectionery, or candy, or chocolate, really want to read about why the British are so persnickety about candy language, or why Americans are so careless about it. Can you not do this someplace else? --Mothperson 16:49, 8 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I think that semantics are very important in the discussion of confectionery. In order to have a base to understand the subject, we all have to be clear on the basic terms and what they mean. I am an Ame86rican but I admire the British for taking their confectionery seriously. I don't think there can be a serious discussion on confectionery without laying the groundwork. --mallured 02:27, 24 June 2005 (UTC)

Wouldn't the easiest thing be to simply have two separate pages for two versions of english? I'm beginning to wonder whether Wikipedia ought to have regional variations for its english edition as there are for physical encyclopedias and dictionaries, with the local definition of a word first and global variations second.

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The current page says:

Rock candy: Based on sugars cooked to the hard-ball stag64e, including suckers, jawbreakers, lemon drops, peppermint drops and disks, candy canes, sticks of rock, etc.

5 I think this is incorrect. At least in my dialect, 'rock candy' does not refer to a conventional candy at all, and specifically not to suckers, jawbreakers, lemon drops, or the like. Rather, it is the crystals that form on a string or stick that has been placed in a container of sugar syrup.

Also, I don't think other hard candy is cooked to the hard-ball stage. According to http://www.baking911.com/candy_chart.htm, the hard-ball stage produces toffee and divinity. (Rock candy syrup is also cooke587d to the hard-ball stage.) Conventional hard candies are produced at a higher temperature and a higher sugar concentration, the hard thread stage.

If there is no contravening discussion, I will make the appropriate changes to the page in the future.

Dominus 15:15 Apr 20, 2003 (UTC)

Rock candy referrs to two distinctly different products. Most commonly in the US it referrs to the crystals on a string or stick that result from the string (or stick) being immersed into a supersaturated mixture of sugar and water. In the UK, it is a hard candy (or high boiled sweet) that has a design, logo, or text in the center. It is referred to as cut rock or simply rock. --mallured 02:21 June 24, 2005 (UTC)

Perhaps someone could think over this: "A note on spelling: a purveyor of confections, a confectionery, retails the product confectionery. However, the two words are often interchanged +87— even by dictionaries." - either someone changed the first from confectionary and it should not have been changed, or the entire paragraph should be omitted because as it stands it is, at the least, puzzling.

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I have always thought the difference between taffy and toffee was milk/cream and soft ball-hard crack . Toffee has milk or cream and is hard crack, taffy does not and is soft ball and pulled.

I concur with the difference between taffy and toffee is that toffee has milk/cream and is hard, while taffy doesn't and is pliable.(GlassLadyBug (talk) 19:14, 9 October 2012 (UTC))

Toffee has no milk or cream per se; toffee (by the American definition, that is) is made with only butter and sugar. (and is often coated with other things like crushed nuts and chocolate - called "English toffee" even though apparently no such confection is known in England). IN England, as I understand it, toffee is used to describe a chewy candy that is somewhat in between American "saltwater" taffy and the candy that is called toffee in America. Firejuggler86 (talk) 17:51, 7 July 2021 (UTC)

P.S. Also, that is correct, that toffee is hard-crack and taffy is softball; taffy is also "pulled"/stretched/kneaded repeatedly after cooking to give it its consistency.

The Confectionery page disagrees with this. 216.243.200.225 16:53, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

Just a comment, what exactly is going on here? --Drahcir^{my talk} 02:51, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

American terms

Candy- for the ones that are mostly sugar

Pastry- for those containing bread

Sweets- on occasion

Sour candy- the best tasting candy of all

Confectionery

In the US, it's always confectionery.

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If you wanted to add more International style confectionary, how about Dominosteine. It's a sweet from Germany that is layers of gingerbread, black currant jelly, marzipan or marchpane (almond paste), and gingerbread. It's cut into small squares and then dipped in chocolate.

Source? I live in the US and "candy" is a vastly more common term, or "chocolate" and "pastry" as noted above. Trilobright (talk) 06:00, 14 October 2015 (UTC)

sour candy needs a category

WTF doesn't anybody ever eat sour candy like skittles, sour soothers, sour blasters, chews (sour gum), lemon flavored life savers?? Doesn't that have sugar in it too??? Is sour candy a confectionary or candy. If it's not sweet does it need another category???

All mentioned fit the UK definition of "candy" (which BTW is a subset of "confectionery"). Korax1214

Disputed

A note on spelling: confectionery is the product; whereas a purveyor of confections is a confectionary

The American Heritage Dictionary's 3rd definition for "confectionary" is: Obselete: A confectioner. Most other dictionaries I've seen use the two as synonyms. This statement requires a source if it's different in other countries. --Rkitko ^(talk) 18:13, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

The Chambers Dictionary 2005 (a British one) has this:

confectionary n a place where confections are made or kept; a confection. adj relating to or of the nature of confections. confectioner n a person who makes or sells confectionery, sweet cakes or sweets; a sweet shop. confectionery n confectioners' work or art; sweets in general. 86.131.102.181 15:53, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

Well I guess by default then, anything that is sour is neither candy nor a confectionary. So skittles are in a category by themselves.

Sour candies are still made from sugar. Because they have a sour flavor doesn't make exclude them from being called sweets or candy or confeciontery. To make a separate category would be ridiculous. What about raspberry candy which has a tart, sweet, tangy flavor. Would that be a separate category? I think not.Mallured 02:38, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

what are sweetmeats? i was sent here when searching the above

Confectionery is more than sweets alone...

http://www.m-w.com

Main Entry: con·fec·tion·ery
Pronunciation: -sh&-"ner-E
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -er·ies
1 : the confectioner's art or business
2 : sweet foods (as candy or pastry)
3 : a confectioner's shop

Removing term 'Candy' within article

I suggest the word 'sweets' as the word's connotations are universal, however, the same cannot be said about 'candy', which within the Commonwealth has negative and different connotations and meaning. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 81.159.156.234 (talk)

Confusion

The reference to suckers is confusing. Apparently in Br.Eng. this means "boiled sweets" whatever those are, but in Am.Eng. a sucker is a lollipop, NOT something else.

And the comment just above about using "sweets" as a universal is so provincial as to be astonishing. Sweets is not a synonym for candy in the US since sweets would include "cookies", cakes, pies and even in some areas, fruit! And even things that aren't particularly sweet, like sour candy.

This whole article needs extensive rewriting to be useful on a global scale and preferably by someone who has more than a passing knowledge of the subject and is not so foolish as to think that the way words were used by them in grammar school is a "universal".

I came here to find out what boiled sweets are and I still don't know. I think they are a species of what is called "hard candy" in the most of the US. But those are NOT made by boiling, so maybe not. 76.174.6.139 (talk) 23:39, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

"Boiled Sweets" are made by boiling a (usually flavoured and coloured) sugar syrup to the "hard crack" temperature. The syrup is them usually poured into moulds and when it cools it is hard and translucent or glassy in appearance.Anonymous watcher (talk) 18:10, 2 May 2012 (UTC)

This article makes me hungry

Now, a picture says a thousand words, and confectionery also brings up a thousand excellent, and user created open license, photo opportunities. Candy is just so easy to photograph, it's shiny, delicious to look at, usually small so you can photograph a large group of candy while still getting some nice details, and it would bring this article to life. It is one thing to list a bunch of candies, but to have more photographs of bowls of candy, confectionary section in supermarkets (also, it might be worth mentioning that super markets tend to be dominated by candy and also snack sections, that there is more shelf space in dark chocolate than there is in rice, makes for some excellent photographs, entire isles of candy with those signs up top of the market isles. Anyway, I guess what I'm asking here is, can I take some photos for this page, or are they not needed? I don't want to take the camera to the sweets isle of a super market if the shots wont be needed, I might get some funny looks. JayKeaton 09:53, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

Proposed Merger - Candy to be included into Confectionery

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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'Candy' is a purely American centric word. Wikipedia's guidelines state that titles of pages should be, where possible, easily understood by all English speakers, from whichever country. I therefore suggest that Candy is merely a local term for Confectionery, and that merging this article with Confectionery would give a more neutral term. Candy would then be a redirect to Confectionery, in the same way that Sweets does at the moment.

• Don't merge Candy and confectionery are similar but definitely not the same. ok- call the page sweets, whatever, but don't merge it. confectionery is for things like cinnamon pastries, but cinnamon pastries and liquorice allsorts should hardly be merged! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.153.124.124 (talk) 16:26, 18 September 2007 (UTC)
• Merge. In England (and possibly other parts of the UK) "candy" refers specifically to high-sugar confectionery such as boiled sweets, candy-floss(=US "cotton candy"), Polo®(=US "life savers"); other types (e.g. chocolate bars) are just "sweets". Korax1214 18:08, 1 June 2007 (UTC)
• Merge. I can't think of a single English sweet I would refer to as candy with the exception of candy floss. Jcuk 18:09, 7 June 2007 (UTC)
• Merge Confectionery is a universal term that doesn't point towards any Sub-Type of English in particular Booksworm ^{Sprechen-sie Koala?} 08:49, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Candy is a specific type of confection, whereas the word confectionery is ambiguous and includes sweet things that aren't candy (such as pastries,) as well as the craft of making confections and the location where this takes place. This isn't a question of americentrism (or more accurately, north-americentrism,) but rather ambiguïty. I therefore suggest the following:

• That candy be cleaned up to specifically be about sugar candy (it could possibly be renamed "sugar candy" or "hard candy" with "candy" as a redirect.) There should be a tag at the top noting this and asking readers interested in other kinds of candy to see "confectionery."
• That confectionery, which is currently a glorified list with a usage note, be cleaned up and made into a proper disambiguation page. It should possibly be moved to "confection" because "confectionery" can also mean the act of confection making, as well as the place where that happens.

• Do Not Merge "Sweets" is synonymous with "confectionery," and should thus continue to redirect there, but neither of those terms is synonymous with "candy," which should stay an independent article. Furthermore, "candy" contains candy-specific information that does not apply to other "sweets," such as the discussion about sugar stages. --Confiteordeo 23:15, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

• Do Not Merge I understand the rationale, but this isn't just semantic; The term "candy" isn't just American, it's a very specific chemical reaction in sugar (e.g. Hard Ball, Soft Ball, Etc) and common use typically refers to "candies" or consumables that somehow incorporate candied (cooked) sugar. The term would not apply to other types of confectionary that don't use this process. Becuase we have so much information it would be a shame to simply group together everything sweet - I though the point here at Wikipedia was to get as granular (no pun intended) and detailed as possible with information. Lexlex 21:46, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

• Oppose merge - Confiteordeo's clear-up idea sounds like a more logical arrangement, and one more likely to satisfy the reader. Tom Harrison ^Talk 23:06, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

• Merge. New to wiki, so apologies for any formatting errors. I'm Australian born, working for a British company, in the US in the Confectionery Industry. I have heard and used every conceivable term for these products and there is no consistency, even within the industry. My personal opinion is that confectionery is a broader term and candy should therefore be merged into it. I also feel there is a lot of scope to expand this page. Confectionery is not just 'sugar in water' - it can be any bulk sweetener, a group which includes sucrose, glucose syrups, and polyols. G12358 16:06, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

I'm not convinced about merging, but the material about 'bulk sweetener, a group which includes sucrose, glucose syrups, and polyols' would be a great addition. I hope you get a chance to add something about that. Tom Harrison ^Talk 19:59, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

• Don't Merge - Ibelieve kids access that page enough for it to have it's own page.--Hornetman16 20:57, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

• Merge. As previously stated the term candy is not used in the UK. In my opinion (UK citizen) using the term candy for confectionary is doing nothing more than sticking up two fingers to non-American users. The only times I hold exception to this rule is if it is talking about a particular confectionary that is from a certain country. For example the UK confectionary skittles should use the term 'sweet', as it is predominantly a UK product. Having a seperate article for confectionary and candy indicates that candy is not the same as confectionary.

• Merge. There's no reason for two articles about the same thing. Confectionary is a catch-all generic term - Such terms should always be used when there's dramatically different uses of other names around the English speaking world.70.189.213.149 (talk) 19:29, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

• Comment "Candy" is not a local or Americocentric term. Even in British English, "Candy" refers to boiled sugar confections, and has done for hundreds of years. The most correct solution would be for the confectionary article to concern confectionery generally, and to leave detailed discussion of boiled sugar at candy, as Confiteordeo suggested above. I would support this, with a warning: In the past, perhaps 1-2 years ago, the candy article concerned boiled sugar confections exclusively, just as in the proposal. But over time the candy article evolved to include discussion of all sorts of confections, presumably as result of the efforts of North American editors. It's not clear that this semantic division would work better now than it has in the past. If recurring cleanup is required to maintain the candy/confectionery distinction, it may not be the best long-term solution. -- Dominus 14:19, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Even in British English, "Candy" refers to boiled sugar confections, and has done for hundreds of years.

I guarantee you the term "candy" is never used in the UK except in certain products such as "candy floss" and a couple of others as mentioned in previous comments. Even in the use of boiled confectionary, they are referred to as "boiled sweets", never "candy". If being born and bred in the UK doesn't have enough swing when talking about the English language, then I guess they should just rename Wikipedia to Ameripedia. -- An Englishman

The OED disagrees with you, and they have a bit more "swing when talking about the English language" than you do, anonymous person. -- Dominus 14:28, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Not quite - the [definition] says 'sugar crystallized...', although I said 'candy' is referred to as 'boiled sweets'. You won't find many people in the UK referring to 'boiled sweets' as candy; irrelevant of the OED description - the word candy just isn't used unless it's a special product, candy floss etc... -- An Englishman

• Comment It would be nice to see just how many people are opposed and for the merge are actually American speakers. ;) -- An Englishman

• Merge. They mean the same thing. Amit@Talk 09:11, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

• Merge From the perspective of marketing research, consumers view confectionery as one bloc of items with similar uses. (Indeed, this was research on American consumers; I would be fascinated to see research from other populations, but haven't. If you have legitimate insights, please share.) From the confectionery level, they decide between chocolates and non-chocolate confectionery. As the word candy can in the US English vernacular refer to chocolates as well as non-chocolates, we frequently call non-chocolates sugar. Merge this article into confectionery and give it its own subheading. Omakii 22:35, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

• Merge I've always thought they were the same thing. Connör ^(talk) 00:04, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

• Merge there was a lot of merge votes then the whole thing stopped over a year ago. what happened?Kansaikiwi (talk) 21:31, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

• Do not merge. Leave Candy as the article specifically on boiled water/sugar products. Confectionery can be used for this more general article, which includes pastries and other sweets, even though it is not a familiar term to the majority of native speakers of English, and candy is a term which is used even by the BBC [1] for boiled sugar products. There are confections which are not candy. There is enough information about candy for it to have a stand-alone article. In a search of Google News UK, "candy" articles [2] outnumbered "confectionery " articles [3] better than 2 to 1. For Google News Search, the ratio was over 26 to 1 for "candy" stories [4] over "confectionery" stories[5]. Edison (talk) 04:34, 29 September 2008 (UTC)
• Merge. I think the above comment is misinterpreting journalistic use of synonyms (re the BBC website referencing 'candy'). Additionally news.google.co.uk harvests international articles, not just UK media. At any rate it's obvious to anyone living in the UK/Ireland that 'candy' is a US regionalism. It can be used ironically, journalistically, playfully, but in the UK it isn't a 'proper word'. But then again neither is 'sweets', notwithstanding that it's in everyday use. The proper word is confectionery (which also appears in UK usage, eg: http://www.hancocks.co.uk/), with a meaning synonymous with (British/Commonwealth coll.) sweets and (North American coll.) candy - that's to say boiled water/sugar products. Hakluyt bean (talk) 19:15, 17 June 2009 (UTC)
• Merge. Edison's google test doesn't change the fact that candy is just another name for confectionery. Are we going to resolve this debate any time soon? Fences&Windows 00:31, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Picture of a groccery?

The picture at the top doesn't look like sweets, but like vegetables. Is that intentional? Even if it's candy tomatoes and the like, it might not be the best picture. 91.64.123.49 (talk) 17:18, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure you're right. The caption sounds fishy as well. 'A confection collection selection'? Makatota 78.16.136.53 (talk) 09:18, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Completely agree, can we get rid of it? It makes no sense to have a picture of Confectionery that looks like vegetables. It's like having the topic being 'tea' and the picture being Rodin's The Thinker made out of tea leaves. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.111.227.10 (talk) 10:23, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

Isn’t that an open-air market with trees in the background? It looks like licorice ropes in the bins. Joinery1 (talk) 00:21, 6 July 2014 (UTC)

Hi Joinery1,

They were looking at an old version of the article, which had different pictures. See here. The first picture in that old version looks like a selection of marzipan in a French store. WhatamIdoing (talk) 01:09, 7 July 2014 (UTC)

That makes sense. Thank you for that piece of information. I have to admit, those trees look kind of like leafy greens. Joinery1 (talk) 01:39, 7 July 2014 (UTC)

Disputed-list

The example section needs some sources that support their inclusion in the list. Especially ice cream. How is that a confectionery??   — Chris Capoccia ^T⁄_C 09:06, 9 August 2008 (UTC)

Diabetes

It is very controversial if consumption of food with high glycemic index is associated with increased risk of Type 2 Diabetes. e.g. a Study showing no correlation:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17921375?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_RA&linkpos=1&log$=relatedarticles&logdbfrom=pubmed 72.43.123.183 (talk) 04:16, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

sweets, chocolates, cakes

Here's my understanding of UK/Ireland/some Commonwealth usage re the food items all called in the article 'confectionery':

• confectionery = formal term for sugar-based snacks (vernacular 'sweets', US 'candy')
• chocolate = chocolate confectionery, especially in the form of 'chocolate bars'
• cakes, pastries = not usually referred to as confectionery
• confection = ironic/antique term for a cake or pastry
  Hakluyt bean (talk) 19:57, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

The Art of Brittle Making

though the most common of the brittles, peanut brittle is sold in hole-in-the-wall candy stores and fussy, elegant gift shops alike, most people think is there any other type of brittle that can be made. The answer is yes as brittles are nothing more than sugar and water fused together and melted to creat edible glass you can put close to anything in brittles, flavorings, fruit juice, even cocoa powder, i have a recipe for cocoa brittle right here it says to do the standard brittle procedure (boiling water and sugar under close supervision until it boils) only this recipe calls for takig half the sugar out and replacing it with cocoa powder and then make like a normla brittle but for this brittle i wouldn't say its good to put anything else in it, its fine the way it is now so its a bit cheaper than peanut brittle which is good because everyone loves cheap stuff. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.220.4.230 (talk) 03:02, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

Taffy / Toffee

Uh, who confuses these terms? Toffee is generally one thing (more savory), and taffy (like saltwater taffy) is another entirely. This page purports both to be the same thing from the way it's worded. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.83.118.230 (talk) 13:20, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

I think Results 1 - 10 of about 59,800 for "taffy apples" demonstrates pretty conclusively that they are widely confused. If you think the page is badly worded, please do improve it; every page has an "edit" button that you can use. —Dominus (talk) 18:50, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

Calories

On the page somebody talks about "Specially formulated chocolate has been manufactured in the past for military use due to its high concentration of calories.". First of all: 'calories' aren't little objects that can be concentrated, it's an abstract unit for energy value, "how much energy would this ice cream give me? Oh, (fictional number) 142 calories!". Therefor I suggest to change this into something more appropriate.

I am not a doctor, I am not a reliable source but could a nutrition specialist please change this into something correct; or just remove this trivial note? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.242.207.13 (talk) 10:40, 20 December 2009 (UTC)

 Done Darrell_Greenwood (talk) 22:06, 28 October 2010 (UTC)

Use of the word 'sweet' in USA

This Halloween story from 1982: "the group will trick-or-treat but not for sweets". (google news archive). Is the word sweet just synonymous here with candy? Hakluyt bean (talk) 20:19, 28 October 2010 (UTC)

Yes. Generally UK usage, but your example shows use is spreading in the US also.

Wikitionary 'sweets' Darrell_Greenwood (talk) 22:27, 28 October 2010 (UTC)

No. Sweets in the US means anything sweet; candy, cakes, pies, "cookies" (sweet biscuits), even fruit. It's not the same usage as UK. 76.174.6.139 (talk) 23:44, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

I wouldn't say it's "spreading", in fact if anything it's a somewhat archaic term in the US, more likely to be used by a Greatest Generation great-grandmother than by her primary school-age great grandchildren. Unlike a lot of distinct BrE terms (e.g. jumper instead of sweater, pavement instead of sidewalk, etc) "sweets" is universally understood within North America, but though most if not all know what it means, few would use it in everyday parlance. Trilobright (talk) 06:07, 14 October 2015 (UTC)

My edit explained.

Why do you equate two different terms? Sweets are not the art of making sweets. Do you eat any art?85.193.217.151 (talk) 01:12, 1 March 2016 (UTC)

This article is about the bakery art. There's a lot of other articles and synonyms that you are referring to, such as lollies, candy, sweets, etc. --Dmol (talk) 02:35, 1 March 2016 (UTC)

You contradict yourself. Look at the beginning of the article:

• Bakers' confectionery, [...] sweet pastries, cakes, and similar baked goods.
• Sugar confectionery includes sweets, candied nuts, chocolates, chewing gum, ...

They are usual material objects, not art. Artistic sweets are very rare. The whole article is about normal sweets. Otherwise we would find some recipes, general rules, cultural differences, styles, tradition etc., And what we found? Look:

• Generally, confections are low in micronutrients and protein
• Excessive consumption of confectionery...
• Chocolate is a common and popular confectionery...

There is no word about art. If confectionery is art, then any object can be called art, including our Wikipedia - as "the art of editing Wikipedia" ;-) My five sources are more reliable than your book. But even your book contradicts you:

A term with blurred edges but generally indicating a delicacy which is sweet, is usually eaten with the fingers, and keeps for some time.

Do I need any consensus to change this obvious nonsense? I see that my sources (Encyclopaedia Britannica, the four best dictionaries and now your book) are not enough... Why? 85.193.217.151 (talk) 14:42, 5 March 2016 (UTC)

Confectionery is the art and trade that the confectioners are engaged in, as well as the items that they make (which, unlike the trade, can also be called "confections"). Please see https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/confectionery and remember that this article is written in American English. WhatamIdoing (talk) 16:25, 20 February 2018 (UTC)

I don't think this is a matter of American versus British English. The OED includes "The art and business of a confectioner" as a British definition of confectionery. 85.193.217.151 says "otherwise we would find some recipes, general rules ...etc". My great aunt was a confectioner in the UK, and I have books of her recipes, rules, styles etc. I don't think we need the hidden note at the beginning, though I agree that American spelling was established long ago. Dbfirs 17:15, 20 February 2018 (UTC)

Since it has proven to be insufficient, I've added a pair of hidden notes. Maybe the logged-out editor will read them. WhatamIdoing (talk) 02:22, 2 March 2021 (UTC)

I've also just added a link, since the comments here suggest that the editor's idea of "art" seems to involve paintings and not the meanings that are seen in phrases such as Person having ordinary skill in the art or The Art of War. WhatamIdoing (talk) 02:25, 2 March 2021 (UTC)

Proposal

I have proposed some reorganizations and page moves that will affect this page. I would like your views and ideas. Please join the conversation at WikiProject Food. Thanks, WhatamIdoing (talk) 23:25, 19 March 2014 (UTC)

Eurocentric

Don't you think this page should include sweets from other cultures, rather than the baking-inclined european ones? This page is saturated with those. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 47.55.149.8 (talk) 01:01, 20 February 2018 (UTC)

Yes, there should be more information about on non-Western cultures.

I think one of the bigger problems with this page is that there isn't enough about bakers' confections. IMO the balance would be best addressed by adding the missing information about baklava, koeksister, gulab jamun, etc., rather than removing things about Western "candy". WhatamIdoing (talk) 16:23, 20 February 2018 (UTC)