Review of Nostalgia Electronics Hard & Sugar-Free Cotton Candy Maker

Part of DIY would have to be cooking, seriously you make things from scratch right? So it’s technically doing it yourself. One of my favorite foods or treats is cotton candy but I usually have to wait until I go to the amusement park or there’s a local fair going on. Today for review I’ve got something special, it’s a cotton candy maker from a company called Nostalgia Electronics. In a matter of minutes you’ll be making delicious, home made, real cotton candy. You don’t need anything special either, it just uses regular hard candy to create a nice tasty, fluffy treat. They also sent me an extra one to give away as well, so read on for the review and to see how you can get your own.

Hard & Sugar-Free Cotton Candy Maker

The Hard Candy/Sugar Free Cotton Candy Maker transforms your favorite hard candies into fluffy, melt-in-your-mouth cotton candy. For a low-calorie treat, sugar free candies can be used. Simply plug in, turn on, pour yummy candies into the center receptacle, and start spinning colorful and tasty treats. This fanciful product is fun for the whole family and brings out the kid in everyone. People love to collect the delicate webs of cotton candy on their cones while circling the translucent pink bowl. Instantly, gatherings are transformed into carnivals and dessert time into party time!

Item Number: PCM-805
Weight: 5.5 lbs.
Product Dimension: 12.8 x 12.5 x 12.5
Voltage: 120V
UPC: 082677213068

Price: $49 at Amazon.com

Let’s get this part started with the unboxing video:

The box is brightly colored as you might expect for a product like this.

When you get everything unpacked you’ll see nine pieces total including the main base section.

The  two round pieces, one clear and one pink,  are the two halves of the ‘bowl’.

There are four cones and one small measuring cup. The cones are plastic and reusable.

There’s a small round black metal part with a notched pole coming out of it, and it’s open at the top. This is actually what you make the cotton candy with. It appears to be coated with a non-stick material as well, obviously this helps the cleaning process. The part is actually called the extractor head.

On the top of the machine you’ll see a grill, and beneath that two heating coils and a reflector. The extractor head fit right here down into the center.

The base of the cotton candy machine is mostly plastic making it very lightweight. There’s a Cotton candy logo on it along with the Nostalgia Electronics logo on the bottom. The bottom of the machine has vents and four rubber feet to keep it in place while you’re using it.

So enough of that, let’s make some cotton candy!

First you’ll need to put it together, snap the pink bottom bowl section on and then the clear part just rests on it, then attach the extractor head and that’s it really.

Here’s a view from the top and a close up of the extractor head in place:

Now I’ve got another video for you that’s a little over 5 minutes of me actually making cotton candy, before that though I wanted to cover a couple things.

You can use any type of hard candy with the Cotton Candy Maker, two pieces and that’s it. Things like Jolly Ranchers work well, or any type of single piece hard candy. I’ve tried butterscotch, peppermint, Jolly Ranchers and assorted other hard candies. You can also use things like candy canes, but you have to break them up or crush them. Remember the little scoop I showed you earlier? That’s four the crushed candy that you might want to make, I went and got cotton candy flavored sticks and crushed them to make it, worked very well. Lollipops also work great too I found.

The following picture is some of what you’ll see in the video actually, but it’s an example of solid candy and a crushed lollipop. I found that crushed candy actually works the best, it provides the most cotton candy per machine use. Single Jolly Ranchers work, but I found they don’t provide that much floss, or actual cotton candy than some other types do.

Well there it is, in a matter of seconds, once you let it warm up, you’ll have delicious cotton candy! The video should have explained a lot, I tried to cover everything for you from start to finish.

If you paid attention to the video you’d have noticed that the machine isn’t that loud overall. I did find that sometimes it can get loud, but that’s because the top clear half of the bowl will vibrate at times, annoying but just push down and it’s all fixed.

One other observation is that when you’re using it, candy does build up around the rim after a few times you make cotton candy. it just comes right off though, I found just using one of the other cones to scrape it off works well and it just falls into the bowl to be discarded later. If you let it build up it will impede the cotton candy making process.

The last thing here I want to mention is taste and texture. If you let the machine warm up correctly, for long enough, the floss will be perfect, or just like you’ve come to expect from cotton candy.  It’s light, airy and fluffy, very good stuff.

The taste isn’t what you’ve come to expect from cotton candy though, it’s not going to taste like cotton candy you’d get at the amusement park or fair, it tastes like whatever candy you use obviously. Personally I don’t care for Jolly Ranchers so I didn’t care for the cotton candy myself so that’s why I went and picked up some other types.

Here’s a couple pictures of the unit while working with the heating elements glowing orange, with flash and without.

Here’s a picture of the machine full of floss, the flash stopped the motion of the extractor head and if you look close you can see the melted candy in there:

Then of course here’s one I took while making cotton candy:

So I found that you need to follow the instructions and let the unit warm up. The manual says 3-5 minutes but I found 5 minutes is what should be used for best results.

Clean up is very easy. I found just putting it in the sink full of hot soapy water for about 5 minutes and then just wipe it clean. You have to remember though you can’t use anything abrasive on it, just a plain sponge works fine I found.

The Hard and Sugar-Free Cotton Candy Maker is very well made and easy to use truly. If you like cotton candy then you owe it to yourself to get one of these. If you’ve got kids, then they would love you that much more if you have one of thee in your household.

Fair warning, if you have kids, especially younger ones expect them to bother you all of the time to make cotton candy for them. My kids, especially my 5 year old, now always wants me to make it for him.I have to put him off as it’s kind of a hassle to just get it all out for one or two servings, but of course I end up making it for my other kids as well, so I usually give in and make it for him.

It’s just awesome truly it is, you need one of these!

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Ok, so who wants one? If you want one just leave a comment and tell me why you want it. Make sure though to leave your email address so I can contact you if you win.

Contest is open to United States residents only.

Contest will go on for two weeks starting now, meaning it will end on November 9th and someone who left a comment will be picked randomly to get it.

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Sarah is the winner.

Please check your email for an email from kbrozio @gmail.com

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