Candy is sweet food made primarily from sugar, often combined with flavors, colors, and other ingredients like chocolate, nuts, or fruit. Hard candies dissolve slowly in your mouth, chewy candies like taffy require work to eat, and chocolate bars melt on your tongue. Candy comes in endless varieties: lollipops, gummy bears, peppermints, caramels, jelly beans, and countless others.

People have enjoyed sweet treats for thousands of years. Ancient civilizations made candies from honey before sugar became common. For most of history, candy was expensive and rare, but modern manufacturing made it affordable and widely available.

Candy shops display their colorful selections in jars and bins, creating rainbow walls of temptation. Halloween centers on collecting candy while trick-or-treating. Birthday parties feature candy in goodie bags. Some candy becomes so popular it turns into a verb: you might candy apple slices by coating them in hot sugar syrup.

While candy tastes delicious, eating too much can cause cavities and stomachaches. Most people enjoy candy as an occasional treat rather than everyday food. The expression like taking candy from a baby means something is extremely easy, since babies can't protect their candy effectively.