What you'll need:

4 cups sugar
1 cup water
Food coloring
Clean glass jar
String, cut into 6-inch lengths
Pencil

Preparation:

In a medium saucepan, heat 1 cup of water with 2 cups of the sugar, but make sure you don’t bring it to a boil! Stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. Gradually add a few drops of the food coloring of your choice and the remaining 2 cups of sugar, stirring continuously until all the sugar is dissolved.

Pour the solution into a clean glass jar and tie the pieces of string to the pencil and suspend them across the mouth of the jar so that the ends hang into the sugar water.

Crystals will begin to form within an hour, but they will continue to grow over the next week or so. You can eat them right away, but the longer you wait, the bigger they’ll get!