Delivery of fruit juice, acidulants, and labile components into cooked candy base

The present invention pertains to a method for preparing a hard candy containing from about 1% to about 35% fruit juice, by weight, which comprises the steps of (a) providing a vacuum cooker having a cooker coil, an atmospheric chamber, and a vacuum chamber; (b) forming a sugar syrup having a moisture content from about 0.1% to about 5%, by weight; (c) heating the sugar syrup in the cooker coil to cook the syrup; (d) passing the cooked sugar syrup from the cooker coil to the atmospheric chamber; (e) admixing fruit juice with the cooked sugar syrup in the atmospheric chamber to form a fruit juice-sugar syrup mixture; (f) passing the fruit juice-sugar syrup mixture from the atmospheric chamber to the vacuum chamber to remove excess water; and (g) removing the fruit juice-sugar syrup mixture from the vacuum chamber and forming the fruit juice-sugar mixture into desired shapes of hard candy. This invention also pertains to hard candy containing fruit juice prepared by the inventive method. This invention further pertains to an improved method for making hard candy containing an acidulant or a thermolabile component.