The more I look into it it kinda seems like a waste of time and steps for the cool factor of rock candy, you can just as easily take what I posted in the cotton candy thread and make beer lolipops and have them done that same day, rather than a few days to make the crystals form. Plus you can make 100 lolipops in one sitting just by pouring out the melted sugar onto the silicone mat in little circles and dropping a stick on them.
Didn't realize it would take days to grow the crystals. You should show him my beer candy thread and see if he'd be just as happy with beer suckers.
To make the rock candy, you have to then take what I made and then make a saturated sugar syrup, then put it in a jar with a string and let it grow.