Five fruits, one trick
Freeze-dried candy that started as fruit
Most freeze-dried candy starts as candy. Ours starts as strawberries, grapes, mangos, pineapples and blueberries, Infuz'd with sour all the way through. Same crunch, different label.
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The receipt
Turn the bag over. This is all of it.
- First on the panel
- The fruit. Strawberry, grapes, mango, pineapple or blueberry, spelled the way the back of the bag spells it.
- Then the sour
- Sugar, maltose, glucose, apple juice concentrate, modified food starch, citric acid, malic acid, natural flavor. In full, on every bag.
- Calories
- About 60 per 12 strawberries, 12 grapes, 14 mangos, 16 pineapples or 30 blueberries.
- Not on the panel
- No syrup. No gelatin. No Red Dye #40.
Straight off the panel, per 28 grams. About half a bag.
| Fruit | Pieces per 28 g | Calories | Total sugars | Added sugars |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strawberries | 20 to 22 | 100 | 22 g | 14 g |
| Grapes | 19 to 21 | 100 | 23 g | 9 g |
| Mangos | 24 to 26 | 110 | 22 g | 6 g |
| Pineapples | 30 to 32 | 110 | 22 g | 6 g |
| Blueberries | 55 to 57 | 110 | 17 g | 9 g |
Why it counts
Written for the freeze-dried candy crowd.
It shatters like the puffed stuff.
Freeze-drying takes the water out and leaves the structure, so a piece breaks loud. Then it turns back into fruit in your mouth, which a puffed candy cannot do.
The sour does not run out.
It is Infuz'd through the fruit before the water leaves, and the coat on the outside is the encore. The last piece in the bag puckers like the first.
The panel reads like fruit.
First word, the fruit. Then the sour. Then the end of the list. No syrup, no gelatin, no Red Dye #40, and about 60 calories for up to 30 pieces.
What freeze-dried candy usually is
Freeze-dried candy is candy that has been frozen solid and then held under vacuum until the small amount of water in it leaves as vapor. Most of what sells under the name starts as a chewy candy. The piece puffs to a few times its size, goes crisp, and keeps the panel it had on the shelf: sugar, corn syrup, the dyes, in that order. Freeze-drying changes the texture. It does not change what the thing is.
Ours starts earlier. The fruit goes into the freeze dryer, so what comes out is still the fruit, with the water gone and the sour in.
Five freeze-dried candies that started as five fruits
Each fruit has its own page, with its own panel and its own piece count: sour freeze-dried strawberries, grapes, mangos, pineapples and blueberries. Every one of them gets the same four steps.
How freeze-dried candy is made, when it starts as fruit
Picked on the perfect day.
Never early for the truck. We're patient like that. Fruit picked ripe tastes like itself, and it has to, because nothing gets added later except the sour and the sugar that comes with it.
Infuz'd to the core.
The sour goes all the way through. The coat on the outside is the encore. The acids are citric and malic, the same two on the panel, and they go in before the water leaves, so they are in the fruit rather than on it.
Gently Freeze-Dried.
The water leaves. Nothing else does. The fruit is frozen solid and the pressure drops until the ice goes straight to vapor without ever being liquid. The shape stays, the color stays, and the sugar the fruit grew with stays where it was. What is left is crisp enough to shatter and still, on the panel, a strawberry.
Mother Nature's candy.
She did the hard part. We're just here to take credit. That is the fourth step, and it is why the panel reads the way it does.
Freeze-dried sour candy, with the sour on the inside
Most sour candy is sour on the surface, a dusting of acid over something sweet, which is why the sour wears off before the sweet does. The kind made from candy keeps that arrangement. Ours is sour before it is freeze-dried: the acid goes into the fruit, then a coat goes on the outside, then the water leaves. The last piece puckers like the first, and the bottom of the bag is still fruit.
How to pick the best freeze-dried candy
Best is a taste call, so here is the test instead. Turn the bag over. If the first word on the panel is a fruit, the crunch came from fruit. If the first word is sugar or corn syrup, the crunch came from candy, and freeze-drying did not change that. On ours the first word is strawberry, grapes, mango, pineapple or blueberry, then the sour, then the end of the list.
If you do not know your fruit yet, the variety pack is one of each, 2 oz a bag, which is the shortest way to settle it.
The panel, read out loud
Every number on this page is printed on the back of a bag, per 28 grams, which is about half a bag. The panel is the FDA's Nutrition Facts label, so it reads the same on our bag as on anyone else's. The table under the receipt above is that panel typed out, one row per fruit: pieces, calories, total sugars and added sugars. The ingredients are printed in full as well, the fruit first and the sour after it, on every bag.
The sour brings sugar with it, and the added sugars line says how much. Read it there.
Five fruits, and the pieces they turn into.
One box, five fruits
One of each, so you can settle it yourself.
Strawberries, grapes, mangos, pineapples and blueberries, sour all the way through. One 2 oz bag of each.
Sour Freeze-Dried Fruit $29.99for five bags
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Questions people ask
What is freeze-dried candy?
Candy that has been frozen solid and then dried under vacuum, so the water leaves as vapor and the piece goes crisp and light. Most of it starts as a chewy candy, which puffs up and keeps the panel it had before. Ours starts as a fruit, so it does not puff. The water leaves the strawberry, and the strawberry stays.
Is freeze-dried candy the same as freeze-dried fruit?
Usually not. Freeze-dried fruit is fruit with the water taken out and nothing added. Most freeze-dried candy is candy with the water taken out, which changes the texture and nothing on the panel. Ours is the overlap: real fruit, freeze-dried, with the sour added. It eats like candy, and the first word on the panel is a fruit.
How is freeze-dried candy made when it starts as fruit?
Four steps. Picked on the perfect day. Infuz'd with sour all the way through, with a coat on the outside as the encore. Gently freeze-dried, so the water leaves and nothing else does. The fourth step is Mother Nature's. She did the hard part. We're just here to take credit.
What makes freeze-dried sour candy sour?
Citric acid and malic acid, the two acids that make a lemon and a green apple sour. On most sour candy they sit on the surface, so the sour wears off before the sweet does. On ours they go into the fruit before the water leaves, and then on the outside as well. Both are printed on every bag.
What is the best freeze-dried candy?
Best is a taste call. The test is on the back of the bag: if the first word on the panel is a fruit, the crunch came from fruit, and if it is sugar or corn syrup, the crunch came from candy. Ours says strawberry, grapes, mango, pineapple or blueberry. The variety pack is one of each.
How many calories are in freeze-dried candy?
Ours: about 60 calories for up to 30 pieces, flavor dependent, and 100 to 110 calories per 28 grams on the panel. A 2 oz bag is 200 to 220. The kind made from candy carries whatever the candy carried before the water left, so read its panel the same way.