What are freeze-dried sweets and why are they popular?

When Savannah Louise West first tasted freeze-dried gummies, she was intrigued.

"I think the crunch is so satisfying, and I find it interesting to experience a candy I'm familiar with that has an entirely new texture," says the Toronto resident.

Ms West is describing one of the main features of this spin-off candy that independent and major confectionary manufacturers have been releasing onto shelves, both online and offline, for the past three years.

It's been largely a US phenomena, hence we'll use the US term candy, but for our UK readers, we're talking about sweets here.

Candy is usually chewy or glassy but place a familiar sweet like Skittles through the right process and you can turn it into a crunchy snack, like crisps, while also enhancing its sweet or tangy flavour.

The process involves a special oven that chills the product, heats it, steals away its moisture and puffs it up.

The market emerged when TikTok influencers showed off their favourite freeze-dried candy.

"Our customer demographic is mainly under 45 as they've likely heard about this type of candy on TikTok or other social platforms, and wanted to try something that is going viral," says Zachry Barlett, a partner at TheFreezeDriedCandyStore.com, a Missouri-based online business that sells crunchy varieties of peach rings, gummy worms and ice cream.

"People have long eaten freeze-dried fruit, and it's an industry where it can be accessible for anyone to enter as large freeze dryers have dropped in price," he explains.

It's proved such a hit that confectionery giants including Hershey, Mars and Ferrara have launched their own products.

With the help of those heavyweights, the freeze-dried candy market is projected to be worth $3.1bn (£2.4bn) by 2034, up from $1.3bn in 2024, according to a Market.us report.

Freeze-dried candy is a misnomer, as manufacturers aren't exactly freezing the candy.

Rich Hartel, a professor of food engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says the amount of freezable water in most candies is close to zero. The more appropriate term would be vacuum-puffing, he notes.

Still, these unique candies have to go through a cold process in the beginning. They're subjected to very low temperatures to freeze the internal moisture into solid ice crystals, and then they are moved to a vacuum chamber.

"When the candies dry, the air bubbles cause an expansion, which is why you see gummies turn from soft to hard," Prof Hartel explains.

Another manufacturer equates the process to "creating our own weather system in these massive chambers," says Claudia Goldfarb, CEO of Sow Good in Texas.

"When the product reaches what we call the glass transition point, the ice crystals within the candy shift from ice to vapour at the speed of sound," Ms Goldfarb adds.

Without that moisture, the candy turns into a crispy structure with an interior texture that resembles a chocolate malted ball.

Also, because moisture is removed from the end product, the flavour can be more intense.

"Imagine you were making lemonade and you decided to remove the water, and you were left with sugar and lemons," Ms Goldfarb points out.

Not all candies are suitable for the freeze-dried process, she says.

A Tic Tac or jellybean, for example, does not have enough water and too few air bubbles to allow it to expand. Meanwhile, chocolate melts too quickly under any heating application.

Three years ago, Prof Hartel noticed more small players competing for a share of the freeze-dried candy market, but now larger brands, such as Hershey, want in on the viral trend.

"I wonder if the more independent businesses won't be able to compete," he says.

For Ms Goldfarb and Mr Barlett, when the sizable corporations take notice, the crowded shelves adds more validation to what they do.

"It's hopeful to see big-brand adoption after we do something so unprecedented," says Mr Barlett, "and I can see us taking on these brands by continuing to innovate, by not being satisfied with the status quo."

Prof Hartel, who teaches candy science to his students, wonders if freeze-dried candy "will just be a fad, but you never know if long-time customers will continue to come back to a type of sweet they didn't really enjoy when it was chewy."

But for passionate fans of this brittle candy, there's one pitfall.

Much like crisps and crackers, the packaging is crucial. "If there's a barrier for me when it comes to this candy, it's that they are often crushed in the bag due to how fragile they are," says Ms West. "Also, they can be expensive."

Ms Goldfarb is bullish on the future for her company and their competitors. "People want innovation in candy, and they want to try something fun and novel," she says, "and that really resonates with consumers."