Freeze-drying wasn't invented for sweets. It's a way of preserving food and other products that you already know, even if you don't realise it. Here are a few places where it's used.
Instant coffee ☕
Some instant coffee is made by freeze-drying. Brewed coffee is frozen, and then the water is removed under vacuum. What's left are granules that dissolve quickly when you add water.
Fruit 🍓
Freeze-dried strawberries, raspberries or mango are light, crunchy and keep their flavour for a long time. They're added to cereal, yoghurt and baking. Note: Frizle doesn't sell fruit. Our "fruity" products are fruit-flavoured gummies.
Camping meals 🏕️
Hikers and climbers take freeze-dried meals because they weigh very little and you just add boiling water. Having no water also means they keep for a long time.
Space 🚀
Food in space has to be light and long-lasting, so freeze-drying has long been part of astronauts' diets. That's where the popular term "astronaut ice cream" comes from, which we cover in our post on freeze-dried ice cream.
And sweets? 🍬
Sweets are a newer use. Here it's not mainly about shelf life, but about changing the texture: candy puffs up and crunches. We explain how it works in how freeze-drying sweets works, and what puffs up best in which sweets can be freeze-dried.
Ready to eat or to rehydrate? 💧
A camping meal normally has preparation instructions on its packaging. These tell you how much water to add and how long to wait. Dry fruit pieces can be used in desserts, while coffee granules are intended to dissolve in a drink. A similar production method therefore produces foods with different uses.
Our freeze-dried sweets are eaten straight from the bag. There is no need to add water or heat them. You can use them as dessert toppings, but they gradually lose their crunch on moist cream. Add them just before serving.
What does freeze-dried mean on a label? 🧾
It describes the drying method. It does not tell you whether the product contains sugar, milk or gelatin. A dried strawberry and a strawberry-flavoured sweet have different ingredients even if both have been freeze-dried. At Frizle, “fruit-flavoured sweets” describes the flavour of confectionery, not a collection of dried fruit.
Check storage instructions and the best-before date on each package. Do not apply the long shelf life of camping supplies to an opened bag of candy. For our range, read the guide to storing freeze-dried sweets.