Freeze-Dried Candy - 3 Flavors

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Freeze dried candy -was- very trendy, but thanks to an oversaturated market it's dying down fast. For a time my Instagram feed was filled with people getting vacuum sealed bags from online specialty shops, but now it's everywhere. I grabbed these from Ollie's, but I've seen different brands available at 7-Eleven, Five Below, Target, Walmart, the list goes on and on.

These companies are practically interchangeable. They buy already popular name-brand candies in bulk and then dehydrate them through the process of freeze-drying to give them a new texture. They aren't adding in new flavors, or elements like sour powders, so it's just candy that's been processed in a new way. Due to licensing and copyright, they can't call these products by their brand names, but we all know who they really are. I've got, Lemon Bursts (Lemonheads), Rainbow Bites (Skittles), and Peach Puffs (Gummi Peach Rings.) 

All three of these happen to be gluten and dairy-free, so they were part of my Sleepover Snack Scores weekend with my little cousins, so here's what we thought:  

First up, Lemon Bursts (freeze-dried Lemonheads)

All four of us love Lemonheads, so I really thought this would knock it out of the park, but they were underwhelming. Taking a bite, it has a light and airy crunch, which is the main appeal of freeze-dried candy, but it really made me aware that all the flavoring of Lemonheads comes from that yellow outer coating. The coating stayed the same as it always does, but the center puffed up throwing off the sweet-to-sour ratio, making these more mild than we wanted. They're still good, and if you suck on them you'll get more of that Lemonhead flavor, but that ruins the texture and defeated the purpose of buying Freeze-dried candy in the first place. These are good, but not better than normal panned-candy Lemonheads. 

I gave this one a 5/5, because I do like Lemonheads, but I'll stick to the normal version in the future.
The girls' scores combined averaged a 3.8/5.

Next, Peach Puffs (freeze-dried gummi Peach Rings)

These were the most transformed of the three, going from soft, chewy, ring-shaped candies to large misshapen spheres that looked like cellulose. Taking a bite, they've got the recognizable flavor, but the texture is horrible. Unlike the others that are crispy and dissolve, this immediately sticks to your teeth in the worst ways. One of the girls currently has braces and these were not braces-friendly at all. In my opinion, this is the worst version of Peach Rings to exist, all of the lovely flavor, but with the hassle of picking it out of your teeth and possibly jacking up dental work. 

I gave it a 3/5 because I do really like peach rings and all the flavor is there, but I will stick to literally any brand that offers them in their normal gummi form over this.

The girls agreed, with an average of 3.6/5.

Lastly, Rainbow Bites (freeze-dried original Skittles)

You can even see the little "S" on these candies, but you can't legally call them "freeze-Dried Skittles."  Like the Lemon Bursts, the sweet inner layer puffs up changing the outer shell-to-chewy candy ratio, but this time it works better because the inner portion actually does have some flavoring to it other than just sugar. There's a whole Skittles conspiracy thing about all the colors tasting the same, or them just being scented, that really gets me riled up, so I won't get into that right now, but I will say the colors DO taste different, and they is still the case when freeze-dried. These are light, crispy, and still have the fruity flavoring I love. Of the three, this is one I would repurchase, because the crispy airy texture makes these even MORE addictive than normal, but it' the only one I would buy again. 

These were a 5/5 for me, and a repurchase. 

The girls liked these the best as well, averaging  4.8/5. 

These were fun, and pretty low-risk since we already knew we loved the base-candies these were made with. Yet, I feel like the only item that was actually improved upon were the Skittles. The others scored high because I like those candies as-is, not because their new texture was revolutionary. And of all the brands I have seen in-stores, I like packaging for Andersen's Crazy Candy the best. It's simple, eye catching, and most importantly re-sealable. 

Did you participate in the freeze-dried craze? If so, what was your favorite item? While I really liked the Skittles from this post, I'd have to say Astronaut Ice Cream is still my favorite product using this concept. 

Fans of this would also like:

This video from 2015 where I review Space Food (This is almost 10 years old!! Ahhh!) 

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