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Here is What Happens When You Freeze-Dry Lemonheads | How To Freeze-Dry Candy -Freeze Dried Business
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May 15, 2025
Hard-shell candies like Lemonheads have been challenging to freeze-dry until recently when a new technique was attempted by softening the hard shell before freeze-drying. In this video, I attempt to freeze-dry Lemonheads for the second time and walk through the freeze-dryer settings as well as the end result with of course a taste test. Timestamp 2:00 - Freeze Dryer Settings for Lemonheads 3:11 - Lemonhead Sizes to Test 8:00 - Why Do Candies Deflate After Being Freeze-Dried 8:32 - Freeze Dried Cycle Finished 10:00 - Small Freeze-Dried Lemonhead Taste Test 11:10 - Large Freeze-Dried Lemonhead Results 12:28 - My Thoughts on Success or Failure Want to see my first attempt, freeze-drying Lemonheads? https://youtube.com/shorts/qTxALgoPIek?feature=share Are you starting to look at starting a freeze-dried business? Watch this video for the 10 steps I would take if I were starting a freeze-dried business from scratch: https://youtu.be/Shx_WHTVF3g Here are several freeze-dryers I use in my business and I would recommend considering them for your existing freeze-dried business or just starting out. - Harvest Right Freeze Dryers - https://affiliates.harvestright.com/1974.html - StayFresh Freeze Dry - https://stayfreshfreezedry.com/?sca_ref=3292008.4uBi4MIG3W&sca_source=YouTube I use Zazzle to buy stamps, business cards, flyers, and more for my freeze-dried business. There are always great discounts each month and fast shipping.
View Video Transcript
0:00
hey welcome to another video on the
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freeze dry business Channel where we're
0:02
connecting the freeze dry business
0:04
Community with the tools and resources
0:05
needed to grow a sustainable business
0:07
now today we're going to try the candy
0:10
lemon heads and I tried this before
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didn't really work out that well so I'm
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going to try it again if you have the
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5.0 software on harvest right or higher
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you can activate candy mode all it
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really is is changing the total dry
0:23
temperature as well as the duration of
0:26
the drying time now with candy mode you
0:29
can upgrade the temperature all the way
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up to 150 degrees you can also warm the
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trays at 20 minutes max that's what I'm
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going to do with these lemon heads
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because as I've researched on different
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Facebook forms and seen people who have
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done it well and been successful with
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the lemon heads most people have done it
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on a cottage Food level where they've
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been at home and they put the lemon
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heads in the oven now you might be
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asking yourself what the heck an oven
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and the purpose behind putting in the
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oven is that certain candies have that
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hard shell on it peppermint Red Hots
1:01
lemon heads all of those types of
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candies have a hard shell what you're
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trying to do with these new hard shell
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candies is you're trying to soften up
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that shell so that you basically can
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have the freeze dryer pop what's inside
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and so that's what we're going to try to
1:15
accomplish now the oven obviously can be
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changed to different temperatures above
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150 degrees not with the freeze dryer
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I've got this large Harvest Right freeze
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dryer and you only have a Max of 150
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degrees so what we're going to do today
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is because my commercial kitchen doesn't
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have an oven I'm going to test out the
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highest temperature on the Harvest Right
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freeze dryer to make sure that we can do
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that just with the freeze dryer alone
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instead of having to use an oven to warm
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those hard candies if you have a cottage
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food operation and you are running your
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business from home you've got access to
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an oven you can adjust those
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temperatures above 150 degrees but for
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somebody like me and other people who
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have that commercial kitchen or if you
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don't have one at home you don't have
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access to an oven to warm it above 150
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this video is going to all also be for
2:00
you to kind of test it out all right so
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let's get the freeze dryer setting set
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up now what I've read is that you need
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to set it to the highest temperature
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that it possibly is able to on the
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freeze dryer so we're going to make sure
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that the dry mode isn't fast and then we
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need to set the temperature to as high
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as it goes so the highest temperature
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you can go with this version 5.1 or
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higher on the software for Harvest Right
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is 150 degrees now what we're going to
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do as well is I'm going to add some
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extra dry time I am going to keep it at
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five hours which I normally do for fruit
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so we're going to press save now we're
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going to start this so one thing I don't
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really understand about the Harvest
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Right software when you have it with
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candy mode is candy mode is activated
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when you go above 130 degrees on the
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temperature setting like we just did and
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if it's in candy mode I don't really
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understand why it says that we need to
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cool the chamber and so you have to wait
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that 15 minutes for the chamber to cool
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and then you can basically start warming
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the trays or start the candy mode and
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start the drying process immediately so
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that's kind of my only thing with the
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software is I don't really understand
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the cooling part but needless to say
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we'll get this all warmed up for 15
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minutes and then we'll Press Start and
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get the lemon heads in there
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all right so for the lemon heads what
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I've got is I've got the mini lemon
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heads in these boxes and I'm just gonna
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see what happens for the smaller ones
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but I've also got the big size lemon
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heads and I did this before in a short
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earlier this year and it didn't really
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turn out that well so what we're going
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to do is we're going to do one tray of
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the large uh just a couple a few or
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maybe a couple dozen and then we're
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gonna do a couple of these boxes and
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we're gonna see what what happens in the
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freeze dryer box
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all right next I'm going to do two of
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the lemon head boxes and let's see what
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the difference is in terms of whether
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they pop
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when you put two boxes on the tray
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maybe actually looking at this right now
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let's maybe do a third boxes I've got
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five of them
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so let's go ahead and put these lemon
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heads
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and now let's go ahead and do I don't
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know a couple of the of the limit has
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that are much larger let's do
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10
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15
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20 25. okay let's just do 25 of the
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large Lemon heads and uh I'm really
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excited to try the lemon heads because
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I've seen a lot of posts on Facebook
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pages and things like that and even on
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Etsy that's becoming really popular to
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do
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and uh I think that it could be a great
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addition to your lineup
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now part of what you need to consider
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when you're doing a freeze-dried
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business is how many kind of SKU numbers
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you're going to be adding to your
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business now the SKU numbers I'm just
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saying that in terms of like putting a
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barcode on but what I just mean by that
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is how many products are you going to be
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willing to do if someone orders one bag
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or how many are you gonna put if you're
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gonna go to a show you know how many
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different types of bags do you really
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want to be bringing
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different types because that's a lot of
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different places that you need to store
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it's a lot of different runs of candy
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that you have to do in the freeze dryer
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some of it's going to be really popular
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some of it's going to be had to store
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for a while so you're going to have to
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really kind of decide you know how many
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actual products you need to do so now
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for the purposes of this video I'm
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really just doing this
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um
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just to show for the video I want to
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test these out because I've done it
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before and it just didn't really work so
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and you know what Just for kicks let's
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do some Skittles at what we're going to
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do for the settings for these lemon
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heads so let's go ahead and do Skittles
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on one tray
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and what we're going to do with the
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Skittles is I'm curious to see what
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warming the temperature up to 150
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degrees as well as running the 150
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degree temp in the freeze dryer at 150
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degrees for five hours how different is
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going to change the texture of these
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freeze-dried Skittles so I'm excited to
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kind of see that so we'll put this at
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the top of the trays in a large freeze
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dryer hey a quick plug for the rest of
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my videos if you haven't done it already
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or you're not a subscriber go to my
6:35
channel and view a couple of my other
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videos I've got a lot of great
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information about freeze drying fruit to
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ice cream ice cream sandwiches and other
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types of candies I've also recently done
6:44
a Roi video with some calculations what
6:48
the ROI is for Taffy and candy for a
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freeze dryer and why freeze drying as a
6:54
business is so popular right now so
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check that out also hit the like button
6:57
or comment below I'd love to hear from
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you all right the freeze dryer settings
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are set again what we set it to was 150
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degrees for warming for 20 minutes and
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then we're going to run the freeze dryer
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for five hours at 150 degrees and we're
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going to see what happens to the lemon
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heads both the small and the large size
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now again on these trays that we did on
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the freeze dryer we had
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one box of these small lemon heads the
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second tray was three boxes of the small
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lemon heads and then we put on about 35
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large Lemon heads and then we for fun we
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just did the Skittles on the last tray
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up there and we're gonna see what
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happens to those Skittles at 150 degrees
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so I'm excited to find out we'll see you
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on the flip side once we get this freeze
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dryer cycle done see ya all right the
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cycle is done we ran the machine for
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five hours and we had the temperature
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set at 150 degrees while also warming
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the trays at 150 degrees for that 20
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minute period so let's go ahead and
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check out the freeze dryer let's see
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what happens hey a common question that
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I get asked about freeze drying candy is
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sometimes you might notice so when you
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release the drain valve you'll notice
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that the candy sometimes deflates not
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everything but sometimes it does and I
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learned the hard way about that and
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sometimes I'd have to rerun the candy
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well don't do that anymore because I've
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got a special tip for you let the candy
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settle let it go down to about 100
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degrees or less I know that's a little
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bit more wait time in changing out the
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different candy Cycles but believe me
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you won't have that type of error in
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letting those candies deflate and so
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that's my tip for you all right here's
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the Skittles wow they puffed up a ton
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take a look at that at 150 degrees for
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five hours wow they completely puffed I
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don't even think that these would be
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really worth even packaging just because
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they might be so fragile well the good
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part about being a freeze-dried business
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owner and freeze-drying candy is you get
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to do the taste testing to see if it's
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dry also just if it's good so let's go
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ahead and give you the give the taste
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test with the Skittles at 150 degrees
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let's do two of these I've got this
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yellow one super puffed up what's up
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wow at that 150 degree tent these
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Skittles are a lot more Airy and a lot
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more crunchy that sugary stuff right
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there that dissolves more quickly than
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the tint that I usually do Skittles at
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which is at 140 degrees so definitely
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clumped up a lot more I don't really
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like that because as you can see it's
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super clumped up it's going to be hard
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to get it in individual bite-sized
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pieces so wouldn't recommend the 150
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degrees let's take a look at the lemon
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heads all right here are the lemon heads
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let's go ahead and take these out
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and put them on the counter all right as
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you can see with these lemon hens for
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one box of the tinies some of them
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popped some of them did not so I'm going
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to kind of say probably that you
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probably have to warm them up at a
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warmer temperature or maybe I should
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warm them up even longer which we can't
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really in the Harvest Right I do know
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that this is kind of what it's supposed
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to look like it's supposed to pop open
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the shell from that yellow and then it's
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supposed to be crunchy let's do a quick
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taste test
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a little bit still crunchy on the shell
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that's sour still I'm gonna try one more
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this one seems like it's popped up a
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little bit more yeah
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definitely crunchy oh this is why I
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don't really prefer lemon heads I'm just
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not a sour person so well that was the
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first tray let's go ahead and take in
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another one and this tray actually
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popped a lot of the tiny lemon heads I
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really like what I'm seeing here this is
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three boxes and again this one was on
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the second shelf of the large freeze
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dryer
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um what I've have said in the past in
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other videos is I've noticed that when
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you do the Jolly Ranchers the bottom
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tray and the top tray tend to not pop as
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much and I think that's the case with
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these lemon heads as well so
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this second shelf definitely looks like
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it got better in that aspect all right
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let's go ahead and take a look at the
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large Lemon heads and let's put them out
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here so we can see them better
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all right so these were the larger lemon
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heads and as you can see some of these
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actually puffed up quite a bit I really
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like this one I definitely think that
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this is crunchy let's choose that one to
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taste test and then as you can see like
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this one didn't really pop as much and
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so I'm kind of curious whether these did
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what they were supposed to so let's do a
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taste test all right let's go ahead and
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give the large Lemon head a taste test
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and see how it goes
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wow still has some lemon cake not as
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much as those tiny lemon heads but it
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definitely is much more Airy a lot more
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crunchy and I think this is what you're
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aiming for all right so we did some
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taste tests we kind of looked to see
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what they looked like visually in terms
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of those lemon heads now I've seen
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different pictures and I definitely have
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seen that some of these have popped the
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way other people have gotten them to
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work that second tray that we had with
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three different boxes of the tiny lemon
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heads I'm looking at it right down here
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and all of them pretty much popped I
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think I could probably sell that back
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the large Lemon heads also pretty much
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all popped I think what you're looking
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for to sell lemon heads is you're really
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just kind of selling a different type of
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texture just something new for people to
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try well obviously you can't taste test
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every single one before you sell it so I
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think this is going to be more of a
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visual check for anyone trying to do
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lemon heads alright so the living heads
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work I'm gonna give them two thumbs up I
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do think that warming the trays at 150
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degrees for that 20 minute period which
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was the max we could do under this
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software and also freeze drying it at
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about 5 five hours did accomplish what
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we were looking for based on what I've
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seen other people do with lemon heads so
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I definitely would bag this and sell it
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and if I had different kind of
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experiences from different customers
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taste testing and they're like this
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doesn't actually have a crunch it's
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still hard maybe I need to dry longer
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but overall I would say the Lemonheads
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is a success going at 150 degrees on the
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temp and 150 degrees at warming the
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trays for 20 minutes hey one thing to
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note about the lemon hands what I did
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with my machine in my commercial kitchen
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is I didn't want to use the oven which I
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know a lot of people do to do the
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Lemonheads and other hard candies
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because you're just trying to get the
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outer shell to soften up enough to where
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you when you run the freeze dry at that
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high temp and the vacuum it pops now
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because I'm in a commercial kitchen I
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wanted to see what the machine could do
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because sometimes your commercial
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kitchen doesn't have an oven like mine
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I'm rinsing this commercial kitchen and
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I don't have an oven so I wanted to see
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whether the machine could do it at 150
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degrees as well as warming the trays up
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for that 20 minute period at the highest
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temp possible so I would sell these
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lemon heads I definitely think it
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accomplished what I was looking for and
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so you if you don't have an oven I
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definitely think you could put it into
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the freeze dryer well thanks for
13:55
watching how to freeze dry lemon heads I
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hope this was helpful and just gave you
13:58
inspiration to try new things hey if you
14:00
haven't done so already hit the like
14:01
button or subscribe to my channel I'd
14:04
love for you to be connected to this
14:05
freeze drying business community that
14:06
I'm trying to grow as well as go and
14:08
check out my other videos that I've got
14:10
on my channel I've got everything from
14:12
how to freeze dry fruit ice cream ice
14:14
cream sandwiches different types of
14:15
candies as well as tips and tricks for
14:17
freeze drying as a business now go out
14:20
and make a difference in your community
14:21
using your Freeze Drive business and
14:23
until next time this is David with the
14:25
freeze dry business Channel take care
14:26
we'll see you next time
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