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How to Freeze Dry Candy | Freeze Dried Taffy | Step-by-Step Guide | Packaging Freeze-Dried Candy
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May 15, 2025
A detailed, step-by-step guide to freeze-drying saltwater taffy. In this video, I walk you through my detailed process for freeze-drying salt-water taffy that has helped my freeze-dried business grow. Freeze-dried taffy is in my Top 20 Items to Start Selling for your freeze-dried business (https://youtu.be/neZYov6iQ2M). Although unwrapping and cutting taffy can take time, the reward is a flavorful new candy that you and your customers will grow to love. Similar to my freeze-dried Jolly Rancher video (https://youtu.be/bim_HWeIE5c), I show you how to work efficiently to cut, prep, and bag freeze-dried taffy products. Follow me as I show you the setup and tools I use to unwrap taffy candies, tray and arrangement layout, freeze-dryer settings, packaging, insights, and commentary on freeze-drying as a business and the finished product. You can support my channel by purchasing items from the links below for either personal use or your freeze-dried business. Thank you! 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 Dryers - https://stayfreshfreezedry.com/?sca_ref=3292008.4uBi4MIG3W&sca_source=YouTube Items in this video that you can buy on Amazon to support my channel. - 5 Gallon Storage Pails with Gamma Screw Lid - https://amzn.to/3ICnXdT - Hefty 2.5 Gallon Jumbo Bags - https://amzn.to/3GpQ90P - Cutco Scissors - https://amzn.to/3vORJ7A - Knife Sharpener - https://amzn.to/3Vrttml
View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music]
0:01
today we're going to be doing a how-to
0:02
video on candy and one of the most
0:04
popular candies and I think it's
0:06
probably one of the better ones to do is
0:09
taffy I run a freeze-dried foods
0:11
business in Idaho and I produce this
0:13
channel for more and more people that
0:16
are getting into the freeze-dried foods
0:17
business so whether you're currently
0:19
running one or you're just getting
0:20
started a lot of my videos are here to
0:22
help you saltwater taffy changes its
0:25
texture got a picture of what it looks
0:27
like once it's freeze-dried it changes
0:29
its texture from a chewy candy to a
0:33
textured like multi ball that the flavor
0:35
hits you immediately so it's really
0:37
popular there's a couple of Pros to
0:39
doing Taffy one is the texture changes
0:41
to something that's new and Visually
0:43
appealing to your customers so the
0:46
experience for them is going to be new
0:48
and fresh so it changes from its chewy
0:50
state to a more multi-ball state so the
0:53
flavor hits you immediately now the cons
0:55
as I'm going to show you is a little bit
0:57
more time consuming but I'm going to
0:59
show you today the price process that I
1:01
do for cutting there's different methods
1:03
that I've seen using scissors as well as
1:05
a knife and I'll show you why it's so
1:07
tedious to do Taffy now although you can
1:09
find local places to get Taffy I do find
1:12
that there's some quick ways to get them
1:13
online one is Amazon two Taffy town as
1:17
well as candynation.com these three
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places vary on price and shipping time
1:22
frame so it's going to be up to you on
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what you would like to choose I haven't
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noticed too lack of quality in all three
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of those and they have different flavors
1:29
available so go ahead and look those
1:32
three up I've included a link in the
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description of all these three places
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where you can find the Taffy now there's
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a wide variety of flavors that you can
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choose from my suggestion to you is to
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select a few try them out in sales from
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your local farmers markets or maybe
1:45
online whatever your channels are for
1:47
sales and look to see what your
1:49
customers are buying the most of and
1:51
then just continue doing those flavors
1:52
some of the more popular ones that have
1:54
been successful for me is Huckleberry
1:56
Taffy peppermint watermelon blue
1:59
raspberry and I haven't tried cotton
2:01
candy but I've heard from a lot of the
2:03
freeze-dried forms that cotton candy has
2:05
been phenomenally popular so you might
2:07
want to try that another option to
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include different flavors might be to
2:11
have a different flavor of the week or
2:12
the flavor of the month that might be a
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great marketing strategy for you is to
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change it up every single month and then
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provide different type of flavors so
2:19
that you can gauge the interest of your
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customers
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[Music]
2:23
all right so for the settings for the
2:25
freeze dryer before we start cutting the
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Taffy is you want to set it to Candy
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mode it's very simple with the new
2:30
software so you're going to select the
2:31
customize button and then you're going
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to turn up the temperature
2:35
to
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140 degrees that's the temperature that
2:40
I've been using the most this changes to
2:42
dry mode to fast you're going to save
2:45
and then you're simply going to start it
2:48
and see how it says high temperature
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mode that's candy mode you're going to
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Simply Press Start and now it's going to
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cool a chamber I don't really know why
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it cools the chamber because we're going
2:57
to be using the heat but that
2:59
accomplishes what we need for prepping
3:01
the freeze dryer
3:02
[Music]
3:04
so what should we use to cut Taffy well
3:06
there's two cutting methods that I think
3:08
have been working the best for me as
3:10
well as I've found through research of
3:12
other forums that have worked well for
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other people there's really no easy way
3:16
to do this except for using a knife I've
3:18
got a knife sharpener so that we have a
3:20
really nice blade and cut and then also
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these is a Cutco scissors I really like
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these they're durable and they really
3:27
cut well and really make sure that
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you're getting a good cut each and every
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time
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[Music]
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so now we're ready to cut and get the
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Taffy on the tray now I've got a large
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freeze dryer so this is a large freeze
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dry Trace but whether you have a small
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or a medium or a large the same process
3:44
of technique and cutting can be applied
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you just need to figure out the
3:48
arrangement that would fit on the trays
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for you I cut the Taffy into quarters
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and I can put seven across and then I go
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16 down all the way down here that's 112
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individual pieces that way the Taffy
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doesn't touch to each other and it
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creates a perfect circle uh ball once
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it's freeze-dried now through my process
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as well I've counted the number of
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pieces that can fit on the tray so like
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I said it was 112 that means I could put
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28 pieces of Taffy on this tray you
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could probably fit more it just depends
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on what you'd like to have as the
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finished product I like having them come
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out with any imperfections so that it's
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a perfect circle and it doesn't look
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like it was touching any of the other
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Taffy
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[Music]
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reason it takes so long is you have to
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unwrap every single one it does not work
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I've found if you leave the wrapper on
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and then put them onto the freeze dryer
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tray and cutting you can't really cut it
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that well so I have found that if you
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have the Taffy hard already maybe it's
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coming from a controlled environment
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where it's not impacted by heat or maybe
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it's coming from the freezer you can cut
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it down the middle and then the wrappers
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actually come out so I've unwrapped
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these with my fingers let me show you
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how it is if I cut it with the wrapper
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on with the knife
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okay cuts down there and then you kind
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of like pinch with your fingers and it
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pops out of the wrappers now that could
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be just as effective as you want it to
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be
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but I have found that just simply
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unwrapping all of them and then cutting
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can be a little bit faster just
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depending on the temperature of the
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Taffy because the stickier the Taffy the
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less likely it's going to pop out of the
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wrapper once you cut it now Taffy is
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popular I'm finding I actually posted in
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one of the Facebook forms for
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freeze-dried candy makers about Taffy
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because I was headed to an event and I
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just never really saw much sales from
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Taffy and people just said you know you
5:54
need to have samples people need to try
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it and believe me once I had that
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holiday event and I had people sample
6:01
the Taffy that was my top seller so I
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think over time just like freeze-dried
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Skittles
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people are going to be more and more in
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tune with what freeze-dried Taffy looks
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like and also tastes like so then I
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think it'll actually sell a lot better
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even this coming year as you can see it
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does get kind of messy I'm going to show
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you the camera kind of down here too
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like I've done this before in in my
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kitchen table when I was in cottage food
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and things and it just gets super messy
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it's sticky and you have to use a
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scraper to kind of clean it up so it
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does get a little bit messy so that just
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be aware of that you can cut these in
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half you can cut them in quarters it's
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totally up to you but I am going to cut
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some that are in half just so you can
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see what the size difference is like
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once we get done with the cycle and I'll
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show you that there's really no easy way
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about going about this this is what
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everybody's doing I've actually tried to
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find
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taffy in bulk where I don't have to
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unwrap it it's not the case can't find
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it so you do have to cut these
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all with a knife all right so we're done
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with cutting all of these all the Taffy
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sizes and these are cut in quarter
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[Music]
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all right so let's use the scissors
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these are Cutco scissors and see how it
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does
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with these now if these were soft I
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think it'd be a totally different story
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because but because the Taffy is hard
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you know I I'm not
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I'm not cutting or squeezing this super
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hard because I just don't want them to
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fly everywhere as you can see I'm I am
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putting a lot of pressure but that's
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cutting it in quarters and they're
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flying all over the place so you know
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what I'm not even going to do these very
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much with the scissors I'm going to use
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the knife to do the rest of these so I
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would say for future use if you're going
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to use these Cutco scissors make sure
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your Taffy is a little bit more soft and
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I'm sure these would actually be better
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than the knife because it wouldn't stick
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to the knife it'd actually be really
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good with these scissors now if you're
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cold then I would use the knife so let's
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go ahead and do the rest of these and
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I'll put it on a time lapse real quick
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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so now for the arrangement we're going
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to arrange the Taffy so that you can see
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exactly how I arrange it on the tray do
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seven as a row and then I'm going to do
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16 columns all the way down with all
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these Taffy
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I'm done doing all the arrangement and
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it turned out to be 13 rows of the Taffy
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just because I arranged it basically on
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quarters and with the halves if I just
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did it on quarters I'd be able to do 16
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because it's a little bit closer and
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they're smaller all right let's put it
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in the freeze dryer
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foreign
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[Music]
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let's take a look to see what Taffy does
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when you put it in the freeze dryer all
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right let's take a look and see what the
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salt water taffy looks like freeze-dried
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it turns into this egg shape if you take
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a look Huckleberry Taffy looks like this
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and we've got the blue raspberry
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these were quartered if you remember
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and these were cut in half so a little
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bit bigger now the reason this makes a
9:45
difference is one you can probably fit
9:47
more of the quarter pieces in a bag that
9:51
you're using versus have so I like
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cutting it in quarters but these all
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look great hey why don't we try some
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freeze dried saltwater taffy so here's
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the blue raspberry
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see how the texture changes now it's
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super multi the flavor hits immediately
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this is really a big hit
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so when you're doing freeze drying as a
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business you want to ensure that you
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have proper storage for your
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freeze-dried candy I found that these
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five gallon buckets right here have
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worked really well and what they have is
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it has a a lid that actually creates a
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great seal around it if you can see it's
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rubber has a rubber gasket and when you
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close it up it spins and becomes air
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tight in here so with freeze drying
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candy normally it's really a short shelf
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life so I don't really do a whole lot of
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candy building up in terms of inventory
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and stocking up in these buckets I use
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this for short-term storage so let's put
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some product into this bucket so you can
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see what that looks like all right so
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we're going to unseal the bucket
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that lid off
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[Applause]
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so for trays when you're doing just very
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little or you want to store a smaller
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amount of candy what I like to buy is
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these Hefty jumbo bags they're 2.5
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gallons and they really do well with all
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the candy and sometimes just temporarily
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getting these bagged up and then I
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eventually put them into the storage
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container so let's go ahead and put some
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of the other flavored taffy in these
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bags so we've got our blue raspberry
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and I slide it just right into the bag
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[Applause]
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and what's great about you don't need to
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use the silicone mats for the
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Taffy they slide right off as soon as
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they're dry peppermint
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and let me just slide all the peppermint
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into there perfect
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a couple left over that we got to eat
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duh
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[Music]
11:50
all right so now that we've got the
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freeze-dried Taffy stored up in the bags
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and the bucket I'm going to show you how
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to package it now I'm only going to do
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one Tray's worth of packaging just so we
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can see how many bags we get out of the
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product remember we took 28 individual
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Taffy wrappers and we cut those onto a
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tray so I'm going to put them into the
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bags that I use I don't have them
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stampered labeled but I'm just going to
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show you that I use these craft bags
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that are food safe but they have a
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window they're for short-term use I
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don't Market them as long-term storage
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now the reason being is because with the
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window it is susceptible to more oxygen
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coming in and also it is susceptible to
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the Heat and Taffy I've seen really go
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bad meaning it just shrivels up and goes
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back to more of a liquid sticky
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gooeyness within a couple of weeks so
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you want to make sure you're mindful of
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that when the heat comes around in the
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summertime now I'm I really like these
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bags I've used them a lot you can find
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find the link in the description for
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these bags on amazon.com so let's go
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ahead and package them up and let's see
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how much product we get out of this so
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I've got a food scale here to weigh the
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net ounces I usually put about 1.5 to 2
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ounces of product in this okay it's
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zeroed out it's about .3 ounces
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and then we're gonna do
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the blue Taffy I normally have my label
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on the front
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[Applause]
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and on the back for the ingredients you
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just use the ingredients from the Taffy
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that you bought now that's 1.3
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foreign
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five there we go
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so now these are cut in quarters so as
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you can see it looks a little bit more
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full that's the way I like it so that's
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one bag bagging is sometimes overlooked
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of how much time it takes to freeze dry
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and run it as a business so when you're
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when you're getting ready for for those
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of you who do shows and things like that
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it's a lot of work I mean as you can see
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when we did the Taffy
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you know cutting all that that took over
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an hour to unwrap cut put it in the
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freeze dryer plus you got all the
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cleanup from all the remnants and
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crumbles from the Taffy let's see 1.4
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1.5 so that's three so far I don't think
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I'm going to be able to get
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um another bag but I'm going to say that
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28 taffies gets me three bags of product
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so far
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[Music]
14:46
hey that's a wrap on freeze dry and
14:48
Taffy if you found this video useful go
14:50
ahead and hit the like button on the
14:52
video also if you'd like to support me
14:54
in my channel I'd love for you to join
14:55
the community at free stripe business
14:57
owners by hitting the Subscribe button
14:59
so if you have any comments that you'd
15:01
like to share about your Freeze Drive
15:02
Journey or how you've done free strike
15:04
Taffy efficiently or if there's anything
15:06
else that you'd like to me to expand on
15:09
please let me know in the comments I
15:11
hope you have a great rest of the week
15:13
and the month of January let's kick off
15:15
2023 and do some awesome things with our
15:18
businesses cheers
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