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WATCH THIS If You Want To Sell Freeze Dried Candy | A Complete Freeze Dried Candy Guide
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May 15, 2025
Does candy lose weight like fruit and veggies when you freeze dry it? In this video, I find the answer! If you have been wondering how much candy you should buy for your freeze-dried business, this video can help you. I freeze-dried four different candies and weighed them before and after to know how much net product we get from freeze-drying candy. This was a fun process for me and I'm sure you'll enjoy it as well! Timestamps: 1:07 - Freeze Dried Candy Explained 2:35 - Skittles 3:59 - Charleston Chews 8:04 - Hi-Chews 10:52 - Jolly Ranchers 15:45 - Freeze Dryer Settings for Candy 16:21 - A Tip for Tray Arrangement in the FD 17:25 - End Result | Does Candy Lose Weight after FDing 20:58 - What's the Point of This Video? Explained 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 Do you need help with logo and brand design for your business? I use Tailor Brands to create logos, style guides, pdfs, etc for my freeze-dried business. I recommend checking them out - https://tailorbrands.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=1&aff_id=5894
View Video Transcript
0:00
hey welcome to the freeze dry business
0:01
Channel my name is David and I run a
0:03
freeze dry business in Idaho I started
0:05
this channel to connect the freeze
0:07
drying business Community with the tools
0:08
and resources needed to grow a
0:10
sustainable business and a sustainable
0:12
business is one that works well with
0:14
your lifestyle and still maintains that
0:16
side hustle or that profitability that
0:18
you're looking for in today's video I'm
0:20
going to answer the question that gets
0:22
asked a lot in the freeze drying
0:23
Community which is does candy actually
0:25
lose its weight when you put it in the
0:27
freeze dryer we're going to find out and
0:29
I've got some candies to show it let's
0:30
get started
0:35
hey a question that's asked by a lot of
0:37
people in the freeze drying Community is
0:38
does candy lose weight when you freeze
0:41
dry because as with fruit and vegetables
0:43
and other type of foods if there's
0:45
moisture in it the freeze drying process
0:47
removes that moisture and therefore
0:49
you're losing a lot of that water weight
0:51
and you're left with more of that
0:52
crunchy Airy lightweight texture that we
0:55
all love with the fruit and things like
0:57
that now does candy have moisture in it
0:59
well we're going to find out what the
1:00
four candies that I have chosen out for
1:02
today to freeze dry and we're going to
1:04
test the gross weight and then we're
1:06
going to see what it's like with the net
1:07
weight I saw on a recent Facebook post
1:09
of someone that articulated what the
1:12
freeze dryer process actually does to
1:14
candy and I want to read that to you
1:15
freeze-dried candy is different from
1:18
freeze drying other Foods you really
1:19
aren't using the freeze dryer to remove
1:22
moisture from Candy instead candy is
1:25
done by heating the product enough to
1:27
soften the sugars and then removing
1:29
vacuum pressure so all that Sugar
1:32
structure is able to expand out and
1:35
create a more crispy Airy texture at the
1:38
same time the very low pressure lowers
1:40
the boiling point of the sugar to
1:42
basically nothing helping with the
1:44
expansion of the product now through
1:46
this process of freeze drying the newly
1:48
expanded sugar structure slowly quote
1:51
set in their more crispy State expanded
1:54
form now this is why when you pull
1:57
out something too early it might deflate
2:00
and lose some of that Puff You're trying
2:02
to achieve and you have to let it set up
2:04
before you pull it out now probably
2:06
dried or quote expanded candy won't
2:09
return to its original form again when
2:11
exposed to air as it isn't reclaiming
2:13
moisture that was there prior candy can
2:16
get old and stale and what we've found
2:18
is that older candy sometimes gets less
2:20
crispy and more crunchy if that makes
2:22
sense so that is what happens during the
2:25
freeze drying process with candy is that
2:27
you're expanding it so we're going to
2:28
test that out today and we're going to
2:30
see what these four different candies do
2:32
in the freeze dryer from gross net
2:33
weight I hope you enjoy let's get
2:35
started all right I've got a cutting
2:37
board for the Jolly Ranchers and the
2:39
Hiatus and the Charleston shoes what
2:41
we're going to do first is the Skittles
2:43
so how much does Skittles weigh to start
2:46
out with well I've got this tub of
2:48
Skittles these tubs are fairly common
2:50
for everyone to buy you can get a Costco
2:51
Sam's Club things like that there's 54
2:54
ounces gross weight in these tubs but
2:56
we're going to weigh let's do two pounds
2:59
and then we'll put it on a tray and then
3:01
we'll see what the net weight is after
3:03
we put it in the freeze dryer so let's
3:04
go ahead and open it up and put it on
3:06
the tray
3:09
all right so the way the Skittles I'm
3:11
going to take this bowl here and I'm
3:13
going to put it on the scale and then
3:15
I'm going to tear it off so that way we
3:17
don't calculate the actual weight of the
3:19
bowl we're just calculating what I'm
3:20
putting in here which is the skills
3:30
[Music]
3:33
okay that's 32.9 that'd be exact here
3:37
[Music]
3:39
32 ounces all right now let's put them
3:42
on the tray
3:45
Bingo now I usually don't do this many
3:48
Skittles on a tray but for the purposes
3:51
of this video I'm just going to do to
3:53
two pounds and then we're gonna see how
3:55
it turns out for the net ounces let's go
3:57
ahead and put this in the freeze dryer
3:59
all right next up we're going to do some
4:02
Charleston shoes now these Charleston
4:04
shoes are just picked up they're the
4:05
minis so I'm going to unwrap four boxes
4:08
of these and we're gonna see so it's 3.5
4:11
ounces and we're gonna do four boxes so
4:15
that comes out to seven times two so
4:18
it's 14 ounces so almost a pound but
4:20
we'll just do that first
4:25
[Music]
4:26
foreign
4:28
[Applause]
4:31
you can buy these mini ones I did a
4:34
video on Charleston's shoes talking
4:36
about the rollers and I really like
4:39
these the rollers and I also like these
4:41
minis too this is the first time I've
4:44
done these minis but I like the size
4:46
right now because you can also them on
4:49
the tray and you don't really have to
4:51
unwrap any wrappers now if you haven't
4:53
done Charleston shoes they're really
4:54
really tasty they just are a little bit
4:57
more expensive to buy so that's why I
4:59
don't do it all the time
5:01
but they're really really tasty so this
5:03
is 14 ounces gross let's go ahead and
5:08
put it on the tray
5:09
[Music]
5:14
and normally I don't do this many
5:16
together but for the purposes of this
5:19
video I'm just going to keep it like
5:20
this now knowing how close these are
5:22
together and if you've watched any
5:24
videos of mine in the past I do not like
5:27
how close these are together I know that
5:29
these are going to expand and they're
5:31
going to end up touching each other so
5:33
let's let's go ahead and do two trays
5:35
and then let's just kind of line them up
5:38
so that they look a little bit more
5:39
uniform so for this one I'm looking at
5:41
it it's about seven seven across so
5:45
that's what I'm gonna do
5:46
and I'm just going to keep doing that
5:48
while I talk to you guys about what's
5:51
just been happening in my life
5:54
um
5:55
to be completely transparent I just have
5:58
this new job I work in sales doing uh
6:01
Learning and Development software so
6:04
like e-learning things like that it's an
6:05
awesome job with a great company
6:08
and uh I just do this on the side but I
6:11
I really like talking to all of you
6:13
through video
6:15
and hearing all the different comments
6:17
that you guys take I really appreciate
6:19
that also I've got two young kids under
6:23
the age of uh three so it's definitely
6:26
kept me busy late nights early nights
6:29
multiple wake UPS everyone who has kids
6:32
understands that so I haven't been able
6:36
to to get a whole lot of videos out but
6:39
I'm doing this because it's important
6:41
for me to get information out to you
6:42
guys so that you can be better equipped
6:46
to run a freeze-dried business I do
6:48
really like these uh Charleston shoes
6:50
minis each one of these caught I found a
6:54
deal is like four for five dollars for
6:58
these so
7:01
um I just picked up four of them and so
7:05
what for a dollar 25
7:07
it cost me now as far as the business
7:09
goes for me it's really started to pick
7:11
up in terms of wholesale orders
7:13
so if you want to get into wholesale I
7:16
do think it's worth it I did a video
7:18
recently about five or not 10 things I
7:21
would do
7:23
um before I started a freeze-dried
7:25
business go ahead and check out that
7:26
video and one of the things I mentioned
7:28
is that if you want to look into doing
7:30
commercial it really opens the door for
7:32
doing wholesale you can find shared
7:36
commercial kitchens like I'm in I don't
7:38
own this facility but I have a really
7:40
good rate to rent it and it provides
7:43
everything that I need so I took out
7:44
about five here so I've got two trays
7:46
Charleston shoes this is great again
7:50
well actually I'm going to take those
7:51
five because I did say that it was
7:54
I was going to do all of it so I'm just
7:56
going to put them here
7:57
all right so here's 14 ounces of
7:59
Charleston Chews let's put it in the
8:01
freeze dryer and then let's do high
8:03
chews and Jolly Ranchers all right next
8:05
up let's do high chews now I did a high
8:08
Chew video on my very first video on
8:10
this channel I am gonna weigh about a
8:12
pound of the high chews and then put
8:15
them on the tray but I'm also going to
8:17
cut them up with these Cutco scissors
8:20
now if you don't have Cutco scissors
8:22
really suggest you invest in them I've
8:24
got a link in the description that you
8:25
can buy off at Amazon man these are
8:27
super durable always sharp use them not
8:30
just for freeze drying but anything else
8:32
and these have been a lifesaver now I'm
8:34
going to weigh this with the wrappers I
8:36
don't see it being too much more
8:37
additional gross weight so bear with me
8:40
on the net it might give or take you
8:42
know a couple of tenths of some ounces
8:46
laughs
8:52
16. Suite 16 ounces that's one pound all
8:56
right now let's get it prepped all right
8:58
so with the high chews what I like to
8:59
use again is these Cutco scissors I like
9:02
dumping all of the candy on the wrappers
9:05
and then I just like going to town and
9:07
cutting off the ends it's the fastest
9:09
way that I've found and what I do is I
9:11
kind of start at one side and I just
9:13
keep cutting keep cutting the ends and
9:16
getting as fast as I can I'll show you
9:19
at the end of this
9:21
how I kind of quickly get the candies
9:24
out the high shoes has been a really
9:26
good seller for me what I also found
9:27
about High shoes is right now it's kind
9:31
of room temperature and they're just
9:33
coming out of the wrappers right if you
9:35
prep all five trays if you have a large
9:37
freeze dryer and you leave them out on
9:40
the counter they kind of actually start
9:42
getting more soft and what that does in
9:44
the freeze dryers it makes them puff
9:46
even more they expand to double their
9:49
size so that can provides a little bit
9:51
more options for you to decide you know
9:54
how do you want your high shoes that are
9:56
freeze-dried to look like now all of
9:58
these are cut I'm gonna just basically
10:00
kind of like Smash and kind of grab them
10:03
all
10:04
and it kind of gets all the candies that
10:08
are loose it just kind of loosens them
10:10
up I'm going to zoom in a little bit and
10:12
as you can see the candies are kind of
10:13
out of like 50 of the wrappers so now
10:16
what I do is I just take all the
10:19
wrappers I just toss them aside so that
10:21
way you can get to the ones that still
10:23
have the candies in them and this is
10:25
really as fast as you can go alright so
10:27
here's all the high shoes now I do like
10:30
kind of just lining up the high shoes
10:34
foreign
10:36
[Music]
10:44
I'm not really going to keep these more
10:47
organized I'm just going to do kind of
10:48
bunched up and then separate it so you
10:50
can kind of see the difference so let's
10:51
get these in the freeze dryer all right
10:53
next up is Jolly Ranchers don't use the
10:56
name Jolly Rancher there's been plenty
10:59
of talk around about how Hershey is is
11:02
really cracking down on using the Jolly
11:04
Rancher name just come up with a
11:05
different title you can still say it in
11:07
the ingredients you know and things like
11:09
that now I'm going to do Jolly Ranchers
11:10
I'm going to measure out a pound of
11:12
these and then we'll cut them and and
11:14
then put them in the freeze dryer
11:17
foreign
11:24
16 ounces exactly that's perfect
11:28
alrighty so here's the Jolly Ranchers
11:30
now what I like to use is I like using a
11:32
knife I found it to be the most
11:34
efficient but I am going to be doing a
11:35
future video on some other tools that I
11:37
purchased that I've heard have done very
11:39
well for being efficient cutting Jolly
11:41
Ranchers so I'm going to try those in a
11:43
future video be on the lookout for that
11:44
but for now let's go ahead and cut the
11:46
Jolly Ranchers now I like doing Jolly
11:48
Ranchers in half that's just worked the
11:51
best for me
11:52
now what I'm doing here is I'm I'm kind
11:55
of setting them aside and even though I
11:58
measured out 16 ounces
12:01
I'm going to just kind of see how much
12:04
uh gets on the tray about halfway
12:07
through here so that I don't Bunch them
12:10
up I don't really like candy that
12:13
touches
12:14
other candy
12:16
especially Jolly Ranchers I like having
12:19
them individually as they are with the
12:22
flavors so that when I take them out
12:24
they're all bunched up together and
12:25
watermelon isn't touching blue raspberry
12:27
things like that I'm going to set these
12:30
other Jolly Ranchers aside and what
12:32
we'll do is we'll we'll take the
12:33
wrappers out of these Jolly Ranchers and
12:37
then I'm going to re-weigh
12:39
these and see how much the the ounces
12:42
are and see how much space we have in
12:46
between them once we kind of organize
12:48
them Jolly Ranchers have been really fun
12:50
for everybody I think in the freeze
12:52
drying business community so if you're
12:53
starting out it's in my top 20 items to
12:56
sell as a free stripe business
12:58
just because it looks really cool and it
13:02
tastes great it's just like a huge burst
13:05
of flavor as a texture you crunch it
13:08
also the flavor hits immediately so it's
13:10
really good so as you can see
13:12
taking all these wrappers out I'm just
13:15
going a little bit slower just because
13:16
I'm talking to you guys but if I'm in a
13:19
rush you know I'm definitely trying to
13:20
be a lot faster now these are at room
13:24
temperature when it gets the heat in the
13:26
summer or you're maybe just doing this
13:28
where the AC just isn't working right in
13:31
your commercial kitchen or even at your
13:32
house you're going to find that the
13:34
wrappers stick I line them up just like
13:36
I did the Charleston shoes and to the
13:39
high shoes now I'm doing six across and
13:44
you kind of have to do Jolly Ranchers
13:47
yourself a couple of times to understand
13:50
how much they expand because it's really
13:53
hard to describe to you right now until
13:55
these are done and you kind of have to
13:57
just kind of look at the size of the
13:59
ones that you cut and just kind of say
14:01
oh you know like this is enough space or
14:03
this is not but what I where I'm spacing
14:06
these about right now which is maybe
14:08
like a half inch from each row you know
14:11
that's kind of I would say your kind of
14:13
guideline what you don't want to do is
14:15
get them super close
14:18
because it just is going to expand quite
14:22
a bit and then you know you have blue
14:24
raspberry touching grape and
14:26
uh Apple touching strawberry stuff like
14:30
that so we are going to have to take
14:31
some off
14:33
with this
14:34
now you might be asking yourself well
14:37
Dave why aren't you going to weigh this
14:38
yes I am I just wanted to kind of see
14:41
how many of these would fit on the tray
14:43
and then I'm going to weigh it this
14:45
right here on the tray is what we're
14:46
going to weigh again okay I know that
14:50
this is repetitive but for the sake of
14:52
this video and for all of you I'm going
14:54
to make sure we're accurate
14:57
pieces
14:58
oh wow almost it cut in half so it was
15:02
eight it's eight ounces
15:04
on the scale so that's what we're going
15:06
to do for the freeze dryer we're going
15:08
to see how much it comes out net weight
15:10
based off of eight ounces
15:12
[Music]
15:34
[Music]
15:43
all right let's put these in the freeze
15:45
dryer okay so now that it's all kind of
15:48
warmed up now it does say 49 degrees
15:50
we're going to select this on so now the
15:53
high temperature candy process is on and
15:55
then what we're going to do is we're
15:57
going to close the drain valve we're
15:58
going to press continue and then it says
16:00
warming trays I do not warm the trays I
16:03
really don't think it's necessary unless
16:06
you have like a hard candy like
16:07
peppermints candy corns things like that
16:09
but for these in particular you do not
16:11
need to warm the trays we're going to
16:13
set it to three hours of dry time so
16:16
that's plenty of time for it to heat up
16:18
to 135 and then start the freeze drying
16:21
process hey one thing with my experience
16:23
with freeze drying this is really going
16:24
to help you out is I have a large freeze
16:26
dryer from Harvest right and when I put
16:28
the trays in for the candies I actually
16:30
arrange them in a specific order but
16:32
that top and bottom freeze drying trays
16:34
they just don't they just aren't as
16:36
consistent with freeze drying in terms
16:38
of drying and making those candies pop
16:40
as the middle three racks Skittles I've
16:44
always had success with the bottom racks
16:46
High shoes also haven't really been
16:49
inconsistent no matter where I put on
16:51
there so I put the high shoes and the
16:53
Skittles on those bottom and top rack
16:55
now in the middle I put the Charleston
16:56
shoes both of those trays and then I
16:59
also put the Jolly Ranchers now you'll
17:00
find with Jolly Ranchers at the top rack
17:02
and the bottom rack when you do all five
17:04
trays both of those tray sectors will
17:07
actually not freeze dry well and they
17:08
won't puff up that's why I have these
17:10
trays arranged in that specific order
17:12
because the middle trays just do better
17:14
especially with Jolly Ranchers all right
17:16
so we're going to press skip on not
17:17
warming the trays and then we're going
17:19
to get this freeze dryer started and
17:21
then we're going to wait three hours and
17:22
get them out and see what that net
17:24
weight is for freeze drying candy all
17:26
right so this is the freeze dried
17:27
Skittles now we did two pounds of these
17:30
freeze drain Skittles let's go ahead and
17:32
put these into this bowl and then let's
17:34
weigh it and actually see if two pounds
17:36
gross weight changes after freeze drying
17:39
Skittles
17:40
foreign
17:43
[Music]
17:46
so here's the net weight for
17:48
freeze-dried Skittles that's two pounds
17:50
so again we put in 32 ounces and it
17:52
resulted in
17:54
31.3 so this just means that whatever
17:56
you put in the freeze dryer for Skittles
17:58
in terms of weight you're going to get
17:59
the exact same out freeze dried all
18:01
right next up we're going to do the high
18:03
shoes now High chews are great they turn
18:06
into these not completely double the
18:08
size but they're super crunchy I think
18:11
these are really good and so what we did
18:13
is we did one pound of these high chews
18:16
I'm gonna put the bowl on here I've
18:17
already teared It Off
18:21
oh awesome okay so this came out a
18:24
little bit more equal it is about 1.5
18:26
ounces difference with the height shoes
18:29
after freeze drying but we can kind of
18:32
say that maybe it's exactly the kind of
18:34
the same as the Skittles all right so
18:35
now the Charleston shoes now these were
18:37
the Charleston Chews mini it seems like
18:39
there's well it says there's 34 pieces
18:42
which is pretty awesome
18:44
um I think I would probably advise
18:46
everyone to buy those Charleston Chews
18:48
Minnie's boxes if you want to do
18:50
Charleston shoes now what you're seeing
18:52
here lightly trying to pull up the
18:54
Charleston shoes because they do stick
18:57
to the tray they don't kind of roll off
18:59
like those High shoes did in Skittles if
19:01
you want them to stay intact remain like
19:03
you're seeing here then you want to be
19:05
delicate with pulling them up because
19:06
otherwise they get like this where it's
19:08
like kind of broken off versus the whole
19:10
one like this which I'm being a little
19:12
bit more delicate you know pulling up so
19:14
I'm just going to loosen these up
19:16
alrighty I'm going to put the bowl on
19:17
tear it off here
19:19
[Music]
19:23
foreign
19:26
[Music]
19:29
Charleston Chews from 14 ounces gross
19:33
was 12 so they lost two ounces very
19:35
similar not a whole lot of weight lost
19:37
so you're kind of getting another equal
19:39
in terms of that candy all right here's
19:42
the Jolly Ranchers now if you've never
19:44
seen Jolly Ranchers expand and you're
19:46
new to freeze drying this is why people
19:49
start freeze drying candy it's so
19:51
awesome that hard candy turns into the
19:54
crunchiness
19:57
so good all right so let's go ahead and
19:59
tear off the bowl and let's start
20:01
putting these Jolly Ranchers into the
20:03
bowl
20:06
[Music]
20:15
all right so we started out with eight
20:17
ounces of Jolly Ranchers when we put it
20:19
in the freeze right let's see what it
20:20
came out to all right just about equal
20:22
wow so even though the Jolly Ranchers
20:25
turn into more of a textured form it
20:28
came out to the exact same weight which
20:30
is awesome wow that was awesome that
20:32
really surprised me that every single
20:34
candy that we did from the Charleston
20:35
shoes the Jolly Ranchers the Skittles as
20:38
well as the high shoes all of them
20:40
really kept the same amount of weight
20:42
they didn't really lose any weight which
20:44
comes back to that same point that candy
20:46
doesn't really have moisture you're
20:48
really just expanding that sugar and the
20:50
freeze dryer is heating it up and also
20:52
with the vacuum you're changing just the
20:54
form of the texture so you're not really
20:56
losing anything which is great now why
20:58
is this important to know for your
21:00
business well now we know weight is
21:02
equal to the amount that we actually go
21:04
out and buy so with Skittles if we have
21:06
that 54 ounce tub of Skittles now that
21:09
we know that if we put in five ounces of
21:12
freeze-dried Skittles in our bag we're
21:13
really going to get about 10 bags after
21:15
freeze drying which makes it really easy
21:18
for you to calculate and forecast how
21:20
much you need to buy as well as you need
21:21
a bag and what kind of production and
21:24
Roi you're going to get out of each
21:26
individual cycle the same goes for the
21:28
Charleston shoes and Jolly Ranchers is
21:30
you just know exactly what's going in
21:32
there versus not so I hope this video
21:34
was helpful I know it's going to be
21:35
helpful for me I actually already knew
21:37
that about Skittles but I wanted to
21:39
share it with you and take that
21:41
information apply it to your business I
21:43
hope it helps you hey thanks for joining
21:45
me on this video I want to just do a
21:47
quick plug on some of the things that
21:48
you need to know about my channel myself
21:50
if you're planning on buying a Harvest
21:52
Right freeze dryer please use the
21:53
affiliate link below it's a direct link
21:55
to harvestrite.com but it also
21:57
calculates direct referrals from me and
22:00
myself also there's a ton of other links
22:03
to different tools and resources that I
22:05
use for my own business that I would
22:07
suggest that you use as well through
22:09
Amazon so go ahead and use those links
22:11
and as well as check out more of my
22:13
videos on my Channel all of the
22:15
information is free available to you and
22:17
I hope you enjoy it hit the Subscribe
22:19
button or like or comment on this video
22:20
we'll see you next time on the freeze
22:22
dry business Channel thanks a lot
22:26
foreign
#Candy & Sweets
#Food
#Jams
# Jellies & Preserves