Why Freeze-Dried Skittles Taste Completely Different (And Why That's Fine)

Somebody hands me a bag of freeze-dried Skittles at a flea market in Iowa City and the reaction is almost always the same. They try one, they crunch down, and then they look at the bag like I have personally edited the candy. Usually the next thing out of their mouth is either 'this is the best thing that has ever happened to candy' or 'you ruined it.' I get both. My kids get both, usually in the same afternoon.

And honestly, both reactions come from exactly the same change. It is one change, not two. Water left the candy, and everything about how it eats followed after. So let me walk you through what actually happened in my chamber, because the answer is stranger and more interesting than 'we dried it.'

Candy Isn't Really Freeze-Dried

I have to get this off my chest before we go further, because the name is a bit of a lie and I am the one selling the bags. Most candy has almost no freezable water. The more accurate term is vacuum puffing.

Here is what that means in practice. The candy goes into the vacuum chamber, the pressure drops, and the little water it does contain flashes. The candy expands, dries out, and hardens. It puffs. It does not really freeze in the classic sense, and if you ask my husband Bryon he will tell you he does not care what we call it as long as it crunches.

So when someone at the farmers market says 'but it is freeze-dried,' I do not correct them, because 'vacuum puffed Skittles' sounds like something a science fair invented. It is just that I would rather you know what my machines are actually doing to your candy than trust the label.

Why the Flavor Is Stronger

Flavor is the part people notice first, and it is the simplest part to explain. Removing moisture concentrates everything else. Nothing is added. The water that was diluting the flavor is simply gone.

That is the whole trick. I am not injecting anything. I am not coating anything. If you pulled a Skittle apart before and after, the flavor compounds in there were always there, they were just swimming. Take out the water and what is left has to shout instead of whisper, and that is why the first bite feels like it hits harder than you were braced for.

My kids will tell you this is not subtle. The first one tastes loud. The second tastes louder. I have watched that happen at every single event I have run since we started, and it still makes me laugh, because nobody is ever prepared for candy to be that forward with them.

Why the Texture Changes So Much

Texture is the actual product, though. If flavor is what gets the reaction, texture is what decides whether someone becomes a customer for life.

Here is what happens in your mouth. An initial crunch gives way to a delicate dissolve. You get the snap first, hard and loud and a little bit aggressive, and then the whole thing seems to fall apart into almost nothing. That sequence is unusual. I am not aware of another candy that goes from crack to gone in the same mouthful, and that sequence is exactly what people are reacting to when they say it ruined them or saved them.

I think the people who love it are chasing the crunch, and the people who miss it are missing the chew. Both are correct. A Skittle is supposed to be a little stubborn, and I am not going to pretend my version is stubborn. It is crisp, and then it is over, and if what you want is twenty minutes of work per piece, I am the wrong person to buy from.

Not Everything Works

And here is where I have to lower my own expectations, because I run the machine and the machine has opinions. Not every candy belongs in there, and I have wasted enough production time on the wrong ones to be straight with you about it.

A Tic Tac has too little moisture and is mostly crystals, so it does not respond to the vacuum oven. I have tried it. Nothing happens, or at least nothing worth the cycle. It sits there being a Tic Tac, quietly smug about it.

Gummies, marshmallows, and Skittles work well. That is my reliable crew. Gummies puff up and go glassy at the edges, marshmallows turn into those little crunchy clouds people fight over, and Skittles come out the way you are imagining right now. If a candy is mostly sugar with a little water in it, we are in business. If it is already a crystal, I am just spending electricity.

That is the honest version of this post, and it is the version I would give anyone who asks me at a booth while I am restocking. Freeze-dried Skittles are not better than Skittles. They are a different thing, made by taking water out and leaving everything else behind, and whether that is an upgrade is genuinely up to you. I just make sure the bag tells you what you are getting.

Stay curious. Stay crunchy. Stay cosmic.

— Sara Jane Shelvock, CEO, Torus Coffee Company LLC