Air Crunchers

Of everything we freeze-dry, this is the most dramatic transformation. It starts as a soft, chewy taffy-style candy — the kind that sticks to your teeth — and comes out as something that shatters like a wafer and weighs almost nothing.

The process is sublimation: frozen solid, then vacuum-dried so the ice leaves as vapour without passing through liquid. In a chewy candy there is a lot of moisture to remove, which is why the volume change here is so extreme. The pieces puff up dramatically and end up almost hollow.

Pick one up and it feels like polystyrene. Bite it and it disintegrates into concentrated fruit sugar. If you have never eaten freeze-dried candy before, this is the bag that will convince you the process is worth caring about.

The 4 oz bag holds 113 g — close to three times the small bag for well under three times the price, which makes it the better buy once you know you like a flavour. It is also the sharing size: poured into a bowl it fills it, and it disappears faster than anyone expects.

Store it sealed in a cool, dry place. Moisture is the one thing that undoes freeze-dried candy — an open bag left out will slowly go soft, so press the seal shut properly and it will keep its snap.

• Freeze-dried airheads-style taffy candy
• Light, airy, crunchy texture
• Bold fruit flavors — watermelon, cherry, blue raspberry, orange
• Vibrant multicolor pieces
• Large 4 oz share bag
• No added preservatives