Sweet alchemy

Willy Wonka? More like Chilly Wonka.

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Willy Wonka? More like Chilly Wonka.

One of the fastest-growing food trends on TikTok is freeze-drying candy, a process that involves removing all the water from sweets such as Skittles, jelly beans and gummy bears, by refrigerating them at ultra-low temperatures for up to 48 hours in a specialized appliance.

According to videos carrying titles such as “freeze-dried candy haul,” “freeze-dried candy shenanigans” and “freeze-dried candy versus braces” (spoiler alert: braces win), the suddenly über-cool procedure dramatically extends an item’s shelf life, while enhancing its overall taste.

Jennifer Lukacs, a married mother of six grown children and grandmother of five, didn’t know a lick about how to freeze-dry candy — or any other foodstuffs, for that matter — the first time she watched a series of videos demonstrating just that on TikTok in February 2022. Lukacs, a resident care nurse, was instantly intrigued. She began reading up on the topic.

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Sydney Gervais and mom Jennifer Lukacs run Polar Shoppe primarily, but Sydney’s sisters, Savannah Ginter and Cierra Ginter, often lend a hand on the craft market circuit.

“Probably the first thing I learned was how freeze-drying is very popular with a segment of the population known as preppers or survivalists that basically think the world as we know it is going to end, so they freeze-dry full meals like lasagna, to eat 25 years or so down the road,” she says, agreeing with the assertion that an appropriate term for such a practice could be “apocalypse chow.” (No, no; The Repast of Us.)

After determining that scores of people south of the border were packaging and selling freeze-dried, store-bought treats such as fruit roll-ups and Sour Patch Kids commercially, the admitted sweettooth summoned her daughters Savannah Ginter, Cierra Ginter and Sydney Gervais to a family meeting at her place.

First she let them know she was thinking of purchasing a professional-grade freeze-dryer. Additionally, she was considering starting her own freeze-dried candy biz. She openly wondered if any of them were interested in joining her. Three hands shot up.

Two weeks after a four-drawer, stainless-steel freeze-dryer capable of processing 30 kilograms of grub per load arrived at Lukacs’s front door, the foursome, who’d already settled on Polar Shoppe as a name for their fledgling venture, began experimenting with various items they’d scooped up in the candy aisle.

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Gervais and her mom have experimented freezing a variety of different candies. Ones containing cornstarch and chocolate tend to not freeze as well.

While confections such as Starbursts and Jolly Ranchers froze as advertised, other items failed the test.

“Basically, you can’t put anything in the freeze-dryer that contains cornstarch or chocolate… it won’t freeze properly,” says Lukacs, who since the start of the year has been running the Polar Shoppe primarily with Gervais, a stay-at-home mother of four, after her other two daughters took a step back to concentrate on their full-time careers.

The Polar Shoppe, presently based out of a commercial kitchen on St. Anne’s Road, made its official debut in April 2022 at the Spring Fling Vendor & Craft Market in Morris, close to Lukacs’s hometown of Altona. The same question was on almost every attendee’s lips: why freeze-dry candy, when it’s perfectly pleasing as is?

“We started off by telling them how freeze-drying doesn’t only extend the shelf life of a product, it also intensifies the flavour,” Gervais says.

“We also let them know that because the finished product is crispy, not chewy, it’s preferable if they have dental work. Plus, with the liquid gone, the candy weighs a fraction of what it used to, so it’s easy to pack if you’re going camping or hiking.”

Their explanation obviously held more water than what was on the table in front of them; they completely sold out that day, and did so again two weeks later, at a similar event in Niverville.

“We did a different show or market every weekend last year, from May to December, pretty much,” Gervais continues.

“One of the most exciting was in the Tyndall Park neighbourhood. There are a lot of Filipino families in that part of the city who asked if we could freeze dry specific candies they grew up with.

“We’re definitely open to requests, and we were happy to bring those along, the next time we were in Tyndall (Park).”

As she and her mom approach the halfway mark of their second year in operation, Gervais says overall sales are already double what they were in Year 1.

There are two main reasons for that. One is the addition of freeze-dried ice cream to their arsenal. While that seems at first blush to be a bit of an anomaly — we mean, why freeze something that’s already frozen? — consumers are eating it up, so to speak.

What’s particularly attractive about freeze-dried ice cream is that it maintains its flavour perfectly, but doesn’t need to be kept in the freezer. The pantry is perfectly acceptable, Gervais says.

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

In addition to markets and shows, the freeze-dried candy is available at select retail outlets.

The other factor driving sales is a wholesale presence. Since February, Polar Shoppe products have been on the shelves at a number of retail outlets in Winnipeg, including The Locals in Outlet Collection Winnipeg, the Assinboine Park Zoo gift shop and Sweet City Candy at The Forks.

Incidentally, the latter is where they purchase the unique flavours of taffy (chili mango! cinnamon bun!) that emerge from their freeze-dryer, Gervais points out, mentioning one of their regular customers tells them she flavours her morning coffee with Polar Shoppe taffy “bombs.”

(Oh, if you think the freeze-dry craze is immune to the everything-awash-with-pumpkin-spice movement that occurs every autumn, think again. The pair had a line of freeze-dried pumpkin-spice-flavoured treats last October, not to mention freeze-dried candy canes ahead of the holiday season.)

As mentioned earlier, freeze-dryers are commonly utilized for substances other than candy.

The duo experimented with fresh-picked strawberries last summer, and found the end-result to be an excellent garnish for a cold one on the patio. They have also begun doing preliminary trials with soups and such.

“Because there’s little to no weight with dry soups, we’re thinking how much cheaper it would be to ship something like that to remote communities in the North, where it would just need to be rehydrated, before being enjoyed,” Lukacs says.

“To my way of thinking, candy was a way to rationalize buying the machine and paying it off quickly, but really, there’s so much to this than just sweets.”

Although Savannah and Cierra are no longer directly involved in the day-to-day affairs, both are still overly willing to help out at markets, as needed, their mother says.

More than any monetary gains, working alongside her daughters has been far and away the most rewarding byproduct of the Polar Shoppe, she adds.

“Getting to spend extra time with the girls has definitely been a bonus,” Lukacs says.

“Everybody’s busy, everybody has their own life, but for sure, whether it’s just Sydney and me or all four of us, it’s always special when we’re together.”

Plus, at the end of the day, what is the worst thing that can happen if they don’t sell a single bag of goodies, she says with a wink?

They return home with scads of candy.

For more information, go to thepolarshoppe.com

[email protected]

David Sanderson

Dave Sanderson was born in Regina but please, don’t hold that against him.

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