Sow Good freeze-dried candies review: Per the name, they are, in fact, so good

You’ve probably seen the trend on TikTok: someone takes some candy, sticks it in a freeze-drier, and when it emerges, it’s puffier than ever before. The goal of that viral trend (as far as I can tell) is mostly an ASMR thing, watching everything from Skittles to Gummi Bears crunch up in a satisfying manner. But what, you may wonder, do they actually taste like?

Really good, it turns out. I was sent an enormous package of freeze dried candy from Sow Good, a relatively new company that does exactly what you might expect from the set-up to this piece… They freeze dry candy, and then sell it in packages. The tagline on all the bags is “Hyper dried. Hyper crunchy. Hyper flavorful.” And as they explain in more depth on the back of the package, it’s candy without – according to them – the guilt of “finishing an entire bag.” The reason? Because the moisture is removed through the freeze-drying process, they double in size and taste sweeter. So you need to eat less to get your sweet fix.

Now, I don’t know about all that – this is a site called Guilty Eats after all, so I’m not going to sweat the calories (though a glance at one of the packages gives a calorie count of 100 per serving, with 1.5 servings per bag). But the important part here is taste, and Sow Good definitely pays off on that premise.

I’m not going to break down every single candy I tried, because there were dozens – dozens! – but at the current time Sow Good has the following available, at $6.99 per bag:

• Rainbow Bites/Sweet Bites
• Crunchy Bears
• Cookie Bombs
• Peach Perfect
• Mini Bursts
• Sour Spheres
• Sweet Spheres

You can probably figure out what most of those are by name – for example, Rainbow Bites are clearly Skittles, and Peach Perfect is Peach Rings. I’ll also mention they sent along a few freeze-dried ice cream flavors, which you might be familiar with from a visit to the science museum. Wildest one they sent along was a freeze-dried Strawberry Shortcake ice cream bar, still on the stick.

But the main event and innovation here is the candy. Like I said up top, they actually do pay off on the premise. The candy is crunchy and delicious, the flavors pop… It’s good stuff. Of everything we tried, I found myself gravitating to the Sour Spheres the most (I believe those might have been freeze dried Warheads), while the Cookie Bombs and other, already larger candies and treats were a little too poofy to bite (the Cookie Bombs have been sitting unfinished on my counter, as have freeze dried versions of sour gummi worms and gummi crocodiles).

Will Sow Good completely replace candy, forever? I don’t think so. I still want gummi when I want gummi, or I want chewy when I want chewy. But I really was very into the Sour Spheres, and as a Skittles Hater (trademark), I actually found myself enjoying Sow Good’s take more than the original candy. And a version of Lemonheads they made might be the best thing my wife has eaten in a while - she can’t stop talking about them.

So if you are looking for a fun alternative to your regular candy rotation, or something crunchy and either sour or sweet, snag yourself some Sow Good today at Amazon, Target, Five Below and more.