Gummy bears give us so many reasons to smile. The eye-catching colors, the delicious flavors, and the cute teddy bear shape — there is plenty to love about these tasty little treats. And like all good things, humans have experimented with different methods to enjoy them, coming up with creative ways to garnish cocktails with sour gummy candies or melt them into the fruit flavored centers of thumbprint cookies. But clever candy connoisseurs have also figured a way to make these sweets even more spectacular: freezing them. Freezing gummy bears turns them into a chilly little hard card candy that melts while you suck on it, releasing flavorful bursts as it thaws.
But if you think you can just toss a bag of gummy bears in the freezer and dole them out whenever your sweet tooth speaks up, you’ll be sadly disappointed with a frozen gummy mass that won’t separate into the tiny little bites you were hoping for. Instead, you’ll want to take a little extra care to make sure they freeze just right so you can enjoy them once they’ve frozen to perfection. Spread them out on a sheet pan, making sure they aren’t touching one another, and set them in the freezer to do their thing, just like you would with fresh blueberries you want to store for later. Once they’ve frozen, you can then scoop them up and place them in an airtight bag or container to eat whenever you want a sugary snack.
The benefits of freezing gummy bears
There are some pretty great freezer hacks that will save you plenty of time and money that go far beyond freezing gummy bears, but freezing candy is nothing new. Many people enjoy frozen sweet treats, with candy lovers freezing everything from these gelatin-based sweets to candy bars like Snickers. Gummy bears are made primarily from sugar, gelatin, and flavor additives, so it seems counterintuitive that they will go bad, especially with all that sugar acting as a preservative. But sadly, they do eventually lose their quality and freshness. Once gummy bears get hard and stale, there is really no saving them. And tossing a whole bag just because you forgot about them is just plain sad, not to mention a waste of money, so freezing them is a great way to increase their longevity so you don’t have to live with the pressure of eating the entire bag at one time.
Gummy bears will last up to 12 months in the freezer (but they’ll start to lose their flavor and quality after six months) as long as they are frozen individually and stored in an airtight container, so you have plenty of time to use them up. You can suck on them frozen, let them thaw and eat them like regular, chewy candies, or pop them in a fruity cocktail to serve as your ice.
