Why You Should Freeze Your Gummy Bears

I adore Haribo gummies in any shape or form: cherries, snakes, and of course, the iconic Goldbears. I’ve even paid a visit to the flagship store in Bonn, Germany (Fun fact: Bonn is also home to the Beethoven museum, so you could easily combine a candy and classical music pilgrimage.) 

Haribo gummies are arguably perfect as is, so I was surprised to learn that Food & Wine editor in chief Hunter Lewis freezes his (kids’) gummy bears from their Halloween haul. Part of the joy of eating a gummy bear is the slippery chew, after all. Wouldn’t they just harden into a dentists’ nightmare if you freeze them? But it turns out that something magical happens when you freeze this gelatin-based candy. 

“Freezing gummy bears changes the texture and for a brief moment makes them more Jolly Rancher-esque,” Lewis says. “Plus, if you have zero discipline like me and want to chew a handful quickly, freezing your gummies will force you to savor them longer.” 

Intrigued, I picked up a few bags of Haribo gummies (Goldbears, sour Goldbears, and Starmix) to try this at home and stored them in the freezer overnight. What I learned: Eating a gummy is a treat, but eating a frozen gummy is an experience. As the hardened candy softens in your mouth, you encounter tiny liquid pockets that burst ever so slightly, almost like a Fruit Gusher. Perhaps I was just eating them for a longer time but the flavors also seemed more pronounced, as if they were technicolor versions of themselves.

A few notes: You can’t just shove your bag of gummies in the freezer, or they will freeze into a gelatinous mass. Instead, place them on a plate or baking sheet, which you can then transfer to ziplock bags when they’re frozen. This is called IQF, or individually quick-frozen, and is a practice used by most food companies. (Notably, in my experiment sour gummy bears maintained their texture in the bag thanks to the sugar coating.) Once your gummies are frozen, don’t bite right into them unless you want to lose a tooth; suck them like a hard candy then allow them to soften in your mouth for an optimal chewing experience.

Best of all, your gummy bears will last longer this way. All gummies will eventually harden if kept at room temperature, but freezing them is a great way to control the texture so you can savor them long past Halloween.