Afine albastre liofilizate din Paleolitic, 30g

Lyophilization, or freeze-drying, as a process, may seem intricate at first, but the phenomenon can be observed in nature as well. The essence of the process is that the wet (containing water) product to be dried is first frozen, then, at very low pressure, slowly heated to make the ice frozen water "disappear" from it. More precisely, the ice transitions directly to vapor (bypassing the liquid phase)!

Freeze-drying has two major advantages over traditional drying methods.
The first is that the material is not exposed to high temperatures, preserving the valuable components. Vitamins do not degrade, the product's color and flavor remain untouched, and the fruit sugars are not damaged.
The second advantage is that during the drying process, there is never liquid water present, so there is no steaming. This means that valuable compounds do not escape with the evaporating water, remaining entirely in the product.
In other words, there is no need to 'replenish' anything later, so freeze-dried products do not contain any added aroma, sugar, colorant, vitamin, mineral – everything in them is 'original'.
Another significant advantage of lyophilization is that the structure of the products remains intact during drying, as the ice 'disappears' from the plant cells, resulting in a porous, crispy final product rather than a deformed, desiccated, tough-to-bite and chewy one, like a dried fruit or candied fruit.