4. Chewiness
Three kinds of dry fruits taste quite different when chewing, freeze-dried goji berry has a very crisp like potato chips, tastes sweet, melts in the mouth. While the oven-dried goji berry is full of adherent flesh, tastes like raisins and has the highest sweetness; air-dried goji berry is the easiest to chew with a little bitterness.
Analysis and conclusion: freeze-dried goji berry has the best taste and is suitable for snacks. As for the mouth feel, oven-dried goji berry comes second, but it is the sweetest one above all, and it is also suitable for chewing. Air-dried goji berry is not suitable for direct chewing with bitterness and hardness.
5. Soaking in water
Soak some goji berries into warm water and then make an observation.
Freeze-dried goji berry: easy to absorb water and quickly restore to the original state, water is light, clear, the flesh is soft and floating on the surface of the water.
Oven-dried goji berry: is slow to absorb water, can not quickly restore to the original state, the color of the water gradually turned dark red with turbidity, most of fruits sink in the water and are still full of flesh after removal.
Air-dried goji berry: can not be restored to the original state without significant change, can change the water color and float.
After adding warm water to the cup with some goji berries, freeze-dried goji berries are quick to restore to the original state, its color becomes common. oven-dried goji berries sink in water because of its big and heavy volume. Air-dried goji berries show its colors after soaking.
5 minutes later, in the cup of freeze-dried goji berries, the water is clear and amber; in the cup of oven-dried goji berries, the water is dark with a little turbidity; in the cup of air-dried goji berries, the water is light yellow.
After soaking for 5 minutes, freeze-dried goji berries basically restore to the original state of the fresh, and retain its smell. Air-dried goji berries changed little in shape.
Analysis and conclusion: freeze-dried goji berry maintains the overall shape of the fresh, and is similar to the fresh in taste and smell. Oven-dried and air-dried goji berries are shriveled, its taste and smell are quite different from the fresh. And the oven-dried berry is sweeter than the air-dried.
Due to the influence on flesh while soaking goji berry in water, the water color changes significantly. After a long manufacturing on oven-dried and air-dried goji berries, their structures of flesh change greatly, so after soaking in water, the pulp material move out and quickly change the color of the water, which also shows that these two kinds of process may cause the loss of nutrients.
Conclusion: different process cause different results on fruits’ shape, smell, inner structure, and the condition in water. Consumers can choose according to their own needs. Among them, freeze-dried goji berry produced by low temperature freezing technology which can remove the flesh in the water without damaging other nutrients. This kind of technology can keep the original shape and fresh fruit flavor of goji berry with no pollution and zero adding process, but it is brittle and fragile that it is not convenient to store for families. Freeze-dried goji berry can be packaged as a snack. Oven-dried goji berry contains high proportion of water, so the flesh is abundant. Air-dried goji berry makes the most sales in the market, its process is easily influenced the environment. People should be careful while selecting and eat it after cleaning.
