In the span of a year, Glennwilde resident Bernard Porporino went from a middleman to the owner of his own freeze-dried candy business that’s selling some 16,000 units on TikTok alone. 

Porporino and wife Priscilla started off with one freeze dryer. Today, they have four baking candy for 16 hours a day. 

“We started our business last year in October … and we’re still going strong,” Porporino said.  

In addition to his TikTok — just one of his videos has about a million views — B & P Freeze Dry Candy can also be found on shelves at two retailers in Maricopa, Water and Ice and The Smokers Edge.  

Porporino said that from the very beginning the business has been a family affair.  

“Me and my wife, we get through it, we’re baking candy from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. at night, 24/7, nonstop,” Porporino said. “And then whenever we’re not able to accommodate that, our son jumps on and helps us.”  

B & P Freeze Dry Candy offers several candy options including their freeze-dried “Skizzies,” a.k.a. skittles in regular, sour and wild berry flavor that have popped like popcorn kernels. The business also sells cluster crunchies, a personal favorite of Porporino’s, lemon crunch, airhead crunch and caramel apple pops.  

“It takes a lot of time, a lot of marketing, a lot of setting up,” Porporino said. “I do everything myself, all the marketing promotion and dealing with the customers. We have to buy all our Mylar bags from Uline and then all of our shipping labels we print ourselves as well as the labels for the bags.”  

He added that he has faced challenges when it comes to dealing with some consumers.  

“It’s a nonstop battle with certain customers and scammers who buy our candy and then say they didn’t receive our candy even though they did and are trying to get free candy out of us,” Porporino said, “but we’ve got to take care of them regardless, so we provide No. 1 customer service.”  

In the future, the business intends to expand brick-and-mortar sales. 

“I’ve reached out to Ak-Chin and asked them if they would like to sell our candy, but no one ever got back to me,” Porporino said. “We would like our candy to be showcased at the movie theater so when people buy popcorn, they have an option to buy freeze-dried candy to watch the movie, which is a perfect companion.”  

He has also contacted corporations such as Fry’s Marketplace, Target, 7-Eleven and Circle K. 

“The only reason why we haven’t made them so far is because the Jolly Ranchers are so fragile that when you ship them, they get crushed,” Porporino said. 

The business will attend and sell products at its first ever in-person event on Saturday at Merry Copa from 5 to 8 p.m. at Copper Sky Regional Park.  

“We’re preparing all the products now, mak[ing] sure all the candy is fresh,” Porporino said. “We will also have little samples of freeze-dried skittles for people to try that have never tried freeze-dried candy before.”  

The candy can range in price from $7.99 to $18.99. For those who can’t make it this weekend the candy can be purchased on the shop’s website with free shipping offered on the larger 18-ounce bags or on purchases over $25.  

InMaricopa readers can get 15% off a purchase on the B & P website with the code 3N6XCW.  

“We do have the best quality,” Porporino said. “A lot of time if you do find cheaper freeze-dried candy, it will not be as good of quality as we make. Our candy is really freeze-dried, airy and crunchy and helps people that have teeth problems be able to eat candy again and enjoy the sweetness.” 

@bpfreezedrycandy Come and make some Skizzies with us 😊 #freezedriedcandy #Skizzies #tiktokshop #skittles ♬ original sound – B&P freeze dry candy