Beach days elude the astronaut. No need for bikini, flip-flops or sunscreen out there. The space professional does pack ice cream _ at least in the museum gift-shop version of the job. It's always a slab of Neapolitan _ pink, white and brown layers foil-wrapped and freeze-dried. One Styrofoam-crisp bite collapses into a mouthful of powder. Dissuading many a young scientist.
Freeze-dried does have advantages over other methods of dehydration. Consider the cheerful grape sun-dried into grumpy raisin: Proof. Consider the strawberry. Subjected to the low temps and low-pressure atmosphere of the freeze-drier, its water sublimates away, leaving fruit that's light, bright and intensely flavored. Rehydrated, it can punch up a strawberry pop _ one that's made with real berries, really frozen and really stuck to a stick.
Unmolded and savored on a sunny day, it tastes of nothing but summer _ here on Earth.
