Hot Trends in Popsicles

Popsicles have been around since about 1905 with no sign of their popularity waning. If anything, we are coming up with new flavours, ingredients, and tastes to experience frozen.

Traditional popsicles are made with flavoured, sweetened and coloured water, so not exactly healthy.

New trends in popsicles showcase exciting mixes of raw fruit, varied milks, and yoghurt, which are much healthier for us. Alternative sweeteners like vanilla, stevia, and even pureed dates help keep sugar in check. You can even make adult booze pops.

The hot-drinks-into-popsicles trend is out there though it hasn't gained as much steam yet. Here are a few ideas if you're looking for new frozen taste sensations!

Flavour adds to try in your gourmet popsicles:

• Cinnamon
• Cocoa
• Chocolate Shavings
• Marshmallows
• Chili
• Cardamom
• Mint
• Lemongrass
• Basil
• Lemon
• Ginger

If you want to enjoy your favourite caffeine beverage through a hot summer but don't want something hot, have your coffee in a popsicle!

By making these yourself, you can use the brew you enjoy most, mellow or robust, decaffeinated, or even flavoured coffee, and choose from loads of variations in type of milk, and sweeteners and flavourings.

• Almond Milk
• Coconut Milk
• Cashew Milk
• Rice Milk
• Regular cow's milk, or cream
• Skim Milk

You can make your coffee pops sweetener-free if you're trying to get off sugar, or add honey, vanilla, stevia, brown sugar, pureed dates, etc.

I love black coffee infused with cardamom, but think of a mellow roast coffee, with almond milk, and dark chocolate shavings in the mix.

I wonder what a banana, almond milk, coffee, and cinnamon pop would be like? And how amazing would a pumpkin spice latte be frozen?

Lots of delicious possibilities here! Luscious Ghirardelli, or Godiva hot chocolate, or even Cocoa Camino free trade raw cocoa powder would make a great base.

Make your hot chocolate to taste using water or any of the different types of milks listed above.

Let your hot chocolate cool and try layers when you have the time to experiment using plain hot chocolate, hot chocolate with almond milk, and a layer with melted marshmallows in it, etc.

Or fill popsicle molds with your base hot chocolate, mixing in trims like dark chocolate curls, cinnamon, marshmallows, etc.

For a spicy Aztec hot chocolate popsicle, add a bit of cayenne, with some honey.

For a mocha hot chocolate pop, mix in coffee with your hot chocolate. That's getting the best of both worlds.

Another popular hot drink of course is tea, a neat popsicle flavour idea. Have a favourite Earl Grey, English Breakfast, or Gunpowder tea frozen. Infuse with mint, lemon, or ginger.

Herbal teas are another alternative, especially beautiful plant teas like hibiscus. Hibiscus tea is a mild-flavoured tea that brews to a gorgeous deep ruby colour. Add some pureed peaches, or a little bit of honey, and you have an awesome hot weather treat.

How about a chai latte popsicle made with almond milk?

if you're experiencing hot flashes and/or night sweats, consider making sage tea popsicles to get both cooling benefits.

It would be interesting to even develop a line of beneficial or superfood popsicles using acai, maca, rhodiola, omega 3-6-9, pumpkin, blueberry, etc.

One thing is for sure, popsicles are here to stay and it will be fun and interesting to see what the new variations will be!

What's your favourite popsicle blend?