Turn your favourite tea into a refreshing tea popsicle this summer. They store well in the freezer and are perfect to have to hand when you are craving something cold and sweet or needing an afternoon pick-me-up.
These are simple to make, easily adaptable to your taste, and can be made using any kind of tea.
The three key ingredients in a popsicle are fruit (or flavouring of some kind), sweetener, and a liquid.
Here are some key guiding principles and tips to help you master these followed by a standard recipe:
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Flavour
Prepare a stronger and sweeter mixture than you normally would as freezing will fade the depth of flavour of your ingredients. Always taste your mixture before freezing to ensure it has a good flavour and level of sweetness.
If using fruit cut into smaller pieces or use small whole berries. Alternatively, you could puree all your ingredients together for a smoother texture.
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Sweetness and Texture
Sugar has a bigger role to play than simply sweetening your mixture, it directly affects the texture of your popsicle.
The secret to a soft and smooth popsicle is to include sugar in some form – we suggest using a sugar syrup. The sugar lowers the freezing point of the liquid which reduces the amount of large ice crystals making it a texture easier to bite through than ice. Dissolving or mixing it into the base ingredients will allow the flavours to be distributed evenly.
You will know if your sugar content is not high enough (water content too high) if the popsicle ends up extremely hard like ice cubes rather than popsicle texture.
Your choice of popsicle mould can also affect the texture. The faster something freezes, the smaller the ice crystals will be. You may find metal popsicle moulds will transfer temperature more quickly and successfully than other materials like silicone.
We have a sugar syrup recipe here:
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Liquid
Juice, water or brewed tea are some of the options you can use for your liquid. We enjoy using brewed tea and suggest using a double strength brew to ensure you get the full flavour profile of the tea.
Other practical tips:
Filling the moulds – During freezing the ingredients will expand so leave enough room for this.
Unmoulding – Dip the frozen moulds into warm water for a few seconds and gently release the popsicles or wrap the mould in a hot water-soaked tea towel until they can be released.
Standard Recipe:
Ingredients:
167 mls of double-strength cold brewed tea
33 mls of sugar syrup (recipe here)
50 gms of fresh fruit – cut into small pieces which look visually appealing or pureed to ensure an even distribution of flavour throughout.
Method:
Mix all together well to even distribute the sugar throughout or mix in a blender if you prefer pureed fruit.
Pour into your popsicle moulds – this mixture will make at least a dozen popsicles. If you run out of moulds then use any extra mix to freeze into ice-cubes for your summer drinks.
Freeze for 24 hours
Equipment needed:
Popsicle moulds and sticks
Combinations from the Stir Tea range that we found worked well and are pictured include:
● Blood Orange and Fresh Mandarin Pieces
● Heavenly Lemon, Juice of ¼ lemon and fresh blueberries
● Jasmine Pearl Green Tea and Peaches (with a squeeze of lime added)
● Spiced Rooibos and Black Doris Plum
● All Day Rooibos and Strawberry
● Earl Grey Supreme and Orange
● Soursop Black and Lychee
This article has focused on adding fruit to our popsicles. As a variation, you may wish to introduce flavour with the use of fresh herbs like mint, basil, coriander, or lavender. Adding slices of vegetables like peeled cucumber can look beautiful. There are no limits on your creativity once you have the basic recipe mastered.
Acknowledgments: We derived inspiration from the following books:
Irresistible Ice Pops by Sunil Vijayakar
People’s Pops by Nathalie Jordi, David Carrell & Joel Horowitz
