Surviving the Summer with Homemade Boozy Popsicles

Some friends and I recently had a discussion about the Costco 100 calorie vodka pops that have gone viral. Research was done, and it was determined that they are not sold in our area (side note: I believe they have been spotted at our local Costco). Even though I am not exactly the Martha Stewart type, I was on a mission to come up with an alternative solution. I spend a lot of time outside at the pool, swim meets, and baseball games, and these would be the perfect mom treat. A quick search on Amazon and I got 125 Ziploc tubes, just like the cheap ice pops come in, for $10. Score! My moms night out for my son’s school was in a few days, so I figured it was the perfect opportunity to whip up a few recipes and taste test. Armed with my arsenal of liquor, fresh fruit, mixers, FroZip tubes, and my trusty funnel, I went to work.

Homemade Boozy Popsicles

Frose’

• strawberry simple syrup
  • 1/2 cup of water
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 cup chopped strawberries
  • combine all ingredients on stove. Bring to a boil. Strain in a sieve to get pieces of strawberry out. Keep liquid
• 2 cups of Rose’ wine
• 1/4 cup vodka

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Pour into tubes with funnel. Freeze 12 hours. This will be more a slush than popsicle. I did not use a blender for this one since it was all liquid ingredients. This recipe was found on Pinterest. Yields 5 popsicles.

Taste Tester Feedback: tasty, but could be sweeter.

Champagne Punch

• 3/4 cup champagne
• 3/4 cup ginger ale
• generous splash of Triple Sec

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Pour into tubes with funnel. Freeze 12 hours. This is a family recipe. My mom served champagne punch at both my bridal shower and baby shower. I had leftover ingredients from my birthday, so I did not get many popsicles out of what I had. There was some separation when it froze. Yields 3 popsicles.

Taste Tester Feedback: yummy!

Watermelon Mint

• 4 cups watermelon
• 2 TBP strawberry simple syrup
• 3/4 cup vodka
• bunch of fresh mint

Blend ingredients together. It worked better to blend in 2 batches. Make sure to get mint pieces fine. Pour into tubes with funnel. Freeze 12 hours. This is a variation of a Pinterest recipe. There was some separation when these froze. I actually made a nonalcoholic version of this one for a pregnant friend and she loved it. Yields 8 popsicles.

Taste Tester Feedback: so good!

Peach Strawberry

• 1 cup strawberries
• 1 can peaches in syrup
• 3/4 cup vodka
• generous splash of Triple Sec

Blend ingredients together. Pour into tubes with funnel. Freeze 12 hours. This is a variation of a daiquiri recipe my mom use to make for pool days. It can easily be made nonalcoholic to share with the kids. Yields 7 popsicles.

Taste Tester Feedback: sweetest flavor

How to Freeze

Figuring out how to freeze 23 FroZip tubes was a challenge. I wanted them to freeze nicely and not get squished. Blender bottles worked ok, but I had too many popsicles. My kids’ sand buckets actually worked out great. I was so excited about the tubes initially, but I found them a little awkward to eat out of because they are wider than a traditional ice pop tube. Next time I will bring straws.

Overall, this was a fun experiment. I enjoyed tweaking recipes and taste testing with my friends. My husband got a kick out of seeing me in the kitchen actually playing with recipes. He would prefer that next time I make actual food, but boozy popsicles is a start. The lady working at our moms night location got a kick out of them and even asked me for one! I will definitely make these again.

Have you tried making homemade boozy popsicles? What’s your favorite recipe?