Ramvling said

Tea Popsicles?

There’s this popsicle company that comes by my campus occasionally and sells rather odd flavored, but absolutely delicious popsicles. Today they had an incredibly delicious Thai iced tea popsicle that absolutely made my day.

As I was eating it I couldn’t help but wonder if anyone has had any success (or failures) making delicious frozen tea treats themselves. If so, care to share? :3

20 Replies

I ALWAYS have a couple flavours of teasicles in my freezer! What I do for straight tea pops is do a double-strength iced tea and touch of sweetener (because the extreme cold of the freezing process does mute the flavour slightly and the touch of sweetener brings it out a bit better), let cool to room temperature, and then pour the tea into popsicle moulds.

I also make tea “creamsicles” using a similar method, only instead of using normal sweetener I add a few tablespoons of sweetened condensed milk to give it some sweetness and a really nice heavy creaminess. If you want something extra creamy you can even steep some teas in milk or heavy cream and then sweeten, cool, and pour into the moulds to freeze. My two favourites for this method last year were DAVIDs Tea’s Orange Blossom Rooibos and Root Beer Float black blend.

Some of my favourite flavour combinations to use for popsicles are floral green and white teas (jasmine, lavender, magnolia) with a touch of honey, malty black teas with maple syrup, fruity teas (any base) with regular sugar. I had less than great results using oolong and pu’erh, herbals are great because you can steep them indefinitely for an even stronger flavour, and I also tried a mint tea with a squeeze of lime for a mojito popsicle and LOVED it!

I should clarify what I mean by "double-strength iced tea). For iced tea I double the amount of leaf I’d use to make a hot cup, and for popsicles I double the amount of leaf I’d use to make iced tea. You want it nice and strong because the frozen cold mutes the flavour significantly.

Ramvling said

Wow, those sound great! The condensed milk is a great idea~ I can’t wait until it gets warm enough for me to make some myself. =)

I’m addicted, no matter how cold it is, I keep one popcicle tray (it holds 4 small pops of two different flavours for a total of 8 pops) full year-round (more in the warmer months) because it’s a great way to satisfy my often insatiable sweet tooth without loading up on a lot of sugary junk.

OMGsrsly said

OMG. Root Beer Float creamsicles? That would be amazing. They don’t have that tea (right now) but I might need to pick up some Cherry Cola and test this out. :D

Kittenna said

Lovelovelove this idea. Only problem is that all popsicle trays reside with my parents. Sigh. I may ask them to locate them and leave them for me to pick up when I visit!

Sadly, Root Beer Float has been discontinued :( I’m hoarding the last of mine to make creamsicles though

Kittena – you can use dixie cups and popsicle sticks (or the paper lollipop sticks found in the candymaking aisle at craft stores like Michaels). Freeze the tea for about 2 hours, then shove in a stick, and finish freezing!

OMGsrsly said

Discontinued forever, or discontinued as a regularly stocked tea? They are so confusing… :/ I’ve made up a Cherry Cola solution with tea, creamer and sugar, and am waiting for my Zoku pop thing to freeze. I can’t just put tea in it as if there’s not enough sugar/fats, it won’t release!

http://www.favatea.com has a root beer black tea. It is pretty strongly flavored and tastes just like root beer. I bet it would be awesome in frozen form!

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momo said

Wow I didn’t realize you were in Atlanta too, I was going to just yell King of Pops at you but didn’t want to assume that’s who you were talking about LOL

Their Arnold Palmer one is fantastic too. I don’t like making my own, they always taste so icy compared to theirs. I might have to try adding sweetened condensed milk to some and see if that helps.

Ramvling said

Wow, I’ll have to try that one some time! But yeah, I am indeed in Atlanta. Days when King of Pops come by are the best. XD

Yeah I can see how that might happen. They’re always so much richer than any homemade popsicles I’ve ever made.

I need to try King of Pops—have heard good things about them!

I also want to try making some tea popsicles with sweetened condensed milk—I can just imagine the flavor combo possibilities!

momo said

I haven’t had the Thai Iced Tea one yet so hopefully when they’re back near GSU I can hold off on any until that one’s an option. I think last year they asked for suggestions and I said Earl Grey and something with Coke obviously won…but they could do so many fruits with an EG pop!

momo said

Oh also speaking of Thai tea in frozen form, I’m not sure if this is still their current chef’s flavor available, but High Road Craft Ice Cream sells a Thai iced tea ice cream in pints at Whole Foods and it’s awesome too. They open up their HQ on Saturdays around 10am and sometimes do some other tea flavors there, I’ve seen genmaicha and maybe a couple others.

Ooh, Thai iced tea ice cream sounds good too!

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david said

woooow that sounds absolutely delicious!

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I should mention that you need to add the sweetener to the HOT liquid (I usually put the sweetener in the steeping vessel first, add a bit of the just-boiled water to it, then let the rest of the water cool to the required temp for whatever tea you’re making, add leaf, then add the rest of the water, so that the sweetener has a chance to completely dissolve, otherwise you’ll have really crystally/rough ice pops!

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tperez said

Ooh man, I hadn’t thought of making tea-sickles. SWEET!

Thai iced tea sounds like it would make a good one, too…

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Amanda said

This sounds right up my alley. A restaurant near me has crushed ice and a phenomenal peach tea. I eat it like soup with a spoon its so delicious. I can see a frozen peach tea popsicle in my near future :)

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Here are my home-made ones:
http://gingkobay.blogspot.com/2009/07/green-tea-pop-ice-and-green-tea-latte.html

Molds bought from Amazon for around $6 – last forever. Green tea powder bought from Chinese grocery for $7 – 250g, last forever till it expires, way better quality than the so-called matcha sold at Starbucks or similar shops :-)

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