Jassy Davis - Party Pops!: Frozen Summer Treats With and Without Alcohol

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Thunder Bay Press

Publisher: Peter Norton

Associate Publisher: Ana Parker

Editor: Dan Mansfield

Senior Product Manager: Kathryn C. Dalby

Produced by HarperCollinsPublishers

Editor: Helen Rochester

Designer: Louise Evans

Author: Jassy Davis

All images Shutterstock

eBook ISBN: 978-1-64517-315-1

eBook Edition: June 2020

on one cold night a boy named Frank Epperson made himself a soda and then forgot to drink it. It was 1905 and he was eleven years old, living in California, and too busy playing to remember to finish the drink hed mixed himself. Back then, sodas were made by stirring a flavored powder into water. Frank abandoned his half-drunk glass with the wooden stick still in it and left it on the porch, only remembering about it the next morning. When he picked it up, he discovered that the drink had frozen solid. Somehow Frank managed to ease the ice out of the glass, using the stick as a handle, and that day he became the first person to ever lick an ice pop.

Frank carried on making ice pops for his friends, but more as a hobby or sideline than as a job. It wasnt until he served up a tray of ice pops at a local firemans ball in 1922 and saw the sensation they caused that he thought there could be money to be made in these frozen treats.

He started off selling ice pops around his neighborhood, calling them Epsiclesa portmanteau blending of his surname and the word icicle. His kids werent fans of this branding; theyd already come up with their own name: Pops Sicles. Deploying the kind of campaigning that only determined children can manage, they eventually persuaded him to change the name, and Epperson set up Americas first Popsicle stand at the Neptune Beach amusement park on San Francisco Bay in 1923.

It didnt take long for the rest of the country to learn about ice pops, so Popsicle Corporation concessions soon opened in amusement parks and beaches across the United States. People loved them. One stand at Coney Island sold 8,000 Popsicles in just one day.

In June 1924, Frank applied for a patent for his Popsicle process. But a few months later, and in need of money, he sold his patent to the Joe Lowe Corporation. If Popsicles had been popular when Epperson was making them, under Joe Lowe they became a national craze.

To keep Popsicles affordable, Lowe came up with the two-handled Popsicle, a five-cent ice pop that two kids could share.

But it wasnt all smiles in the world of ice pops. Epperson may have patented his icy invention, but he hadnt been the only one selling ices on a stick in the 1920s. In 1922 Harry Burt of Youngstown, Ohio, had patented the manufacturing process for chocolate-covered ice-cream bars on a stick. He called them Good Humor bars and sold them from a fleet of ice-cream trucks. Meanwhile in Texas, in 1925 the M-B Ise Kream Company launched a range of fruit-flavored Frozen Suckers on sticks. The advertising campaign called them the greatest treat you ever tastedand from the way they sold, it seems like the public agreed.

From 1924 to 1929 these three companiesand a few otherstussled with each other through the courts, suing and countersuing over who had the legal right to make and sell ice pops. A wary truce was eventually called, with Good Humor retaining the right to sell ice creams, ice custards, and the like, while Popsicle held sway over flavored syrup, water ice, or sherbet frozen on a stick. M-B Ise Kreams suppliers, Citrus Products, became co-agents for Popsicle with the Joe Lowe Corporation, and for a while people could buy PopsicleFrozen Suckers until the name was shortened again, back to Popsicle.

There were a few more legal skirmishes over the yearsespecially when Popsicle tested the water by launching a Milk Popsicle in 1932. These days peace is guaranteed, as Unilever owns both the Good Humor and Popsicle brands, so theres no infighting allowed. And theres none needed either, when two billion Popsicles are sold every year.

Making your own ice pops is easier than you think. You dont need much in the way of special equipment, the ingredients are pretty budget-friendly, and they normally dont take more than ten minutes to make (plus freezing time, of course).

The recipes in this book are simple to follow and designed so that you can jump straight in without any prior knowledge, so you can skip this section if you like. But if you want to be a bit of a nerd about getting your ice pops just right, here are some things to remember.

Texture

Unlike ice creams and sorbets, ice pops are not churned, so they have a crisp, icy texture that melts in your mouth. Even those made with a dairy mix will have a firm, biteable texture. But you dont want your ice pops to be too crunchy; the faster you freeze them, the smoother the texture will be. This is down to the size of the ice crystals that form while the pop freezes.

A slow freeze creates big ice crystals, and sometimes these clump together as the pop sets, creating a hard, bland middle while all the flavor and sweetness is pushed out to the edge of the ice pop. To keep your pops smooth and evenly flavored, make sure the mixture is cool when you freeze it, and set your freezer to its lowest temperature or turn on the flash-freeze feature. The bottom of your freezer is normally the coldest part, with the back of the bottom shelf or drawer the very coldest. Freeze your ice pops thereand dont keep opening the door to check on them while they freeze. As the saying goes, a watched ice pop never freezes. Or, at least, it doesnt freeze that well.

One other thing that will affect the texture of your ice pop is adding alcohol. Alcohol has a lower freezing point than syrups, fruit juices, and dairy, and your kitchen freezer is unlikely to hit it. Ice pops made with alcohol will have a softer texture than liquor-free versions. Boozy poptails also melt faster, so be ready to be dripped on if youre not a quick eater.

Flavor

The freezing process can have a funny effect on flavorssome become stronger, some are diminished. One flavor that fades in the freezer is sweetness, which is why you need a surprising amount of sugar to make a truly sweet ice pop. If you want to get that sugary hit, the mixture should taste sweeter than seems sensible in its liquid form. Once its frozen, that sweetness will mellow out.