Some sommeliers and food writers have started taking kid-friendly, icy sweet popsicles in new and adult directions.
Hello, Sauvignon Blancsicles and Prosecco pops!
Salutations, frozen sangria.
And is that bourbon we taste in that peach popsicle?
It seemed like an anomaly when word first trickled out that sommeliers at the Fairmont Chicago-Millennium Park hotel were freezing wine onto sticks, but it has quickly became a trend. While the Chicago crowd made Sauvignon Blancsicles from white wine, pineapple juice and St. Germaine elderflower liqueur, their mixology colleagues at the Fairmont Pittsburgh introduced Peach Sangria Sorbet Push-Ups and Berry Lemonade Vodka Popsicles.
Betty Crocker joins in
Now, it's spreading. Even Betty Crocker is touting beer snow cones - a recipe for beer granita, drizzled with fruit syrup, can be found at www.bettycrocker.com. And two new books up the ante.
Matt Armendariz's "On a Stick!" (Quirk Books) features mint-flecked, rum-soaked honeydew melon wedges and frozen sangria - both on sticks. And Oakland, Calif., author Charity Ferreira's new "Perfect Pops: The 50 Best Classic & Cool Treats" (Chronicle Books) includes eight booze-infused popsicles, including Campari-laced Negroni Pops, Bourbon-Peach Pops and frozen chocolate milkshakes made with Guinness beer.
The trick for any alcoholic popsicle is to include enough nonalcoholic ingredients - fruit juice, for example - so it will freeze properly. As anyone who stashes vodka in the freezer knows, spirits don't freeze at the same temperature as water. They just get syrupy, a problem in the popsicle world. Wine doesn't require truly glacial temperatures, but an 84-proof liquor needs to reach minus-30 degrees Fahrenheit in order to freeze and a 64-proof booze won't popsicle-ize until it hits minus-10.
But dilute the bourbon with pureed peaches, or add orange juice to the Campari, and even a normal home freezer can churn out cocktail-sicles.
