One popular sweet treat that almost everyone enjoys is the ice lolly. These days they come in all shapes and sizes and you can find ice lollies for virtually any mood, but it hasn’t always been that way. In this article, we’re going to take a look at the interesting history of ice lollies and show you how you can save on your pennies by making your own ones fresh at home.
Interestingly, this frozen treat is known by different names the world over. In the USA, they’re known as ice pops, or Popsicle. In New Zealand, they’re Icy Poles. They’re one of the most popular things to eat in the summer, and at that time every year, the ice lolly market booms. So where exactly did the idea to make this product come from. The first frozen desserts were eaten by the romans. Ice was collected from the mountains by slaves and brought back down so that their masters could eat them with fruity syrup. Marco Polo, the famous explorer is said to have been quite a fan of sorbets and iced desserts when having them on his travels in Asia. However, none of these desserts were the iconic ice lolly we all know today. To begin, they didn’t even feature a handle to make eating the ice easier. It was in 1905, in Oakland, California, that this idea supposedly came about. A young boy, by the name of Frank Epperson left his glass of soda out on a cold night. Since the soda had been made from a powder mix, he had stirred it with a wooden stick and left this in the drink too. When he returned the next morning, he found that the soda was solid, and attached to the stick. Once he’d removed the ice from the glass, he realised that he could use the stick as a handle for eating it with – and so the ice lolly was born. He made them for friends and family for a long time, but when he was an adult he decided to patent them and sell them on, creating the ‘Popsicles’ brand. They were an immediate success, and in the early 20s, around 8000 popsicles were being sold per day at the Coney Island amusement park.
Making your own ice lollies ta home really isn’t that hard. You really just have to follow the example of Frank Epperson himself. Begin by filling a glass with a drink of your choice. Juice, soft drinks, or even milk will work. Then place a wooden stick in the glass. These are readily available at most supermarkets or craft shops, and look exactly like the ones you’d see on a shop bought ice lolly. One problem you’ll face is that the wooden stick will not stand upright in the glass. This means that later, when you come to eating it, you will have to hold it at a funny angle to eat it properly. In order to keep the stick standing straight, you can leaving the drink to freeze to a slush first and then put the stick in and freeze it again until it’s completely solid. However, it can be hard to judge how frozen it is at any one time so you’ll have to keep checking on it. To avoid this problem and to perhaps give it a cleaner finish, find some cellotape and use it to keep the wooden stick in place by cellotaping across the top of the glass. Now freeze it. It will take a fair few hours before its completely frozen. Once it is done, to remove the ice lolly from the glass, run the outside of the glass under hot water for a few minutes. Keep trying to pull out the ice lolly until it comes out smoothly. Now you are ready to enjoy your treat. I love this easy recipe, because it’s so simple to experiment and come up with new flavours all the time.
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