Rosé Sangria Popsicles

When a friend comes to visit it probably isn’t the best sign when they’re falling asleep on your couch before 10 on a Friday night. I swear, I’m a good host!

The infamous Chris Stover works overnights for CBS news but the potent booze-filled ice pop I handed him the second he got off Amtrak probably didn’t help. I was in the middle of a popsicle spree when Stover arrived for a weekend in Bmore.

Up until then my frozen concoctions were relegated to breakfast, can we make breakfast ice pops a thing, but Stover likes booze more than breakfast.

I should have just doctored up one of my already successful breakfast pops, like mango and lime with coconut milk. But no, why start with something that already works when you can experiment on friends. Sorry friends!

It was fine, kind of. The ice pop froze which was basically my only concern when making a popsicle full of alcohol. But the taste, oh yea could definitely taste the booze. A pile of cut up fruit was barely suspended in a mix of white wine and then because I didn’t think it was potent enough, a splash of vodka. Whoops, a big splash.

The pops got eaten but Stover was definitely hit hard when he took his first taste. But hey, maybe I could use it as a sleep aid instead of night starter since they worked so well for Stover’s REM cycle.

But another ice pop opportunity arose when my sister came to town for Memorial Day Weekend. And instead of trying to freeze vodka I went the route of sangria popsicles. Sangria is already much less potent than what I was doing before and this recipe can do double duty as frozen delight and a regular drink.

I kept the wine from the original pop but switched out white wine for Rosé. I will always sign up for a pink drink and it’s summer, Rosé season. Sangria usually includes brandy or cointreau but a little bottle of St. Germain lives in my fridge and anytime it shows up in a cocktail I will order it.

A pile of whatever berries looks good is chopped up and then hangs out in the sangria mixture. To lighten up the alcohol and add some sweetness orange juice is stirred in too.

The molds that I got from Bed Bath and Beyond hold about 1/3 cup of liquid and a few berries. Since I’m not starting a ice pop stand any time soon I only have four molds but I made enough sangria for 8 popsicles. Not problem, I thought.

I filled the first round of sangria popsicles and let them harden in the freezer overnight. The the next morning I carefully slipped the pops out of the molds and left them on a parchment lined plate in the freezer until my sister showed up.

I started refilling the molds again but then realized umm I didn’t have any tops to use for actually holding the ice pops when they were done. So when my sister arrived that afternoon we had the best of both worlds: a refreshing sangria popsicle followed up by a glass of sangria. Either way you serve this, you won’t be sleeping on your couch before the night has even begun.