Iced Coffee Popsicles Are The Perfect Pick-Me-Up

If you thought cold brew was the best thing to happen to your coffee routine, you haven't tried iced coffee popsicles. With a frozen coffee pop, your morning pick-me-up is transformed into a treat that satisfies both your inner child, and (reluctant, exhausted) outer adult.

Iced coffee popsicles are just like cups of iced coffee, which is to say that they can be made to your own liking. If you're a plain black coffee kind of person, then you don't have to do anything more than prepare some cold brew coffee, fill up the molds, and wait for them to freeze. If you prefer the fancier drinks that your barista serves you up every morning, then you can add a variety of coffee extras like flavored syrups, creams, and sugars to your cold brew coffee, and have a personalized coffee pop — misspelled name not included.

Just a warning: these pops take some time to whip up. Cold brew coffee takes at least 12 hours to make, and the pops require about the same amount of time to freeze. If you want to try these out, be prepared to be patient, because from start to finish, you're looking at a full day wait. Take it from me, though, it's worth it! These popsicles are the perfect cold, caffeinated treat for a hot, end-of-summer morning, or an afternoon pick me up.

Here's how to make easy, customized iced coffee pops:

Ingredients

Makes six popsicles

• Cold brew coffee
• Chocolate syrup, caramel syrup, coffee creamer, sweeter, milk (optional)

Directions

1. After straining your cold brew coffee (recipe here) to rid it of any loose coffee grinds, combine it with your preferred dairy and/or sweetener in a large mixing bowl. Flavored coffee creamers are great flavor additions to coffee popsicles, and add a bit of creaminess, but any kind of milk or sugar you usually use in your coffee will work. Make sure your ingredients are mixed throughout. Transfer coffee mixture into a measure cup, for easier pour control.

2. Prepare your popsicle molds by drizzling flavored syrup, such as chocolate syrup, on the inside before pouring in the coffee. Fill the popsicle mold up to the top, and secure a popsicle stick. Freeze for at least 12 hours.

3. When fully frozen, remove molds from the freezer. To separate pop from mold, run the mold under warm water, and gently pull until the pop is free. Eat immediately, or store in a freezer-safe plastic bag in the freezer.

The Verdict

I did a lot of experimenting before landing on these popsicles, but it was worth it. In the end, I prepared my pops the same way I prepare my coffee, with Caramel & Coconut Coffee-mate. On half of them, I also added some chocolate syrup swirls to the mold before pouring in the coffee (pictured above). Before getting there, though, one of my first attempts at making a creative coffee pop involved layering the coffee with caramel over a few hours in the freezer, with the hopes of giving it a striped effect. As you can see, the caramel didn't freeze solidly, and instead, I was left with a deteriorating popsicle:

It tasted delicious, but from a practical standpoint, it didn't work out. The chocolate syrup, however, froze fully, and added a nice dark brown swirl that gave the whole pop a mocha flavor. My other experiment? Layered black coffee and milk:

While the pop itself worked, as in it froze correctly, the taste wasn't very good. Though it looked great, licking just a stripe of solid milk — well, let's just say it wasn't for me. My favorite creation was the mocha coffee pop, but the plain coffee popsicles I made (coffee mixed with just a touch of cream) were delicious, and just the thing I needed waking up in my air conditioner-less apartment on a 90 degree day.

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Images: Sadie Trombetta