Customer Reviews

Pops!: Icy Treats for Everyone

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I agreed with the reviewer who said the long over-the-top reviews looked like a publicist wrote them. However, I bought the book anyway. It truly is as good as I hoped it would be. So far I have made Fresh Fruit bubbly pops, Grape Pops, and Coconut pops. They all turned out as good as the pictures looked in the book. My only complaint is that the recipes make a LOT of "batter". So I have cut them in half so that I have just the right amount to fill my 6 large Tovolo pops (also from Amazon). If you were using the Tupperware pops you would have WAY too much batter. I haven't tried any of the really exotic cocktail pops, just the summery fruity ones. The fruity ones taste a lot fresher than the fruity type pops I bought at the supermarket. I highly recommend this book.

I actually purchased this book looking for some recipes for fruit pops for summer--and those we've tried have been good. But the book had a lot of other choices as well, the chapter titles are: Fruit Juice Pops, Healthy Energy Pops, Soda Fountain Pops, Cream & Pudding Pops, Coffee & Tea Pops, and Cocktail pops. So it has a nice selection of things to try beyond the basic fruit juice pop.

So far, we've tried the Root Beer float pops, the Carmel latte pops, and the Thai Iced Coffee Pops. All were yummy and not difficult to make. There are lots of pictures which I always helpful for a recipe book. The book also has a section on how to make your own Popsicle molds, which I haven't tried yet, but it looks like you can be creative with those if you're more craftsy.

The molds I use are also sold by Amazon. They're smaller than standard pops, but that's what I like about them. They don't melt before you can finish them. And since they're silicon, they're easy to unmold. Orka Ice Pop Molds, White Base

Look in your cupboards - do you have ginger juice, pomegranate seeds, fresh apple cider, diced lychee, tangerine juice or Thai coffee powder? If so, then have no fear these recipes are going to delight and amaze you with all kinds of amazing flavor sensations. If your cupboards are more like mine filled with North American "staples" then it's going to take a trip to a grocery store, or a specialty Asian foods store to get stared on some of these pops.
Don't get me wrong, I love this book and I have enjoyed every pop I have made so far, but in the wallet department, some of these recipes are a stretch! Buying specialty ingredients that can go bad also means you will have to be dedicated to finding other uses for them if they are going to spoil, or make another round or two of that same pop. Not every recipe will send you to the store, there are many in the book that will help you use up what's around the house - but like a specialty foods cookbook, this one has many ideas that require unexpected delights.
The author of this book is right it really is for kidults - those adults with nostalgia for their past and a few dollars to invest in their vision. I recommend this book to those of you who are serious about ice pop making and want explore the exotic recipes, and those of you who are just looking for quick ideas for kid summer treats I think should stick to the millions of internet recipes available.

So to give a polite summary of what happened below, I'll keep it simple: The author is from SoCal. The reviews that all happpppened to show up in a ridiculously short span of time for a total NICHE item (cmon, a popsicle book just isn't going to be a top seller) also happened to have a few things in common:

*Nearly all were the only review of the people.
*None were Amazon Verified Purchases. (Mine wasn't, either--I checked it out at the library--but I don't write like I'm marketing it either.)
*Nearly all openly list their location as Southern Cali; one who defended the author fiercely in response to criticism MET the author at a SF area "Faire."
*They all use direct marketing quotes FROM the book, they quote chapter summaries, and they ALL are written exactly like persuasive English 101 essays for college courses.

My guess? Her students did it. My hope? They love her. My fear? She asked them to. My 99% certainty? They haven't made a dern THING in this book...

So my own assessment is this: Some of it is ridiculously basic and therefore fine--pomegranate apple, for instance... a couple kinds of juice tossed in Tovolo molds and voila... wow, not exactly mind-blowing.

MOST that are "original" or "creative" are GROSS. Green tea ones were especially wretched. Some made us want to hurl, and we use top notch ingredients. They just don't work.

The reason we even checked it out was we won an also-overhyped product, this frou frou pop mold maker that "ooh aah" you freeze then shove on the counter. It's the Zoku. Anyway, we made some of Zoku's rec'd recipes and also some from here, and reliably, the "cocktail" pops are AWFUL and the only way to get them to somewhat stay bound together is either keep it really weak or use a LOT of sugar, which is icky... the alcohol's sugars just make for meh pops most of the time. Rum works better than most, though, dark rum at least. In any case, we didn't do much with alcohol since neither of us drinks and we didn't want to blow a lot on those little 3oz bottles of kahlua and such.

I can't honestly recommend buying this unless maybe for a doctor's office where the bright colors would be welcome... to get pops to look like this takes a LOT of work, and the ones that turn out good ANYone could just look up online (look up smoothie recipes, find something with different berries and yogurt or whatever you want for your base, and pour it in a mold and voila, a pop... but you don't need this book to tell you that)...

The parts about the molds is interesting enough, I guess, but it feels more like a blog post topic and isn't really thought through in terms of actually explaining how you'd go about approaching the whole "common household items=molds" project. This is the second book of hers I've encountered, ironically, and the first, a cupcake book, was HIDEOUS. In short, I think her recipes were either not accurate to what she actually makes herself or possibly, just possibly, were not tested out very well at all, because the more creative you get with these, the more ridiculous they get, the grosser the textures become, and the more the flavors start clashing, making sweet things have bitter chemical tastes, making things like the tea taste ... curdled or something to that effect, a weird icky done-exactly-as-directed product. I'll stick with my defaults... taking local berries and local (Greek Gods) yogurt... or taking fresh ginger, minced with a garlic press, and Meyer lemons to make ginger lemonade pops, probably my favorite use. It was an interesting experiment, but don't expect your results to match her photos unless you spend a god awful long time letting each layer sit. It'll be a 50c item soon enough, but if you really want to check it out, while I'm not going to stop you, I really do recommend you either get it through your library before committing to buying it or get a second-hand copy to save some trees. I doubt it'll have a second edition, but no need to threaten some beautiful forests for a book that is just... bad. The writing needs about 30 revision sessions of the whole thing... and the recipes need better testing to produce something good and reliable beyond the ones that are so foolproof my niece could do them when she was 7...

You won't find any of your favorite pops here. It's many recipes that are labor and ingredient intensive and not highly appealing either. I guess this is perfect for you if you like making complicated things and have an experimental palate. This is a big no for kids.

I am loving this book! I just love how she writes and all of the pictures included. My only wish is that the index had ingredients listed. When I have a lot of one ingredient, like strawberries, honey, or yogurt for example, I like to be able to easily look up a couple recipes in the index to choose from. As is, the index only contains drink names, so I would have to search through the entire book. Still, it doesn't change that I give it 5 stars!

I bought this because I love making popsicles. I don't like this book. Too many of the "recipes" call for store bought ice cream that you simply pack into the molds. Too many of the other recipes would make a hard frozen cube. If I want to suck on a flavored ice cube I can do that without this book. A lot of the recipes are alcoholic, which I don't think will work in a fridge freezer. Vodka or gin isn't going to freeze hard until it gets to about 10F or more below 0.

This book is so much fun!! I stopped eating ice pops YEARS ago. I guess as I got older, my tastes matured and I found that most of them are too artificial tasting. I saw this book in a cooking store and really liked the idea of it, but I felt that full price was too much to pay for a whim. A couple of months later, I happened across it on Amazon and got it because I hadn't stopped thinking about it since I saw it. I am REALLY happy with it because it is making summer a lot of fun. We've been mixing up batches of our own popsicles and I love that I can control what my family is eating. Plus, the kids have a blast making their own creations! Buy a couple of sets of pop molds because you'll need them - our adult friends love them, too!!

As far as the recipes - they are DELICIOUS and the directions are really EASY!! The recipes have also inspired me to come up with my own blends. I made a few 21+ popsicles that were a big hit at a cookout. The kids and I tried a few of the do-it-yourself molds and they were easy to follow and turned out great. (We haven't tried the more complicated ones yet!) The one thing about the recipes is that it takes a little trial and error to see how much you need for the molds you have. When I have extra, I pour it into small cups and stick a stick in each one. They aren't as pretty, but they taste just as good. :)

This book has tons of different recipes! Some pretty basic pudding pop ideas and many out-there recipes. There are several recipes with flavors and ideas from around the world. There is also information about popsicle molds - types and even how to make your own. Presentation of the pops is a major theme of this book. We tried a couple recipes and they turned out great. This book is for those who want to try some interesting, new recipes for popsicles.

I have been a teacher for over twenty years and always cringe when parents bring ice pops in for the children as a treat. Most are full of artificial colors and loaded with things that I couldn't pronounce if I tried. Our preschool and kindergarten children LOVE,LOVE,Love making these once a week for a "cooking" project. We experiment and substitute "in season" fruit and juices as to what our budget can handle. The top picks for the children have been Bing Cherry and Vanilla *We substituted strawberries (on sale in large quantities) and used Kerns strawberry banana juice. They were a huge hit- parent's actually asked us for the recipe. We have also made PB& Sesame raspberry pops *substituted raspberries with grapes and a little diluted grape juice. Kids gobbled them up- and what a great way to introduce sesame seeds to kids that wouldn't normally be exposed to them. The older children are requesting the PB& Banana pops for their end of the year party!!! If you get kids involved in the process they WILL eat (or at least try) the new food. What a wonderful way to introduce good nutrition and teach cooking skills to young children!