Review: Zoku Quick Pop Maker

Verdict: We love it!

We are huge fans of popsicles. They are often a daily treat in our house, especially in the summer. I love to make them for my kids, since I can sneak in hidden veggies, and of course I know there is no food coloring or artificial sweeteners in my homemade pops.

This summer I have slacked on my smoothie/pop making and bought popsicles from the grocery store that were just fruit and sugar, but decided to get back to the homemade kind when they ran out for the last time.

I decided to splurge on this new little toy to get everyone excited about homemade pops again (and ease the pain of Mom saying no more from the store!)

I washed it and stuck it in the freezer the day it came, so we could get started on our pops first thing in the morning. The kids weren't even out of their pajamas before we were starting our popsicle project.

The most important step is preparing all of the ingredients you want. Once you take the Zoku out of the freezer, the clock is ticking and you must get your ingredients in there quickly if you want any chance of making multiple batches before it's defrosted too much.

The booklet says you can use the pop maker 3 times before refreezing, but I think the only way that would be possible is if you were just pouring a single juice in and letting it go. Adding fruit or making layers significantly increases the time it takes and you are lucky to get two batches done - no way three is happening for fancy pops.

For our first round, we decided to make three different pops, since we don't start out easy with anything around here. I would recommend starting out simple and then adding more complicated plans once you get the hang of it.

Here are all of our ingredients ready to go:

And our Zoku full and freezing:

1. Watermelon Pops with Blueberries

I blended the watermelon and then strained it so it would be just liquid, no pulp. After the stick was seated in the Zoku, I dropped a few blueberries on either side and poured the watermelon juice in to the fill line. Super easy and it came out perfect! My kids devoured it in no time. We didn't feel it needed any sugar or anything as the watermelon was very sweet by itself.

2. Strawberry with sliced Strawberry and Banana

In the Vitamix, I blended frozen strawberries with honey and a little water. I recommend not using frozen strawberries, because I ended up having to blend for a long time to get it liquidy enough to pour easily. The Zoku requires very thin liquid so you can't make a thick smoothie and expect to be able to pour it around the stick and the fruit. So thaw your fruit first - it'll be easier to blend anyway.

Insert just a couple of pieces of thinly sliced fruit into the Zoku and insert the stick all the way so it's seated properly. We put a sliced strawberry on one side and a couple of slices of banana on the other side. Then pour the strawberry puree in to the fill line.

This one came out great as well! 

3. Strawberry Swirled with Yogurt

I used a homemade yogurt that is very thin, so it poured well. If your yogurt is thick, I recommend thinning it with some milk or cream so that it will pour easily. It should be sweet - I used honey to sweeten it since it was plain.

For this one, I poured some of the strawberry puree into the Zoku and waited about 2 minutes for it to harden up a little but not all the way. The I poured in some yogurt in and left it for about 3 minutes. Then I filled it the rest of the way with strawberry. I tipped the Zoku back and forth a little so the layers would swirl but not mix completely.

The yogurt took longer to freeze than the fruit only, but it was pretty easy to tell since the stick was wiggly long after we had removed the other two. Once the stick was firm in the pop the whole thing came out easily.

The possibilities are endless! What else should we try in our Zoku?

Smiley Face courtesy of Alexa :)