The cool new twist on summertime tipples? Alco-popsicles!
DURInG 2019, as TV comedy Fleabag aired — featuring the ‘hot priest’ and his penchant for canned cocktails — one drink started to fly off the shelves: the Marks & Spencer gin and tonic in a tin.
This summer, M&S has another hit on its hands: the G&T sorbet. It sells three tubs every minute.
M&S is not the only one persuading grown-ups that boozy ice cream is the way to survive the heat. Haagendazs has three flavours all containing real alcohol, while Morrisons is stocking a brand called Speakeasy, which has teamed up with high-end drinks companies to make both an amaretto and a limoncello ice cream.
Even those who failed GCSE science know alcohol freezes at a lower temperature than water (a bottle of vodka or gin freezes at about -27c).
So how is it possible to make frozen cocktails? ‘ It is a challenge,’ says Jane Woodhead, who set up Speakeasy with her husband. ‘We have to adjust the recipes, because alcohol has sugar in it, which also affects the freezing point.’
Many of the ice creams or sorbets have an extra dose of xanthan gum, a common stabiliser, to stop the alcohol splitting and dribbling into a pool at the bottom of the tub.
Pops, one of the most alcoholic brands, sells its lollies in Calippo-style packaging. You push up the lolly as you eat it, so it doesn’t matter if it is slightly more slushy than normal.
Most end up being not particularly alcoholic. M&S’s G&T tubs are 1.4 per cent ABV [alcohol by volume] — a touch above a low- alcohol beer. Speakeasy’s limoncello is
1.1 per cent.
‘To be over the drink- drive limit, you’d need to eat something like eight litres in one sitting. That’s an awful lot of ice cream,’ says Jane. Unlike with drinks, food containing alcohol does not need to declare the ABV on the packaging, though most do state it somewhere.
However, any product with more than 0.5 per cent alcohol should be age-restricted. ‘Which explains why I was not allowed to buy M&S’s sorbets at the self-scan checkout until a member of staff had ascertained I was 18-years old. It’s not often you get screened when buying ice cream.’
So which frozen treats are cream of the crop and which are a flop?
AN AFTER-DINNER ZESTY WINNER
Speakeasy Limoncello (£5.50 for 500ml tub, morrisons.com) ALCOHOL: 1.1 pc ABV ITALIAN after-dinner liqueur limoncello has a distinctive taste — part zesty lemon, part sweet sherbet. Speakeasy has managed to capture the flavour perfectly using the lazzaroni liqueur as its key ingredient.
And even if you are not a fan of limoncello, this really is a lovely, smooth, grown-up ice cream for summer. 5/5
FROZEN PIMM’S PACKS A PUNCH
Pops Pimm’s No. 1 (£5 for three popsicles, minimum order £15, wearepops.com) ALCOHOL: 4.3 pc ABV
THIS is a frozen cocktail that should have the same kick as a glass of Pimm’s, though I struggle to taste any booze. The mint overpowers all the other flavours.
But don’t worry about the alcohol; they’re small and you’d need to eat seven to consume the equivalent of a pint of beer.
Pops are sometimes sold in Waitrose, but you may need to buy them in bulk online. 2.5/5
JUST THE TONIC TO REFRESH YOU
M&S Gin & Tonic sorbet (£5.25 for four 100ml tubs, marksandspencer.com) ALCOHOL: 1.4 pc ABV THESE dinky tubs are a great size. At just 72 calories per pot, you could demolish one guiltfree. They are quite strong — not in booze but in taste. The overriding flavour is that of a zesty, tonic-heavy G&T, with lots of lime and juniper. Extremely refreshing. 4/5
PEACHES AND CREAM DREAM
Jude’s Peach & Champagne (£55 for six 460ml tubs, judes.com)
ALCOHOL: less than 1.2 pc ABV
A LIMITED-EDITION flavour
created to mark this Hampshire company’s 20th birthday, this is a deliciously smooth ice cream. It’s vegan, with coconut oil and cornstarch used to replicate cream and eggs.
I struggle to taste the champagne — you get mostly peach flavour. It’s lovely, but not quite what I’d hoped for.
Jude’s is stocked in many supermarkets, but you have to buy this from its website. 4/5
PINEAPPLES IN PARADISE
Haagen-Dazs Pina Colada (£4.80 for 460ml tub, tesco.com) ALCOHOL: less than 1 pc ABV PINA Colada has become the flavour of summer 2022, with the heady mixture of rum, coconut and pineapple appearing in endless ready meals and puddings in supermarkets.
Haagen-dazs has embraced the trend, adding this flavour to its small range of alco-ice cream. Though rum makes up a mere 1.5 per cent of the ingredients, you can taste it.
If you like pina colada cocktails, you’ll love this. 3/5
MOJITO WITH A LIP-SMACKING ZING Ice Kitchen Mojito ice lolly (£4 for three, ocado.com)
ALCOHOL: 1.5 pc ABV
ICE Kitchen’s co-founder is Cesar Roden, whose grandmother Claudia is the food writer responsible for introducing Middle Eastern cuisine to Britain in the 1970s.
He must have inherited her food genes because these lollies are seriously tasty.
They have a lip-smacking lime zing and get the balance between sweet and sour just right. And, although the rum makes up just 4 per cent of the ingredients, you can really taste the booze. 5/5