Popsicle of the Week: Southern Sweet Tea

One of my favorite summertime indulgences is drinking Sweet Tea. I love it! I like my sweet tea extra sweet with lots of ice so that it is super duper cold and refreshing. I also like to toss in some fruits for flavor, peaches and raspberries are always a favorite. While drinking a glass of ice cold sweet tea, I thought "Why not turn my favorite summertime drink into a popsicle"?

I have to admit, the idea did spring from reading one of my popsicle books where they poured sweet tea into popsicle molds, adding a peach slice and a sprig of mint. The pops looked very pretty with the mint leaf and slice of peach, but I wanted a pop that was smooth in consistency, without interference. I decided to add a can of peach nectar to my favorite sweet tea recipe.

Sweet Tea Pops with Peach Nectar
*Use any sweet tea recipe you like. This one is my favorite.
4 large, family-size tea bags (I use Luzianne, the best for ice teas)
16 cups water
1-1/2 cups sugar
*1 can peach nectar, more or less to taste
Fill a tea kettle or saucepan with enough water to completely cover the tea bags, about 2 cups. Bring to a boil and remove from the heat. Let the tea stand for 10 minutes. Put the sugar into a gallon pitcher and add 1 cup of cold water. Stir to mix slightly. Pour the hot tea into the sugar mixture and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Stir in the remaining 13 cups of cold water to fill the pitcher. Add in one can of peach nectar, more or less to taste.

Notes/Results: This was one of the easiest popsicles I've made so far. We already had the sweet tea in the fridge and I just poured it into the Zoku Quick Pop Maker. Sweet Tea Popsicles in seven minutes! One thing I do want to say is that you'll want your sweet tea to be pretty strong so that the flavor comes through when the pops freeze. The popsicles were really tasty and sweet, but I didn't notice very much peach flavor at all. I think next time I'll add in 1-1/2 cans of peach nectar so that the peach flavor comes through. Feel free to try it adding fruit to the molds or any other flavors that you like with your tea!

NOTE: Popsicle of the Week has been a fun feature I've shared since late April of this year. We have a couple of weeks before the kids go back to school and I hope to squeeze in 3 more weeks of popsicles before ending the Popsicle of the Week feature.