On hot summer days there are few things, short of a swimming pool, that can cool you off better than a frozen popsicle. I love the irony that this iconic summer treat came into existence … on a wintery night in 1905 when 11-year-old Frank Epperson forgot a glass of soda with stirring stick outside on his porch; then found the world’s first popsicle in the morning (he called it an epsicle at first).
Almost 20 years later, the first of many ‘popsicle’ patents from Epperson’s frozen revelation was filed, using a “small cylindrical smooth-walled vessel having an imperforate bottom and side wall”. By the end of the 1920s, there was a proliferation of commercial popsicle inventions of this “drink on a stick”, including ‘a mold support in a rack’ and thin ‘cylindrical wax paper molds’.
However it wasn’t until Tupperware released plastic ‘ice pop molds’ in the early 1950s (in response to domestic freezing becoming more widespread across America), that popsicles became the ubiquitous summer treat that it is today. By 1955, Tupperware popsicle makers were a coveted kitchen innovation, particularly as women wanted to utilise their freezers as much as possible. Before these moulds, popsicles were only available as store-bought.
With the recent resurgence in nostalgia, the homemade frozen ice drink on a stick is as popular today it was back then. Even the New York Times recently wrote an article ranking “The Best Popsicle Molds” (July 2022). If the bastians of journalism think popsicles are a burst of joy and sunshine, then who are we to disagree?