Could popsicles finally be the food trend that pushes cupcakes off their throne? They have all the right ingredients: A childhood favorite? Check. Reinvented for grown-up tastes? Check. (Think strawberry-balsamic instead of strawberries and cream.) Portion control? Check. Popsicles even have one thing cupcakes don't: They're a sure way to beat the monstrous heat. They're also everywhere.

Many artisan popsicle makers are inspired by paletas, Mexican ice pops often sold from street carts, that come in a rainbow of flavors: strawberry, mango, lime, cucumber and watermelon. For Liz Davis, founder of the Dairy Godmother, the inspiration was a high-tech popsicle machine.

 

Every day, the Dairy Godmother sells seven flavors, each priced at $2.36. Davis already has several dozen flavors in rotation. Some are inspired by the seasons: watermelon-mint, with a few seeds whimsically suspended inside, and boysenberry with frozen custard. But she has also been playing with popular drinks from around the globe, such as Vietnamese iced coffee, mango lassi and Moroccan mint tea.

 

One of the benefits of making popsicles, Davis says, is that she can freeze crunchy surprises inside them, something that's harder to do with ice cream or sorbet that must be churned. For example, she has long made a buttermilk sherbet, a take on lemon- and nutmeg-scented buttermilk pie. For the popsicle version, Davis plans to use a similar base. But she will add bits of chopped up pie crust. Already, she's adding whole berries, candied hibiscus and chiffonade of herbs such as mint or basil to fruit pops.

 

Bartenders, too, have a case of popsicle fever. Potenza offers a $5 pop made with limoncello, grappa and a dash of lemon bitters, and Saint-Ex has an elderflower "poptail."

 

For Restaurant Eve's Thrasher, popsicles are more practical than populist. "If you put regular ice in a cocktail, as it melts, the cocktail changes," Thrasher explains. "If you have an ice with a flavor, as it melts, it imparts more flavor rather than diluting it."

 

For some drinks, Thrasher makes a popsicle that is the same as the cocktail. As the ice melts, the cocktail is replenished. In others, he uses complementary flavors. The gazpacho cocktail at Alexandria speak-easy PX, for example, comes with a cucumber popsicle made with cucumber juice, lime and salt.

 

There is no practical reason for Thrasher's bomb pop, which was inspired by layered wedding cakes and, of course, the famous one from Good Humor. But not every popsicle needs to be justified: "It's hot outside," he says. "And pops are great when it's hot outside."