How to Make the Best-Ever Infused Summer Fruit Popsicles, to Talking Heads’ Popsicle

Infused popsicles are perfect for a mellow weekend afternoon lounging in tubes, backyard hangouts with friends or swinging in a hammock with a book.

When the weather gets hot — we mean dog days of summer hot — there are a few surefire ways to cool off. You can seek shade, drink plenty of water, find a swimming hole, or find a strategic shaded cross-breeze and move as little as possible, to name a few ideas.

But one of our absolute favorite ways to cool off — and we’ll even make these ahead of time when we see a hot day in the forecast — is infused popsicles made with fresh or seasonal summer fruit. They’re perfect for a mellow weekend afternoon lounging in tubes, or swinging in a backyard hammock with a book.

The wonderful thing about homemade popsicles is that you can use virtually any ingredient to make them. In its most basic form, a popsicle is a frozen liquid or fruit puree. In short, if you can freeze it, you can make it into a popsicle. You can also scale your infused ingredients up or down depending on whether you want strong or subtle desired effects.

We’ve got important popsicle, mixing and infusion tips below  – but first, while you’re making these, you should probably play this specific Talking Heads tune, Popsicle:

Mmm, something sweet and sticky
Runnin’ down my hand

Just sayin’.

Equipped with this knowledge, experiment by mixing and matching flavors and infused oils or dairy. We recommend starting with a liquid juice, a thickened (infused or non-infused) dairy or non-dairy liquid like yogurt, and your favorite seasonal fruits. We’ve provided a few of our favorite flavor combos below for inspiration.

On the hunt for seasonal berries? Check out our list of top New England spots where you can pick your own strawberries, raspberries and blueberries, or buy from a roadside stand.

For more on infused dairy, see Stephanie Boucher’s Canna-Kitchen Witchery: Fat is Your Friend

what you’ll need

• 1/2 cup orange juice, or your favorite fresh juice
• 1/2 cup coconut milk, cream or yogurt (optional – can also be infused)
• 2.5 cups frozen or fresh fruit
• 1/2 cup water
• A few drops (40mg) of your favorite CBD/THC oil

Check out Stephanie Boucher’s DIY Guide to Infused Cannabis Oils.

let’s do it

1. Add frozen fruit to blender. Pour in orange juice, pineapple juice, and coconut milk.
2. Add CBD or THC Oil (see our notes below about careful mixing).
3. Blend all ingredients together.
4. Evenly distribute the blended mixture into popsicle molds.
5. Freeze popsicles for at least 6 hours. If you’re sweaty, or impatient, you can check after 3-4 hours.
6. Enjoy — and chill out!

Makes: Around 4-8 popsicles, depending on the size of your molds. If you add 40mg of CBD, you’ll have 5-10mg per popsicle total. These should keep around 3 months in the freezer if you store them in good freezer bags or another sealed container- though we’re pretty sure you gobble these up on the next hot day.

More on dosage suggestions, mixing notes, diy popsicle molds and our favorite fruit recipes below.

diy popsicle molds

• Pour the puree into the popsicle molds, cover and insert the popsicle sticks. If you are using small cups as popsicle molds you can cover them with foil or cupcake wrappers and push the popsicle stick through to keep it in place. Or let them freeze for about an hour and then add the sticks.

notes about mixing

• Be sure to mix your popsicle ingredients thoroughly right before pouring, as oils may separate. The best way, really, to ensure more homogenized mixing, is to with infused dairy like cream or coconut milk. Or, you can add oil to each single serving cup or mold and stir it in for more accurate dosing.

dosage suggestions (per popsicle)

• Go light: 5mg of CBD,
• Medium effect: 10mg 1:1 CBD:THC
• Strong effect: 10mg THC
• Don’t forget: Start low, go slow!

make it your own

• Mix up the fruits: Use local fruits when they’re in season, like strawberries, raspberries and peaches! If you want to get creative in the long winter months, explore local independent store shelves for mango, papaya and other exotic fruits.
• Make it creamy: Create a cream pop by mixing yogurt or cream with the fruit juice. Dairy-free options like almond, soy or coconut milk work well, too.
• Control sweetness: Feel free to add more sugar, less sugar or no sugar at all. The recipe above does not use sugar. Use liquid sugar, maple syrup or honey when you blend your ingredients for this cooking-free recipe. Granulated sugar must be heated and mixed with water, then allowed to cool down before adding as liquid sugar. See our Infused THC Sugar Recipe.
• Adjust your infusion: Scale the amount of CBD up or down depending on what you want your dosage to look like. You can also substitute 1:1 or THC oil. Personally, we love a popsicle with 10mg of 1:1 THC:CBD oil for a mellow summer afternoon.

our favorite combos

• Coconut delight: Infused Coconut Milk, Cream of Coconut, Mango
• Honey don’t let go: Infused Light Cream, Summer Peaches, Honey
• OJ, Infused Light Cream, Summer Strawberries
• Pineapple Juice, Infused Coconut Milk, Mango
• 1 Tbsp Lemon Juice, Vanilla Yogurt, Summer Raspberries
• OJ, Infused Coconut Milk, Mango, Summer Blueberries, 1 Tsp Ginger Juice
• 1 Tbsp Lemon Juice, Vanilla Yogurt, Peaches Roasted in Honey

Pro Serving Tips: Run molds under warm water to remove them. To avoid sticky fingers, skewer a cupcake liner through the end of the popsicle stick. It’ll help collect any drippings. Plus, it looks kinda fun.

Pro Parenting Tip: Infused popsicles — like wine juice boxes — are easily mixed up with their kid-friendly counterparts. If you’ve got kiddos that can reach the freezer, and you’re making THC-infused popsicles, make sure you’ve either made a plan for locking infused goods away, or you have open and clear lines of communication with respect to infused food and drink in your household.

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