How do I only get the Lime (Lemon Lime) Freezer Pops?

May 26, 2015 3:09 PM

Is there any place on this Planet Earth where I can pick and choose the freezer pop flavors I like such as lime (lemon lime) and orange and not just get a box of "Assorted"?

It's summertime and one of my favorite treats are the freezer ice pops that you might know as Otter Pops or Fla-Vor-Ice (both fine products of the Jel Sert Company). But my problem is that I really only ever like two of the flavors and then I feel like I'm wasting a bunch of other ones because I don't like their grape flavor or strawberry or berry punch. Am I just stuck with flavors I don't want?

posted by inturnaround to Food & Drink (17 answers total)

You could buy the flavor syrup you like and make your own.
posted by agatha_magatha at 3:13 PM on May 26, 2015

Do you have access to a Trader Joe's? Have you ever tried the lime "Fruit Floes?" I'm not really a big popsicle person, but hot damn are they are amazing and do they hit the spot on a hot summer day.
posted by raztaj at 3:24 PM on May 26, 2015 [3 favorites]

Guys, geez, fancy ice pops made of actual frozen fruit are no substitute for the chemical plastic delights of fla-vor-ice. For shame.

OP, it looks like their Twitter account actually responds to tweets pretty frequently. You should tweet this question to them.
posted by showbiz_liz at 3:33 PM on May 26, 2015 [12 favorites]

Also - this may not be your sort of thing, but one time I had to dispose of a lot of ice pops all at once, and I used them to make a batch of alcoholic punch for a party (diluted with seltzer to cut down on the syrupiness). It worked great! Theoretically, you could save the less desirable pops up for this purpose, and not feel like they were going to waste. It's a good way to use up a ton of them at once, people will be amused to find out what it's made of, and you wouldn't even need to keep them in the freezer till you use them - just store at room temp, they won't go bad.
posted by showbiz_liz at 3:42 PM on May 26, 2015 [3 favorites]

You know, come to think of it, you could probably just post on Craigslist "unopened fla-vor-ice pops GRAPE ONLY" and sell them to some grape lover at cost. I do not know if this is legal.
posted by showbiz_liz at 4:20 PM on May 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

And so the great Metafilter freezie-swap began, an annual tradition that saw freezies migrating across the Northern Hemisphere every May and June. And each January, the neglected Australians wept.

I like white and blue. How do we set this up?
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 4:28 PM on May 26, 2015 [18 favorites]

Bright blue. Blue raspberry. Not the grape. The grape are stupid.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 4:28 PM on May 26, 2015

I have reservations about recommending Walmart, but last summer our local store carried large, single-flavor bags of frozen fruit-flavored pops, labeled as "paletas." They were cheap, too.
posted by jon1270 at 4:38 PM on May 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

The OP isn't asking about the kind of ice pops with a stick in them, he is asking about the plastic tubes of semi-frozen juice.
posted by showbiz_liz at 5:00 PM on May 26, 2015 [3 favorites]

Are the sticks (or lack of them) that important?
posted by jon1270 at 5:26 PM on May 26, 2015

Yes. The kind of frozen thing that is capable of holding a stick is very different from the kind of frozen thing that is not capable of holding a stick. If I took a freezie and a popsicle out of their wrappers and gave you a similarly-shaped piece of each, wouldn't you be able to tell the difference between them? Freezies are more cratered. Popsicles are smooth. Popsicles bit off in chunks. Freezies disintegrate into a mouthful of slushie.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 5:32 PM on May 26, 2015 [11 favorites]

That's like asking if GoGurt isn't just a tube full of yogurt. Or if string cheese isn't just mozzarella cheese shaped like a stick.

I mean, on the one hand, yes, but also, of course not
posted by showbiz_liz at 5:37 PM on May 26, 2015 [15 favorites]

I'm relatively certain you can find people in your local social network who will swap with you. Just check out the comments on this definitive ranking. People have all sorts of wrong opinions on freezy pop flavors. (IMO 1. Purp 2. Green 3. Orange 4. All other garbage flavors tie) I once found Arnold Palmer flavored freezy pops at the dollar store or Aldi or somewhere. That was a good summer.
posted by Rock Steady at 5:47 PM on May 26, 2015 [1 favorite]

So apparently you can buy a kind of Otter Pop-like pouch if you want to try rolling your own: I have no idea how well Zipzicles work but if you're up for some DIY, maybe give give them a try and report back?
posted by DingoMutt at 5:50 PM on May 26, 2015 [2 favorites]

(They've got recipes on the site, too - while there's no straight lime one, they do have a Margarita recipe if you're feeling wacky. Please call them Blotter Pops if you make them)
posted by DingoMutt at 5:52 PM on May 26, 2015 [2 favorites]

If you can get a syrup with a flavor you like, if you like the squeezy bit, you can get silicone ice pop things that are just kind of cone-shape tubes which have a very similarly satisfying push-up action. But I can't recommend syrups, because I usually fill mine with either pudding or booze. But I like the tube more than a traditional popsicle because you get the good stuff at the bottom afterwards. Possibly a similarly-flavored Kool-Aid mixed up very strong and very sweet could do the trick for the chemically citrus, if you don't want to order syrup.

...brb adding Kool-Aid to shopping list.
posted by Sequence at 6:51 PM on May 26, 2015 [2 favorites]

Around these parts freeze pops are the new cool thing to throw out in parades instead of candy. So join a parade and throw them at kids!

But maybe you could just find some kids that want them? It's a few dollars and maybe you will make some friends. Or get the kids to do some chores and pay them in freeze pops!
posted by littlewater at 9:18 PM on May 26, 2015