Marionberry (Blackberry) Mojito Ice Pops

“Hey Boo! Boo! Check it out!”

Diane makes her way down the isle as I proudly hold up my find. A frozen bag of berries.

But not just any berry. Marionberries.

Here in the land of amazing farmers markets and with a garden teeming with fruit trees, herbs, and other delicious things, it isn’t too often that a frozen bag of anything gets us excited. But marionberries are special and are something which is nearly impossible to find in Southern California.

Sierra helping pick mint for the mojito pops. Well, kinda helping. 

They belong to the Pacific Northwest. Land of oysters, mussels, craft beer, and incredible berries. Drive through the west side of Oregon and Washington and you’ll find brambles of blackberries inundating the land. Many view them as a weed. An incredibly delicious weed, but a pain in the ass nonetheless.

You’ll even find them growing over the fence at the highway rest stops. Just make sure you pick the ones that are higher than dog leg lift height.

Amongst the masses of blackberry varieties, marionberries reign king. Described as the cabernet of blackberries, they have a deep rich flavor. All the normal blackberry traits, a touch of tart balanced by their berry sweetness, but in the same way Cabernets have a deep complexity to the taste, so do marionberries.

Now that I had found them, what to do with these little gems?

I’ve been slightly ice pop fixated since making the Bi Rite Creamery Blood Orange pops, and since I have been wanting to come up with an adult popsicle, (with alcohol, gutter minded people!) it didn’t take long to figure out what I wanted to make with the marionberries. Especially with the mint going to town in the garden. Marionberry Mojito Ice Pops.

I figured I would make a batch or two with the berries, then move on to something else. Maybe a marionberry crumb or crisp, but after the first test batch I knew this whole bag was spoken for. The ice pops were really, really, really good.

The last two weeks we’ve shared them at our food photography workshops, leaving everyone happily purple tongued. And everyone managed to eat them without staining their white shirts.

-Todd

P.S. A huge thanks to everyone who attended our recent food photography workshops at our studio over the past couple weeks. Such great people. It was an immense pleasure to share the weekend and our knowledge with wonderful people like you. And to share our ice pops with you!

Yield: 10 Nine Ounce Pops

Total Time: 4 hours 30 Minutes

If you can find marionberries, the pops will be extraordinary, but even with regular blackberries they are incredibly good. These are adult pops. We've yet to adjust the recipe to make a zero proof ice pop, but if you want to go that route, we would start by replacing the rum with water, then increasing the lime juice or simple syrup if necessary.

1 1/2 c fresh or frozen (thawed out) Blackberries1/2 c fresh Lime Juice1/2 c Rum1/2 c Water3/4 c 2:1 Simple Syrup (2 parts sugar:1 part water)Several hearty dashes of Bitters of your choice (we usually use orange bitters)20-25 Lrg Mint LeavesIf using wooden ice pop sticks, soak sticks for an hour in warm water before making pops (helps keep them from floating up when inserted into molds.)If using frozen berries, place them in a blender, food processor, or in a bowl using an immersion blender. Allow to sit at room temperature until thawed.Combine all of the rest of the ingredients with the thawed blackberries. Pulse until the mint is fairly well chopped up.Taste for sweetness and add more simple syrup if necessary (it should be a touch too sweet as it will lose sweetness after freezing.)Pour ice pop base into molds and insert sticks. Freeze for about 4 hours or until completely solid.Unmold before serving (run warm water around mold if necessary to help it release.)

If you are the seed free - no-pulp type of person, strain the mix through a fine mesh sieve before pouring into molds.

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Hibiscus Mojito

I am sitting here writing this blog post in 100 degree (!!!) weather. The apartment I’m moving out of has no air conditioning, and all I have to prevent myself from melting is a fan and a hibiscus mojito. We hardly had a spring (at least here in New York), but summer came in full force!

A few years ago while living in China, mojitos became my de facto drink for cooling off during the muggy summers in Beijing and Shanghai. The main reason, other than the fact that mojitos are delicious, was that Bacardi rum seemed to be the only liquor that wasn’t outrageously more expensive than it is in the U.S. Don’t ask me why. When I traveled down south to Macau I could cool off with all the vinho verde I wanted, but up north in China, rum cocktails were the only good drinks I could have that didn’t break the bank. So when I found a great gigantic tea market on the outskirts of Beijing, I bought hibiscus tea in bulk and made hibiscus mojitos every week.

(Hibiscus flowers after steeping. Photo from July, 2008.)

Hibiscus tea has a fruity, almost berry- or cherry-like flavor, but is also quite tart, so it needs a fair amount of sugar for balance. I add a fair amount of sugar to my hibiscus iced tea (which can certainly be gulped on its own!), but feel free to adjust the proportions. If you want to sip this mojito at lunchtime on a weekday and have work to do, skip the rum and go virgin. And if you want to make a frozen dessert version of this, with all the boozy flavor, try this hibiscus mint granita. 

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Hibiscus Mojito

Makes 1 drink

15 to 20 mint leaves, plus a nice sprig for garnish1 teaspoon sugar1 ounce fresh lime juice2 ounces light rum6 ounces hibiscus tea* (see below)In the bottom of a cocktail shaker, muddle the mint leaves with the sugar and lime juice (the sugar granules help bruise the mint and extract flavor). Add the rum, hibiscus tea, and a few ice cubes, and shake well. Strain into an ice-filled glass. Garnish with a mint sprig and serve.

Hibiscus Iced Tea

Serves 4 to 6

4 cups water1 cup loosely packed dried hibiscus flowers1 cup sugarBring the water to boil. Remove from the heat, then steep the hibiscus flowers for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the sugar, stirring until fully melted, and allow the hibiscus flowers to steep for another 5 minutes. Strain out the flowers and allow hibiscus tea to cool at room temperature. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or until ready to drink.

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More summer drinks to try:

Tagged as: Drinks, Recipes

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