best british ice lollies

I somehow got through eight years living in the UK without doing an ice lolly taste test. When I finally filled my tiny freezer with a selection from the shops, it was June, I was wearing a jumper, and we were going to pretend it felt like summer.

Before tasting anything, I got them all out of the freezer at once, tripped and dropped them on the kitchen floor. Some might have been broken. They were also melting while I worked through them, so this wasn’t the most organised tasting I’ve ever done. It did make my preferences fairly clear, though.

What I expected from a popsicle

Before moving to the UK, I’d never heard the term “ice lolly”. For me, it had always been a popsicle, and in my mind that meant something fruity and icy. I wanted to keep ice cream separate for another taste test. That distinction became a problem as soon as milk entered the picture.

Fab wasn’t for me

The Fab looked thin and had what looked like chocolate and sprinkles on top. I’d never seen sprinkles on a popsicle before. It smelled of strawberry, but tasting it brought me to the part I really didn’t like: the milk.

I would have been happy with a strawberry lolly, perhaps even with the chocolate and sprinkles, but something about that milky section made me angry. It just didn’t belong in the sort of lolly I wanted. I gave Fab one out of six. Taking the milk out would have made me much happier.

Lemonade was exactly what I wanted

I had high hopes for the R. White’s lemonade lollies, and this one delivered. It was a decent size, neither too big nor the very thin shape I’d just been complaining about, and it tasted wonderfully lemony. This was everything I wanted a popsicle to be.

I could imagine sitting in the back garden with my feet up, perhaps under an umbrella, eating one of these. It tasted like summer even though I was freezing in my jumper. I gave it ten out of ten. There wasn’t a complicated combination to work through, just a very good lemon lolly.

Tesco Rockets earned their recommendation

People in our chat room had told me I had to try Rockets. Tesco only had its own version when I shopped, and I didn’t know whether another brand was supposed to be the original. Those were the ones I bought, and they turned out to be excellent.

The flavours were pineapple, orange and strawberry. I liked being able to take a bite that included all three, and I thought they worked together. They were fruity rather than milky, which suited me perfectly. I gave them eight out of eight spacebound Rockets and was happy to eat the rest. I couldn’t believe I’d taken so long to try them.

Twister Minis were the creamy exception

Tesco only had the mini Twisters, and they really were tiny. The outside twisted around a differently coloured centre, with green outside and pink inside on one version and the colours reversed on the other. One lolly in the box had no wrapper, which shocked me. I left that one alone because I didn’t know what had happened to it.

The one I tasted was creamy, but it worked much better for me than Fab. I read the description, which included plant-based pineapple ice cream alongside fruit ice. That explained the creaminess. I liked the tangy pineapple, the lemon-lime citrus and the fruity strawberry together. There was a lot going on, and I thought it made an interesting combination.

They were tiny but very good. I gave them four and a half out of five, almost perfect. As much as I loved the straightforward lemon lolly, I appreciated having several flavours in the Twister. This was creaminess I could enjoy.

The milk lollies confirmed my doubts

I saved Miss Molly’s assorted milk lollies for last because I thought they would be the worst. I tried strawberry, chocolate and vanilla. The strawberry tasted like a frozen strawberry milkshake, but very artificial, and it was easily my least favourite of the three.

Chocolate was okay, helped by the fact that I’m more of a chocolate person anyway, but I’d rather have had chocolate ice cream. Vanilla was better than I’d expected. I thought vanilla and chocolate were both fine, while the strawberry was really quite offensive. Overall, I gave the selection two out of six.

For me, the lemonade lolly and Rockets were the successes, with Twister Minis close behind. If I wanted a milky frozen treat, I’d still rather have ice cream. These particular milk lollies weren’t for me.

Watch my full British ice lolly taste test.