The best ice lollies: beat the heat with these ice-cold treats
Great ice lollies, but which one gets your vote?
That yellow ball in the sky is not an optical illusion: it's actually sunny out! It won't last, we all know this so you need to get down to the shops pronto and pick out the best ice lolly they have to offer.
Nothing beats a humble ice lolly on a summer's day to cool you down. Long gone are the days of Funny Feet (although Iceland did try and bring them back) and those strange homemade lollies your mum used to make out of squash.
UPDATE: Turns out that Summer in the UK starts in September. Whether you are enjoying/enduring this heatwave, these are the best ice lollies you should be eating to keep cool right now.
Now the choice of ice lollies is impressive, but the best ice lollies, as this list shows, have pretty much remained unchanged for the last 30 years or so.
The shortlist showcases the greatest lollies in existence right now. Those that you go straight to when you are in your local shop, to cool down and to devour.
Here we've picked 10 of our favourite lollies. All you got to do is get voting for the ones you think are the best. Oh, and if we have missed your popsicle pick off, then let us know!
Best ice lollies
An '80s classic which is still going strong, a Feast is made up of chocolate ice cream and biscuit bits but it's when you bite into it that it really comes into its own - its solid chocolate centre is hard to beat!
Wall's has the Twister in its kids' range, which is frankly a disservice to one of the best ice lollies of all time. Originally released as the Tangle Twister in the early '80s, the 'twist' of pineapple ice cream and lime flavoured fruit, with a strawberry core, is still fantastic today.
So good, Edgar Wright made an unofficial movie trilogy based on Cornetto flavours. Cornetto means 'Little Horn' and it's basically a sturdy ice cream, with a chocolate-filled wafer and some nuts on the top. Obviously the best flavour is mint, but it also comes in strawberry and classic.
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was Wall's convincing the world that a choc ice on a stick was the height of ice cream luxury. But we can forgive them as a Magnum is indeed a frozen treat. We all have our favourite Magnum, from Almond to Classic, and the range has a decent vegan option, too.
The perfect hangover cure, the Calippo is a serious slab of frozen goodness (well, 30% fruit juice) that, no matter how quickly you eat, will always end up with a small cold puddle of juice at the end. Apparently there are more flavours than orange and cola - but we've never strayed from those two as there's simply no need.
A big debate rages with Solero: is it an ice cream or is it an ice lolly? For the sake of this list, it is an ice lolly but we don't mind what you call it, given how good it is. The mix of fruit (exotic fruit, mind, and no artificial flavours) and ice cream makes for a taste explosion.
When you were a child, a box of Mini Milks were 66% disappointment. You wanted the chocolate one or nothing at all. Trying them now as a grown up and our more refined palate is happy to chow down on a vanilla Mini Milk or strawberry one. Well, we say one - one is NEVER enough.
If any ice lolly deserved a place in the MOMA for its design, then it would be the Fab. It's a pop art masterpiece (which was created in the late '60s) comprising a 'hundreds and thousands' covered chocolate top, vanilla ice cream middle and strawberry ice lolly base. Perfect name for what is a perfect lolly.
9. Fruit Pastilles
Buy now from Tesco Buy now from Tesco Buy now from Tesco Buy now from Tesco Buy now from TescoThe perfect lolly for those who can't make their minds up. Made up of FIVE (count 'em) flavour segments: Pineapple, Orange, Lemon, Raspberry and Blackcurrant, the Fruit Pastilles lolly is so good it may well surpass the sugar-coated sweets it gets its name from.
10. Mr Freeze Freeze Pops
There is nothing better than a Mr Freeze Freeze Pop on a hot day. A tube of flavoured ice that inevitably melts and becomes a tube of cold, slightly viscous liquid. These are guaranteed to give you both a sugar rush and brain freeze which, as a child, is equivalent to the feeling many of us have had at 3am in Block9 at Glasto.
- While you are out in the sun, don't forget the best sun cream.