Ultimate Guide to BPA-free Popsicle Molds & Ice Pop Gear

I haven’t updated my popsicle mold post for a good long while, so I figured we were due. This year’s list only contains molds that are *BPA-free. I’ve also included some cool ice cream pop molds along with some great popsicle making gear to help you get started.

If you’re curious about the benefits of homemade ice pops, start with the best benefits of homemade popsicles. If you’re looking for more in-depth advice about how to buy popsicle molds, which molds are best and ideas about how to use them check out non-toxic popsicle molds for homemade popsicles. Lastly, if you need help making popsicles read organic homemade popsicle Q&A.

Now, if you’re simply ready to look at popsicle molds for the summer, keep reading…

The Best Molds!

As always, my favorite popsicle molds and the ones I suggest first to other families are Tovolo. Tovolo molds are extra sturdy, BPA-free and best of all, single molds, meaning, they’re not attached to each other so it’s easy to remove one ice pop at a time from the freezer.

I’ve had my two oldest set of Tovolo popsicle molds for about 5 or 6 years and they’re in amazing shape. They’re not stained, cracked or otherwise compromised. The bases are in perfect shape too. After many years of continuous use and kids chewing and sucking on them, even the handles have held up perfectly. I think these are the best ice pop molds, hands down for your money (and they’re not even that expensive (typically around $10-$12). Below is what we think of the various shaped molds:

• Tovolo Groovy Ice Pop Molds: These make really large ice pops, too large for little kids. They’re perfect for older kids and adults. These are best if you really need a lot of icy goodness. We use these for lemonade pops often, because it’s like a nice huge glass when it’s hot.

• Tovolo Star Ice Pop Molds: The star molds are our overall favorite size – not too big and not too small, but they’re still a little big for younger kids.

• Tovolo Blue Rocket Pops: Kids at my house who haven’t seen homemade ice pops before tend to like the rocket molds best – maybe because they’re fun. These make a little bit smaller ice pops than the star mold and I’ve seen younger kids do okay with these.

Tovolo has two new ice pop mold designs this year, including an adorable Tovolo Bug Pop Mold and unique Tovolo Twin Pop Molds. I wrote about these more in another post though. Tovolo makes other ice pop type molds, meant for ice cream, which we’ll look at later.

UPDATE – June 2012: DO NOT BUY the Tovolo twin pop molds – you will HATE them - read my terrible review.

UPDATE 2 – JUNE 2012:

I’d like to point out that reader Amie says the following of the bug pop molds…

“They are terrible. I too usually love Tovolo molds, but these are awkward to use for adults, never mind kids. The handles are disproportionately skinny given the large pop size. My two and a half year old can’t even hold them up straight because they are so top heavy.”

Other comments on the Amazon review page say much the same. Apparently, the quality of these molds (according to reviewers) is still good, they just make very large pops, so if you’ve got younger kids you may want to rethink these molds and go with another choice.

Plastic-free Popsicle Molds

If you’re not down with BPA-free plastic or silicone in your molds, your only option, besides making questionable homemade molds is to go with these Stainless Steel Popsicle Molds. I haven’t used these, so I can’t comment on how they work. The reason I haven’t used these is because one, they cost a lot more than other molds and two, they don’t come with handles, thus requiring stick waste. These are reported as having reusable sticks available, but they look like plain old wood sticks to me, and I can’t find more info on them.

Other Good BPA-free Popsicle Molds

NOTE: I’ll be adding more ice pop molds to this section as the season continues. Not all companies have gotten back to me regarding materials yet.

Orka Ice Pop Molds: Made entirely out of silicone with a stand for easy transport and storage and a cup-shaped base catches drips as you eat. Plus a silicone tab makes for easy ice pop removal.

Browne & Co Cuisipro Snap Fit Sailboat Pop Mold come in sets of six, are BPA-free single molds that easily snap together for freezing, but come apart for ease of serving and to save space if you need to. These molds are inexpensive and available in three cute ice pop mold designs.

Norpro Ice Pop Maker is BPA free, made with durable materials and a cool aluminum top. The downsides include stick use (there are no handles) and it looks super tricky to remove pops from this mold – which is why I prefer single use molds. However, on the upside, it looks like it may save space in your freezer.

SiliconeZone Popsicle Mold: These molds are all silicone, but hard to find. When you can find them, they’re fairly affordable and make a really cool shaped pop.

Progressive International Freezer Pop Maker: These molds also aren’t single serve and they’re more expensive than some others, so these wouldn’t be my first choice. Still, they make 10 pops at a time, more than most sets and seem thin, thus space saving. No handles, so sticks are a downside too.

Ice Pop Mold for Babies and Toddlers

I wrote an entire post about the best ice pop molds for babies, which is longer than this section will be. However, in case you don’t want to click over, here are a couple ideas…

Annabel Karmel Fill and Freeze Pops: These molds are so confusing. Years ago, they used to be made and sold by Annabelle Karmel. Now apparently, NUK has taken over this product and their name has changed at least three times in the last few years. That said, it’s different depending on where you shop. Now, company issues aside, these are my favorite ice pop molds for babies and toddlers. They’re extremely tiny, non-toxic, ideal for soothing gums during teething and easy for even babies to hold. There’s also a drip-catching design to help prevent spills.

Kidco Healthy Snack Frozen Treat Trays are BPA and phthalate free, plus the molds are very small, thus good for toddlers and young kids (just 2 oz each). I don’t love that they’re attached, so it’s harder to remove one pop at a time. But there are very few mold choices for younger kids, so you don’t have a ton of options.

BPA-free Squeeze Pops

These squeeze pop molds are made with silicone, allow you to save freezer space and give kids that fun squeeze pop experience without the plastic wrapper waste. Also these do double duty as little yogurt tubes for toddlers or young kids. Squeeze pop molds shown above include Norpro Silicone Ice Pop Maker Set and Kinderville Little Bites Ice Pop Molds for younger kids.

Unique Ice Pop Molds (still BPA-free)

Prepara Volcano Ice Pop Set is very unique. First you use juice or another ice pop creation to make the outer popsicle, then you can fill the hollowed out middle with whatever filling you choose – ice cream, whipped cream, another liquid or even organic candy or fruit. These are a perfect size for kids and adults to hold and a sippin’ lip catches all the drips.

Hog Wild – Zoo Pops and Hog Wild Dino Pops: Hog Wild’s pop molds are BPA-free and pretty cool. They come with little molds (square shaped) that you pop into the freezer. The animal zoo set comes with 4 molds including Lion, Polar Bear, Elephant and Monkey while the Dino set comes with T-Rex, Stegosaurus, Pterodactyl and Brontosaurus.

Bunny Popsicles: These may be the most unique popsicle making mold I’ve ever seen and they’d for sure add some “magic” to your child’s ice pop making experience. You add your ice pop mixture to the hat mold, wait until frozen and then pop your frozen bunny out of the magician’s hat. A little odd, but I bet kids would love this.  These come in sets of 2.

Fred makes some truly unique silicone products that work well as ice pop molds. For example, often make ice pops in our Fred Cool Jazz Ice Cube Tray (as shown above). The benefit of having some of Fred’s cool ice trays on hand is that they make sweet, small pops for when all you need is a tiny snack. Also, these are great for testing new (and possibly horrid) ice pop flavors. It’s less drama to mess up small scale.

Another fabulous Fred ice tray that works for pops is the Fred Ice Princess Star-Shaped Ice Cube Tray with Straws or you could try the weird Fred LicketyPops, which honestly, I find kind of gross, but my son thinks they’re, “The coolest idea ever.”

Ice Cream Pop Molds – BPA-free

If frozen ice cream is more your style than ice pops, there are a few good BPA-free molds out there.

Tovolo Ice Cream Pop Molds:  You can create healthier ice cream-shaped pops with this set of 4 custom molds and base. Molds can be filled with ice cream, juice, yogurt, mix or beverage and the cone handle catches drips.

Tovolo Ice Cream Sandwich Molds: These non-toxic molds allow you to make ice cream sandwiches with different flavors and combinations of ice cream and cookies. You need to bake the cookies, cut and stamp, fill the mold and press, but there’s a recipe booklet included.

Ice Pop Books

I’ve got a ton of cool organic ice pop recipes you can try here at Growing a Green Family, such as pink grapefruit soda and root beer, yummy Pure Sunshine pops, refreshing watermelon ice pops and even a list of 50 amazing homemade popsicle recipes to try. However, if you’re looking for more inspiration, there are some good books out there too, although I like the three below best…

• Ice Pop Joy (read my review)
• Pops!: Icy Treats for Everyone
• Paletas: Authentic Recipes for Mexican Ice Pops, Shaved Ice & Aguas Frescas

Other Useful Ice Pop Making Tools

• A blender – you seriously DO NOT need an expensive blender to make amazing ice pops. I’ve been using the same old basic blender for ten years and counting. Don’t spend a lot of money on one, especially if you’re just using it for ice pops. For example, the Oster 6811 Core 12-Speed Blender with Glass Jar, Brushed Nickel is totally decent, well-priced and will get those ice pops made easily.
• A basic inexpensive Grind Hands-Free Coffee Grinder comes in useful for ice pops. I use mine for crushing nuts and seeds, chocolate nibs, oats and herbs for ice pops (and other dishes). However, my blender kind of works for this too, plus for basic ice pops, it’s not necessary, just extra handy.
• A spatula is a must-have as you can use it to get all the popsicle mix out of your blender. I have a basic set of Good Cook Silicone Spatulas with Bamboo Handles.

• I have a small freezer, so how do I store all these ice pops year-round? With my inexpensive, handy dandy freezer freezer shelf. If you’re low on space, this item is absolutely useful, creating more room on which to set molds and store ice pops. (I’ll be writing more later this season about ice pop storage).

*If a mold is featured here the manufacturer has told me that the set is BPA-free. Of course, it’s smart to research on your own as well.

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