NAIL OR FAIL Sugar-Free Sangria Popsicles was a fun experiment conducted by yours truly this past weekend. In the 90 degrees heat, nothing beats an ice-cold popsicle. But what happens if that popsicle doesn’t contain sugar? Will the popsicle have a chance to be any good? Keep reading to find out!
Hello friends and welcome to another blog post! This week K and I tried NAIL OR FAIL Sugar-Free Sangria Popsicles. I know what you’re thinking, Christina think about it, popsicles are sweet. How can they possibly taste good without a sweetener? You make a valid point. A point so valid I should have known better. However, I had a good reason to try it.
THE EXPERIMENT
In the past 2 months, I’ve eaten sweets maybe 3 times. I’m not talking about keto friendly fruit like berries, I’ve eaten those, I mean foods that contain refined sugar. Heck, besides berries I haven’t even touched other types of fruit! So, my sweetness palate is off. I honestly consider tomatoes to be dessert, they taste so sweet to me!
Obviously, sugar-free sangria popsicles would taste gross to a non-keto dieter but would they taste good to someone who was? I was curious how the popsicles would taste with my new palate so I did a little experiment. I made tasty ass sangria without a sweetener, except for berries, then froze it in popsicle molds. How did it turn out?
Check out our new video NAIL OR FAIL Sugar-Free Sangria Popsicles.
THE TASTE TEST
I took one lick of my creation and thought, Hmm, I don’t hate this but my taste buds aren’t particularly jumping for joy right now. I licked the popsicle again and enjoyed it a little more. The third lick tasted even better than the second. It dawned on me, while I was contemplating the flavor, I was getting tipsy from the frozen wine. The more I had the more I liked.
I think there was an element of mind over matter. Our brains calculate popsicles = sweet. I knew the popsicles weren’t going to taste sickly sweet but I thought the berries would lend more sweetness than they did. My eyes told my taste buds, That looks like a normal popsicle. My taste buds prepared my brain, We have some sweetness incoming! Finally, my tongue translated the unexpecting bitter taste into a neural code that my brain interpreted as, Christina what the fuck is this? Once my brain and taste buds could wrap their heads around the flavors I was ingesting, eating the popsicle became an enjoyable experience!
In the video, we goofed around and melted the frozen popsicles back into regular sangria. As a regular sangria this recipe ROCKS. I used a combination of berries, lemon, and lime. In my opinion, the piece taste of resistance was the cinnamon stick. The sangria tasted light and bright yet bold and earthy. I will 100% make this recipe as a regular sangria again.
THE FINAL RESULT
Did I NAIL OR FAIL Sugar-Free Sangria Popsicles? For this experiment, I’m going on record and saying both. If you’re not on the keto diet don’t bother to attempt this, you won’t like it. Add some sugar or natural sweeteners like OJ or your favorite fruit juice to punch up the flavor. However, the recipe as standalone sangria is amazing whether you’re on the keto diet or not! You just have to enjoy the taste of red wine.
If you are on the keto diet I say go ahead and try it! Even though you know the popsicles aren’t sweet, your taste buds will be confused during the first lick. But I’m guessing if you like red wine, like me, the more you lick the more you’re going to like it. Licking down sugar-free sangria popsicles was a fun way to spend a scorching hot summer afternoon!
Would I go through the trouble of making sugar-free sangria popsicles again? Meh, probably not. I really enjoyed the recipe as regular sangria so why ruin a good thing?
If you’d like to learn more about drinking wine while being on the keto diet, here’s an interesting article called A Toast To Keto-Friendly Wines.
Alright, folks, that’s a wrap on NAIL OR FAIL Sugar-Free Sangria Popsicles. This recipe is perfect to whip out for your favorite wine lover over the 4th of July but in regular sangria form 😉
Thank you for being apart of the Shock Munch community, I appreciate you!
Sincerely,
Christina
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| Prep Time | 10 minutes |
| Passive Time | 4-24 hours |
| Servings |
people
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- 1 bottle of your favorite red wine I used Bogle cabernet sauvignon
- 1 lime sliced
- 1 lemon sliced
- 1/2 cup of strawberries halved
- 1/2 cup of blueberries
- 1/2 cup of raspberries
- 1 cinnamon stick
Ingredients
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- Combine all the ingredients into a large pitcher.
- Transfer the pitcher into the fridge and chill for 4-6 hours or overnight. At this point, the recipe is AMAZING for regular sangria. Stop here if you just want to drink and enjoy it.
- If you want to experiment and have some fun, pour the wine into popsicle molds then freeze it for 4-6 hours or overnight.
If you're not on the keto diet add a couple tablespoons of sugar or some OJ or apple juice to sweeten the mix!
These sound oh sooooo perfect for a Friday night after work and the weekend by the pool to cool off with! 🙂 thanks for the idea!!
Anytime! I’m here for my fellow winos 🙂
Your sangria recipe looks wonderful. I don’t like anything overly sweet, so I’m pretty sure I’d love this. The popsicles are damn pretty!
Thank you so much! Have a great weekend 🙂
I am sucrose intolerant so I think I would enjoy these. But I might add some honey if I try them just to add some sweetness 🙂
I bet honey would taste fabulous!
Your videos crack me up, Christina! The look on your face when you first tasted those popsicles was priceless. 🙂 And I’ve totally been there when playing with new recipe ideas. Laura and I will look at each other and say, “well, it’s not bad…but it’s not good either.” Fortunately, you were able to save this experiment by melting the popsicles back down! And interesting point about our brains expecting something sweet when we pick up a popsicle. Makes sense, but I never thought about it!
Hahaha, yay! Yeah, it was a fun experiment I’m glad it doesn’t go to waste 🙂
Honestly, sweet or not, these sound pretty perfect right now. It’s like 95 outside right now and it’s only 6. Since it’s almost a holiday, sangria popsicles for breakfast are totally ok right? Have a great week, Christina!
Holy moly! 95 is way too hot for me! Yeah, I think if you’re forced to swelter in 95-degree heat, it’s perfectly fine to eat sangria pops for breakfast! Have a great weekend too!
Not sure I’d try a sangria popsicle, but your photos of them are so inviting! Dang! I’m all in for drinking sangria, however! Thanks for the recipe and the review!
Thank you! We saved the sangria day by letting the pops melt back into liquid. THEN it tasted amazing!
i don’t love wine, but sangria?! yes, please!! also love this dark and moody photography (:
Thank you so much!!!!
I love that you undertake these experiments and offer up honest opinions! I’m a huge sangria fan, so I would probably really enjoy these pops! Cheers Christina!
So happy you like them! 🙂