Three Frozen Treats to Try When It’s Just Too Hot Out

Now that it’s officially summer — and the complaints about the heat have already started rolling in — what better way to celebrate than with an icy treat? Chill out with these latest frozen chosen offerings at spots around Boston.

Wild Pops

Jamaica Plain-based frozen pop company, Wild Pops, finds that sweet spot between the American classic popsicle and innovative flavors using in-season ingredients. Though its storefront has closed to customers, you can still find owner Shira Gold’s creations — including lavender lemonade, tamarind pineapple, and mango coconut sticky rice with real coconut-soaked rice — at farmer’s markets around town. And do check out the sake and pop pairings at Brighton’s Koji Club, which Esquire just dubbed one of the country’s best bars.

Now, Gold is finding herself in quite a pickle. Creating a pickle pop, that is. Harpoon recently tapped her to create a savory pickle pop — fun fact that pickle brine is incredibly hydrating, so keep that in mind when you open the fridge after your latest workout — ahead of their partnership with adult sports league Hub Sports. When Harpoon’s new pickleball courts open at the Seaport brewery in July, guests will be able to slurp pickle pops between matches.

“It sounds crazy, but our first test runs are actually delicious,” Gold says. The pops are a mix of cucumbers, brine, garlic, fresh dill, and grape leaves. “We may or may not include actual pieces of cucumber — still taste-testing and deciding — but we are using Grillo’s brine, so it has been soaked with the pickles for that cucumber-y taste.”

You might be able to snag some small-batch test creations at farmer’s markets ahead of the partnership, where Gold test-drives flavors. If they’re enough of a hit, like the strawberry coconut cream, they may make it onto the roster of always-offered flavors. Other pop partnerships down the pipeline include making a coffee pop with Kohi’s chicory-spiked New Orleans iced coffee, and a peach iced tea for Lipton. Along with switching over to in-season blood orange for the dreamy orange creamsicle pop, expect a new peaches and cream pop later this summer.

Slushy Lady

Slushy Lady

Remember that sugar-rush of euphoria that would hit when you heard the chime of the slush truck as a kid? Myesha Slaughter is bringing that magic back with her Slushy Lady mobile Italian ice truck, which you can find most Sundays at the Station open-air events space in Fenway. (She’s booked with private events this coming weekend, though returns on July 9 from noon to 5 pm.) “Mango, rainbow, and blue raspberry are our most popular flavor options, but all of them are delicious,” Slaughter says.

Her creations at the Station and other public pop-ups are spirit-free, but customers can also hire Slushy Lady to mix up slushy cocktails and mocktails for private events. Take her “Whole Lotta Colada” signature cocktail, which mixes piña colada and coconut cream Italian ices with either Malibu and Parrot bay or pineapple and coconut Ciroc vodka. It sounds like a cooling Caribbean cruise in a cup.

Bar Volpe

Brian Samuels Photography/Bar Volpe

You might think of Bar Volpe — the younger, southern Italian-focused sibling to Karen Akunowicz’s Fox & the Knife — as a more of destination for scratch-made pastas than desserts. But let this cooling sorbetto convince you otherwise. A blueberry lavender sorbetto is the latest seasonal star on the dessert menu, while a raspberry basil sorbetto on offer down the street at Fox & the Knife.

Along with a must-try citrus olive oil cake by pastry chef Liana Sinclair, another permanent dessert menu fixture is the grapefruit granita. Served with Campari milk jam, honeyed grapefruit, rose meringue, and pistachio brittle, pair it with an after-dinner amaro float on the sunny patio that’s now open.