Zoku Holiday Pops Party Kit Review

Zoku Holiday Pops Party Kit Review

I was invited to try several products from Zoku and host a Tryazon party.  They were very generous and sent me the following items to try and share with my friends and family.  I hosted a holiday party and share my experience in this review.

What I was sent:

Zoku Pop Maker

Zoku Slush and Shake Maker

Zoku Chocolate Station

Zoku Storage Case

Zoku Tools

Zoku Pop sticks (extra)

Zoku Quick Pops Recipe Book

Zoku The Art of Slush Recipe Book

When I have the chance to make something homemade from scratch, that does not involve a ton of ingredients, I will usually give it a shot.   Store-bought popsicles usually contain all sorts of artificial flavors, sweeteners, and food coloring that I would prefer to do without. When you make your own pops, you can choose exactly what goes in them, so you’re not only tasting something deliciously refreshing but also something that’s good for you!  Making traditional homemade pops can seem like a hassle–especially when you have to prepare them well in advance. With the Zoku Quick Pop Maker the whole process is fun–and fast!

The Zoku Quick Pop Maker freezes ice pops in as little as seven minutes on you’re countertop without electricity. With this device you can quickly make striped pops, yogurt pops, flavored core pops and so much more! You simply store the compact base in your freezer to have the ability to make pops whenever you wish.

How It Works

The Zoku Pop Maker consists of a sturdy hard-plastic base filled with the same kind of liquid found in ice cream makers. There are three individual wells for popsicles set into the base. These are made of non-stick cast aluminum so the pops are easy to remove once frozen. The popsicle sticks are made from plastic and specially grooved to grip the popsicles. (Six popsicle sticks are included.)  You first have to freeze the base overnight. Once it's frozen solid, you insert the one popsicle stick into each well, pour in your popsicle base of choice, and wait for it to freeze. A special device called the Super Tool screws into the popsicle stick and helps to lift the frozen popsicles from the mold, which are otherwise difficult to remove by simple pulling. Snap on a drip guard and the popsicles are ready to eat.

Zoku Pop Maker 

Zoku Tools

We made a variety of popsicles to really put the Zoku through its paces. In the first round, we did a basic blueberry lemonade pop, one with slices of bananas.  In the second round, we tried making fudge pops following the recipe.  All of the lemonade pops froze solid in about 9 minutes. The fudge pops took a little longer, about 25 minutes.  We were able to do two batches of the lemonade pops before the base needed re-freezing. With the fudge pops, we only got one batch and two of the pops were stuck inside.  Only one fudge pop turned out. The lemonade pops were easy to remove from the mold using the Zoku Super Tool and made perfectly formed popsicles. 

Tazo Chai Pops with honey and bananas

Fudge Pops

Blueberry Lemonade banana pops

It was now time to try out the Zoku Slush and Shake maker.  I made a berry base that consisted of frozen berries, greek yogurt, honey and POM juice.  I put everything in the blender and poured the base into the Slush Maker.  Immediately, the sides began to freeze and I used the scraping tool to create the most delicious slush.  I really loved how easy this was to make, in just 3 minutes I had a homemade slush with natural ingredients.  

The chocolate station was the next item to experiment with.  This station allows you to drip, drizzle and dip your pop into melted chocolate.  The kids had fun with this one and I will never purchase "Magic Shell" again!

The Pro's

This device really was as simple and straight-forward to use as promised.  There are no cords to plug in, and no fancy parts to figure out.  Using the Zoku is almost completely self-explanatory.  Kids can definitely use it, though I recommend having an adult around for children under the age of 9 or so.  It made lovely popsicles and seems to work well with a lot of different base ingredients.  Since the results are so instantaneous, it was really fun to play around with adding fruit and combining flavors. 

The Cons

The Zoku was also trickier to use in some ways than we expected.  I had to turn my freezer up because the unit was not frozen after 24 hours of sitting in the freezer.  Some of the pops got stuck in the unit and the only thing that came out was the stick.  You have to be careful which recipes you choose to make, I had better success with Juice recipes as opposed to thick base recipes like the fudge pops.  Also, anything that touches the sides of the mold freezes instantly.  So if you're making a layered pop or adding fruit, it can be challenging not to drip on the sides and to position fruits where you want them.  Our pops definitely did not look as perfect as the pictures on the box!  

Everyone at the party really enjoyed creating homemade treats at home.  These gadgets are a great addition to my kitchen and I know we will have fun making these treats this summer.  If you would like to learn more about these products, you can find them on Amazon.

#tryazon
I received this item in exchange for my honest review.