The Best Popsicle Molds

Writer Haley Sprankle has tested products for Wirecutter's guides to kitchen towels, dish racks, and oven mitts and pot holders. While working on the 2021 update of this guide, Haley interviewed Fany Gerson, owner of La Newyorkina and author of Paletas: Authentic Recipes for Mexican Ice Pops, Shaved Ice & Aguas Frescas.

For our 2015 update, in order to ascertain which features were most important in an ice pop mold, which materials work best for a home cook, and how to make the best ice pops, writer Molly Simms interviewed Reuben Ben Jehuda, owner and co-founder of the Popbar chain, and Charity Ferreira, who penned the 2011 cookbook Perfect Pops. For the original 2013 guide, writer Jamie Wiebe spoke with Douglas Goff, a food scientist specializing in ice cream at the University of Guelph, and David Carrell at Brooklyn-based pop shop People’s Pops (now closed).

Pop molds aren’t must-have kitchen items like saucepans or can openers—most home cooks function just fine without them. But when summer rolls around and you have kids or overheated party guests at your house, you’ll be very glad you own them. Nothing tastes better on a muggy day than a fresh, mouth-numbing ice pop, pulled right out of the freezer and eaten under a patio umbrella.

Though premade Popsicles and other ice pops are easy to find, making them at home is the perfect activity for frozen-dessert fans who want to experiment with flavors and creative recipes. If you don’t have the space or the budget for an ice cream maker, a set of molds and a waiting freezer are all you need to become a frozen-treat maestro. The process is also a fun and simple kitchen project for kids or adults and can be customized for those who have dietary restrictions or who want something with less sugar than is found in the pops you can buy in the store. Plus, if you eat a lot of ice pops, making your own can be a lot cheaper in the long run than buying them.

We looked for pop molds that would be pleasant to use from start to finish—filling the mold, removing the pops, and cleaning up after—and found that materials, shape, and a few thoughtful design features were the biggest determining factors.

Choosing between plastic, silicone, or stainless steel

Pop molds generally come in one of three different materials: plastic, silicone, or stainless steel. Each has its own pros and cons, but generally we recommend plastic or silicone.

Plastic molds are cheap and readily available, and overall the plastic molds we’ve tested over the years have performed well (our current top pick is plastic). The biggest downsides to plastic are that it’s prone to breaking if you drop it while it’s frozen, and that it sticks to frozen pops more than silicone—plastic molds need to be run under warm water until they release their precious icy cargo. Plastic molds work best for making smooth, simple shapes that can slide out easily.

Silicone is a great material for ice pop molds since it’s flexible, doesn’t become brittle at freezing temperatures, and simply peels away from frozen matter, making pop removal a cinch even when you’re dealing with complex shapes. As food scientist Douglas Goff told us, “Plastic under a microscope is very rough, with lots of nooks and crannies, so ice can easily adhere to it and that makes withdrawal of a frozen novelty out of a plastic mold difficult. Silicone repels water, so the lack of stick is mostly due to the lack of interaction between water/ice and silicone at the surface of the mold.” Durability can be an issue—accidentally puncture these molds with a sharp object in the dishwasher, cabinet, or sink, and they’re permanently out of commission. Plus, silicone can emit a not-too-pleasant smell and is more likely than plastic to hold on to the odors of pops past (or anything else in your freezer). But overall, the benefits of silicone (and the fun shapes it can produce) make it a good alternative to plastic.

Stainless steel molds are the most difficult to find and can cost more than a novice pop maker may be willing to spend. Steel is durable and doesn’t retain any off scents, but it’s not flexible, so you have to run the mold under warm water to remove your pops. Ultimately, we haven’t found any stainless steel molds we’d recommend.

Other considerations

Shape: The shape of a mold can affect how pleasant your pop is to eat, as well as which recipes might freeze and release successfully. Pops that have a roundish shape and mostly fit in the mouth are easier to eat; if they’re too big or bottom-heavy, the bottom half might become a drippy mess before you get to it. Generally, smooth molds are the most versatile for a variety of recipes. “Molds that have a lot of elaborate detail to the shape will work best with mixtures that are going to freeze really solid, like fruit juice,” said Charity Ferreira, author of Perfect Pops. “Anything creamy or boozy or with chunks is not going to show much definition when you freeze it in a mold with a lot of detail.” She also told us that pops involving ice cream “or anything else that will freeze on the softer side” may be harder to extract from detailed molds. (In our own tests, we found that creamier pudding pops worked fine in the more elaborate molds we recommend but tended to lose detail faster than juice pops once they started melting.)

Size: For adults we preferred molds that held between 3 and 4 ounces of liquid. Larger pops can become tiring and messy to eat, and less than 3 ounces just isn’t enough unless you’re exclusively feeding toddlers. But if you are feeding toddlers or kids, we’ve found that the ideal size ranges between 1.25 and 2 ounces.

Easy-to-use design: A tray helps prevent pops from falling over and keeps your freezer organized. Even better is a tray from which you can easily remove individual pop molds; when all the molds are connected, it can be quite difficult to remove just one pop without disturbing the rest—particularly if the mold is made of plastic and requires some running under hot water to release the icy treat. Another helpful feature that some sets (including our main pick) have is a built-in drip guard on each stick to collect sticky drops before they hit your shirt.

Reusable sticks: We prefer molds that come with reusable sticks, since buying wooden sticks and inserting them in pops can be a hassle, especially if you run out of them and can’t make pops spontaneously. In our tests we looked for reusable sticks that felt smooth and not too pointy in the mouth during the final stages of eating so that they didn’t present a hazard to children.

All of our picks come with reusable plastic sticks, but if you, like Ferreira, prefer the look and feel of old-fashioned wooden sticks, you can still use those with most molds. Ferreira taught us a hack she uses to modify molds that aren’t originally designed for wooden sticks: “You can cover the top of the mold with foil, make a slit in the foil, and insert the stick. That holds the stick in place while the mixture freezes.”

Easy to clean: We looked for molds that were easy to clean. If a mold has a lot of little pieces and crevices, cleaning them by hand can be time consuming and complicated. We did pick some silicone molds that were more detailed, but none of them were too cumbersome to clean, possibly because it’s easier to get at crevices when they’re made of flexible silicone. It’s also nice if you can just toss a mold in the dishwasher, but we didn’t rule out any molds that weren’t dishwasher safe.

Durability: In our tests, we looked for molds that were sturdily built, with sticks that weren’t likely to snap in half and molds that wouldn’t shatter when dropped.

For our most recent update, we researched the ice pop molds available and tested five new ones against our previous picks. During our last round of testing, we made three different types of ice pops: a version with just mango juice, fudge pops, and mixed-fruit pops (video). We used these recipes in order to understand how the molds would perform with different consistencies—simple, smooth pops, creamy pops, and chunky ones, respectively. We followed the molds’ specific cleaning and care instructions during testing, but we also put those that weren’t dishwasher safe through one final wash in the dishwasher to see how they would hold up to the occasional cycle.

In previous tests, we used four different recipes in each mold: pure orange juice, Creamsicle-like yogurt pops, mixed fruit, and fudge. We did two rounds of pop testing in each mold, and then we hand-washed all the molds to assess how difficult they were to clean and care for.

The Tovolo Classic Pop Molds unseated our former reigning champion, the Zoku Round Pop Molds, after a near-perfect round of testing. These plastic molds created consistent ice pops, with a classic tall shape and rounded top. Even with denser, heavier chunks of fruit inside, the pops didn’t break as often as those from other molds we tested. The design lets you remove the plastic molds from the tray one at a time, so you can easily dip or rinse an individual mold in warm water to release a pop without melting the rest. The reusable sticks have an effective drip catcher, too, and the entire set is dishwasher safe, so you’re dealing with less mess while eating and easy cleanup when you’re done.

In our tests, filling these molds was a breeze. Due to their classic shape and lack of tiny grooves or intricate designs (we found ice pops got trapped in molds with too much detail), these molds were perfect for plain-juice pops, versions with whole pieces of fruit, and fudge pops alike. The molds lock into place on the tray, as well, so we didn’t ever worry about a mold slipping out of place on the tray the way we did with one of our picks for kids, the Tovolo Penguin Pop Molds.

No matter the recipe, our pops came out quickly and easily after we soaked the Tovolo Classic mold in warm water for about 10 seconds (you can’t peel the mold off in the same way you can a silicone mold). This wasn’t the case with many other molds we tested—one competing set even needed two people working together to release the pops. We also appreciate that the Tovolo Classic design allows you to take out one mold at a time instead of having to soak an entire tray of molds in warm water to remove the pops (as we had to do with one of our previous picks, the Norpro Frozen Ice Pop Maker); this way, you can have one and save the rest for later, eat five at once with a larger group, or go for any option in between.

The pops themselves are easy to eat, with a classic shape and a drip catcher attached to the handle that stops potential messes effectively. Although we did still manage to spill some melted pop, that was after we tipped the pop completely to the side when trying to finish it (the fudge pops were just that good). If you hold your pops mostly upright or even at a slight slant, you should have few issues with the drip catcher.

At about 9 inches long, 3 inches wide, and 6 inches tall, the set doesn’t take up too much space overall, especially considering it makes five full-size pops. In contrast, the Tovolo Penguin Pop Molds set that we recommend is 1½ inches longer and 1 inch wider, and it yields only four smaller pops. Thanks to the Tovolo Classic set’s slim profile, you can slide it into narrower spaces in your freezer, so there’s less need for you to rearrange bags of frozen peas or a chuck roast you may have forgotten about.

Once you’ve consumed the pops, you can toss both the molds and the tray into the dishwasher and let it work its magic. If you don’t have a dishwasher, these pieces are fairly simple to hand-wash—they don’t have many crevices for you to worry about reaching. The ease and convenience of the Tovolo Classic Pop Molds make them the best all-around popsicle molds we’ve tested, hands down. Though our former pick, the Zoku Round Pop Molds, were also easy to use, they weren’t dishwasher safe, nor did they have an effective drip tray.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

Although the Tovolo Classic Pop Molds performed the best overall among the “classic” pop molds in our tests thanks to their great shape, compact tray, and effective drip catcher, plastic molds in general can sometimes be finicky to remove a pop from. Whereas some of our tested silicone molds allowed us to pull the pops right out without any hesitation or a dip in warm water, sometimes we had to work a little harder to jimmy the pops out of the Tovolo Classic molds. But since these molds were still better than many of the other plastic molds we tested, we don’t consider that bit of extra effort to be a dealbreaker.

It’s safe to say that no matter what age kids are, they love a good ice pop. The Tovolo Penguin Pop Molds and the Zoku Fish Pop Molds are both fun options for kids. The Tovolo Penguin molds are slightly larger than the Zoku’s, and can be removed from the tray, whereas the Zoku Fish Pop Molds are smaller and fixed in their tray. Both mold sets are made of silicone with a hard-plastic tray, have drip guards, and release their pops easily. Both sets come in a few other shapes, too.

Tovolo Penguin Pop Molds

The Tovolo Penguin molds hold about 2 ounces per pop, making an icy treat that’s small enough not to be overwhelming for kids. And they come in unique, cute shapes—each penguin has its own look—that are fairly easily removable from their individual silicone molds. The sticks are reusable, and each piece of this set is dishwasher safe.

Like the Tovolo Classic molds, these molds are designed to let you remove them individually from the tray. When filling the Tovolo Penguin molds, you must first place each individual silicone penguin in a cylindrical slot on the tray. But be aware that there’s nothing to secure each silicone mold in place on the tray aside from the slots themselves: You need to fill the molds carefully so that the edge of the silicone mold doesn’t tilt off-balance and slip through the slot in the tray, causing a spill. Once you’ve filled all the molds, you top each one off with a playful stick that looks like a little iceberg. Take care not to overfill the molds before placing the sticks; if the molds are too full, the pops will freeze over the drip guard, leaving no barrier between your fingers and a melting pop. It’s a good rule of thumb to fill the mold to right before it widens at the top, so the stick can fit snugly.

Although the penguin pops don’t come out instantly with a simple tug like the Zoku-mold fish pops do, all you have to do to remove each penguin is peel off the silicone gently to ensure nothing gets stuck in the mold—no warm-water dip required. Still, the details in the penguins mean they aren’t ideal for a pop recipe that includes big chunks of fruit or other solid ingredients. In our mixed-fruit pop (video) tests, the whole grapes and blackberries made it difficult for us to fill the molds and remove the pops, while smaller pieces of fruit such as raspberries, blueberries, and sliced strawberries were much easier to work with.

The penguin shape itself is simple to eat, and the reusable sticks have flat drip guards at the base of each pop. These drip guards aren’t as effective as the cup-shaped drip catcher on the Tovolo Classic molds, but they do protect fingers from coming into direct contact with the pop.

The Tovolo Penguin Pop Molds and their tray are bigger and a little clunkier than our top pick, even though they make just four pops instead of five. The tray is about 10½ inches long, 4 inches wide, and 5 inches tall. It’s also bigger than the Zoku Fish Pop Molds tray, which makes six pops, albeit smaller ones. But unlike with the Fish Pop Molds set, you can throw this whole thing—penguin molds, reusable sticks, and all—straight into the dishwasher.

Tovolo also makes these molds in other shapes. Although we don’t recommend the tiki-shaped molds based on our tests (the grooves in each mold made it too difficult for us to release the pops), we imagine that some other, similarly shaped molds (such as the monster, sword, and zombie sets) would likely perform akin to the Penguin Pop Molds, as they don’t have too many grooves for the pop to get caught up in.

Zoku Fish Pop Molds

If you’re looking for a smaller alternative for kids, we recommend the Zoku Fish Pop Molds. The aquatic shapes turn out remarkably crisp and professional looking, true to the photos on the box. In our tests, the silicone molds worked impressively well, seamlessly releasing each pop, and the 1.25- to 1.5-ounce size of each pop is just the right size for toddlers on up, though this smaller capacity does make the molds easy to overfill and less versatile for the whole family.

Despite their level of detail, we found the fish pops easy to unsheath from the Zoku silicone molds with a simple tug. It actually helps that the molds are firmly attached to their silicone tray, so the mold just turns inside out as you pull on the stick. And since you don’t need to run these molds under warm water to loosen your ice pops, it’s not a problem to remove one at a time. Although Charity Ferreira, the author of Perfect Pops, told us that creamier recipes often don’t show detail as well when placed in elaborate molds, we didn’t find that to be a problem with these molds.

When you insert the plastic handles, they just rest jauntily on top of the liquid and don’t lock into place. That’s not a huge design flaw, but it is slightly confusing the first time you use these molds. The plastic sticks are shaped to correspond to each of the clownfish, shark, whale, octopus, scuba diver, and puffer fish molds, and a small symbol on each mold goes with a symbol on a stick (don’t overfill the molds, as the liquid will cover up the symbols). If you want to get the desired visual effect, you need to match the symbols, but rest assured that mixing them up isn’t that detrimental to the outcome of the final pop. In fact, we bet kids would be amused by the sight of the scuba diver with squid legs.

Like some other silicone molds, the Fish Pop Molds do have a slight chemical odor out of the box, but that should go away after the first few times you wash them.

We found the molds somewhat difficult to clean. For one thing, this set is the only one among our picks that isn’t dishwasher safe. Even though we threw these pieces into the dishwasher and they held up just fine, we wouldn’t recommend regularly doing so. You also have to push each silicone mold inside out to ensure that you clean it thoroughly, and since the molds and the tray are all one piece, we found the whole thing a bit cumbersome to maneuver in the sink. Ultimately, though, cleaning wasn’t so much of a hassle that we thought it was a dealbreaker.

The quirky Lékué Tropical Fruit Ice Pop Molds charmed us during our recent tests. They’re great for both kids and adults, offering something cute but not childish. The tropical-fruit set of silicone molds includes two shapes—a watermelon slice and a pineapple—that are perfect for summer snacking. (Lékué also sells molds in other shapes, including strawberries and cacti.) Though they have no tray, the lidded molds (which come in a set of four or eight depending on where you find them) are small and stackable, leaving you plenty of freezer real estate. The silicone is easy to peel off the pops, the reusable stick fits securely in a slot, and each piece is dishwasher safe.

We found it pretty simple to fill these molds when making our different recipes. The main issue to look out for is that you need to put the reusable stick in its slot before you fill the mold with juice—otherwise the juice leaks out of the slot (we may or may not have spilled mango juice all over the kitchen table during testing). You should also avoid overfilling each mold, so you can place the lid on top without making the liquid overflow. Keep in mind too that the flexible silicone molds are a little unstable, so you need to be careful not to spill the liquid when transporting them to the freezer. It might help to stack them on a tray first.

As with the Tovolo Penguin Pop Molds, you have to peel the silicone off the pop when you’re ready to eat it. But unlike other silicone molds we’ve tested, this mold design also requires you to push the stick forward through its slot in the silicone to release the whole thing. At first, we thought this task might be challenging, but once we got the hang of the process, it wasn’t so bad. Between the two mold shapes (pineapple and watermelon), we found the pineapple mold a little more finicky to use: When we made mixed-fruit pops, the bulkier chunks of fruit made it too easy for the top of the pineapple shape to break off its base. Even if we extracted a pop from the mold just fine, sometimes the top would break off while we were eating. We imagine you might run into the same issue with the cactus-shaped pop molds. Fortunately, the pineapples held up well with strictly liquid recipes. With the watermelon-shaped pop molds, we had no problems with the chunky-fruit or liquid recipes.

Lékué’s pop sticks also lack a drip catcher, so if you’re serving these pops to kids, you may want to have some paper towels on hand. No drippage was too egregious during our tests with adults—the results were similar to what you would get with any pop you might buy at the grocery store.

The watermelon-slice mold is about 6 inches long (including the reusable stick), 3 inches wide, and 1¼ inches tall, while the pineapple mold measures about 7 inches long, 3¼ inches wide, and 1¼ inches tall. Their footprint in a freezer is minimal since you can stack molds of the same shape together, and you can choose to freeze just a couple at a time, so they give you lots of flexibility to work with your space. The Lékué Tropical Fruit Ice Pop Molds are also dishwasher safe.

Lékué offers a few other shapes of pop molds. We chose to test the Tropical Fruit set so that we could try out one of the line’s sturdier (watermelon) and potentially more precarious (pineapple) shapes. If you’re interested in trying other Lékué silicone molds, the classic ones should work similarly to the watermelon shape, and other shapes (such as the cactus) should do at least as well as the pineapple.

Although the Lékué molds are a little more expensive, they’re a great option for adults who want to add a little whimsy to their summer snacks. They’d be especially fun to use for boozy pops at a party, although if you go that route, Fany Gerson, owner of La Newyorkina and author of Paletas: Authentic Recipes for Mexican Ice Pops, Shaved Ice & Aguas Frescas, recommends pouring your favorite adult beverage into a glass and then dipping your ice pop in rather than trying to make pops with alcohol in them (since alcohol doesn’t freeze well). “It starts to melt, so it kind of has different stages of how you enjoy it, but it’s delicious,” she said. “So first, you dip the popsicle in the alcohol—you suck the popsicle, you get that juice—but then it starts to melt, and then it creates another drink.”

Though some of our picks are pretty compact, they still might be more than some households need. If you don’t have the cabinet space to store the molds when you aren’t using them, or if you don’t anticipate getting enough use out of an ice pop mold to justify storing one in the first place, Fany Gerson has the perfect suggestion, something that you can find in your local grocery store: As an alternative to buying a mold, Gerson recommends buying Dixie cups and disposable wooden sticks. Since the cups are disposable already, you can just peel the paper off and enjoy your pop without struggling to free it.

It’s best to wash pop molds thoroughly after every use. Most of our picks (except for the Zoku Fish Pop Molds) are entirely dishwasher-friendly, which makes cleanup easy if you own a dishwasher. If you prefer hand-washing your molds, we’ve found that rinsing molds shortly after using them prevents gunk from drying on if you can’t thoroughly wash them right away. You should also take care not to use harsh scouring pads or steel wool while cleaning, so as not to scratch the molds (this goes for both plastic and silicone). And keep silicone molds far from any knives or other pointy objects in your sink or dishwasher, so you don’t accidentally puncture them.

If you’re bothered by the smell that silicone tends to retain, there are tons of tricks you can use to get rid of the odor. If you can separate the silicone pieces from any plastic ones, try heating the silicone parts in an oven at low temperature to bake the smell out. If you can’t detach the silicone from the plastic, you can instead try soaking your molds in a 50-50 mixture of white vinegar and warm water.

If you want an even number of pops: The Zoku Classic Pop Molds, our former runner-up pick, were out of stock for most of the spring and summer of 2020. Although such scarcity can be common for seasonal items, the Tovolo Classic Pop Molds haven’t had that problem. We retested in 2021 when the Zoku classic molds became available again, and found they performed identically to our top pick, the Tovolo Classic, easily releasing the pops after 20-30 seconds under running water. If you can find the Zoku set in stock, we like that it makes six ice pops instead of the Tovolo’s five. But unlike the Tovolo molds, these aren’t dishwasher safe.

If you prefer a round pop: We also retested our former favorite, the Zoku Round Pop Molds, in 2021, and appreciated the unusual, chic shape and easy release of its pops. But again, the mold isn’t dishwasher safe like most of our current picks. Readers have noted, too, that the resulting pop shape can be difficult to eat, and the drip catcher is relatively ineffective.

If you'd like a sleek pop: We also tested the Zoku Mod Pop Molds in 2021. They were comparable to the brand’s Classic Pop Molds, except the pops they made had more squared edges. Yet again, these are a great option and performed just as well as the Tovolo Classic molds with each of our testing recipes, but they’re not dishwasher safe.

If you want simple pops with a cute factor: In the cute-for-kids category, we give an honorable mention to the Cuisipro Mini Pop Molds set, which features a small, unobtrusive drip tray and makes small pops that are just the right size for kids. Each stick is shaped like an animal—we tried the Safari collection—and the molds have interlocking segments that allow them to fit together, making them more stable for pouring and placing in the freezer. At four pops for $17 at this writing, these molds are not the cheapest options, but they felt well made, and the resulting egg-shaped pop was easier for our testers to eat than the ultra-round Zoku-mold pops. The handles also fit snugly onto the mold, making them less prone to spillage when we were transferring them from the countertop to the freezer. Still, the resulting pops were nowhere near as cute as the Zoku fish pops, so these molds ultimately failed to make the cut.

Many of the molds we’ve tested over the years are now out of stock or discontinued. Here are our thoughts on the ones that are still available.

The Norpro Frozen Ice Pop Maker quickly became guide writer Haley Sprankle’s enemy during our tests. The experience was like putting a fitted sheet on a bed, but in reverse: The lid to the mold was almost impossible to remove, with each corner being so dependent on the others to perfectly pop off. At one point, we needed two people working together to lift the lid. Although this mold used to be our pick for a crowd, these days we think you’re better off investing in two sets of the Tovolo Classic Pop Molds for an easier time.

The push-pop-style Zoku Summer Pop Molds functioned well, but they came with one major price to pay—the smells that silicone tends to pick up from a freezer. Although the silicone molds we recommend also acquire odors, you’re meant to remove the pops from those molds, and that way, you escape the smell. The Summer Pop Molds, on the other hand, stay with you as you’re eating, putting the smell right in your face the whole time. But if the smell doesn’t bother you, these tube-shaped molds do work well, with almost no real drippage.

The Tovolo Tiki Pop Molds were too cute not to test, but with each and every recipe we tried, it was just too difficult for us to get the mold off the pop, whether we pulled or peeled (the latter is the recommended removal tactic). The size and the level of detail seemed to make it too tough for us to remove the ice pop cleanly.

In our tests, the Tovolo Groovy Pop Molds were not good at creating anything but fruity pops. The stick tended to pull out sans ice pop—either that, or the pop wouldn’t come out at all. The frozen molds also shattered into small pieces when we dropped them on the floor with ice inside.

Tovolo’s Jewel Pop Molds are too small, capable of holding only 1 ounce of liquid. Reviewers say that the pops are difficult to get out of the tray, and that the plastic stick tends to break in half.

The ice pops we made in the Cuisipro Snap-Fit Circle Pop Mold broke in half almost every single time. They’re nicely shaped and a reasonable size, but we spent too long trying to get the little bit of ice pop stuck at the bottom of the mold to melt enough to drink.

This article was edited by Marilyn Ong and Marguerite Preston.