What are the Top 8 ice lollies?

ARE we kidding ourselves encouraging our kids to eat ice lollies instead of icecream? 

Is there really fruit in them, and is it of any nutritional value by the time we eat it? Could they have less calories than an ice-cream? And what about a split — a little ice-cream coated in a fruit purée? A compromise?

I have given calorie values, but there wasn’t a huge difference between the samples surveyed. Add a few saturated fats for anything with ice-cream in it, but regard any lollies as treats anyway.

Sugar and even the low amount of salt in these lollies will cause, not slake, a thirst, so while they are icy and cooling, it’s a good idea to have water to hand — and not a sugary/fizzy drink — they are not the solution to a thirst. As for real fruit content, they certainly cannot be depended on to provide any of our five-a-day. But by choosing carefully we can at least enjoy those with the most fruit and a taste of real fruit.

We had plenty of choices. Those that didn’t make the grade had some odd flavours, often quite synthetic, and had a strange oily texture with less fruit than our final choices. We looked for tastes that were refreshing, and wthe tasters were almost unanimous in our final scoring.

Tesco Finest Valencia Orange Juice Lollies 292ml €2.99