Finally: A Popsicle with a Minimum Drinking Age

If you haven’t already gotten your tickets to the World Science Festival Gala (just days away!), perhaps another peek at our dessert menu will sweeten the deal. In addition to edible cups, guests will also have the chance to taste Kyl21, a futuristic vegan popsicle that comes in shapes that look like cyberpunk gemstones.

David Marx, the founder and CEO of Kyl21 maker The Science Kitchen, a Berlin-based food laboratory, says he started dreaming of creating a new kind of icy treat five years ago.

“I had this vision of the ice of the future… I wanted this ice to become beautiful, healthy, functional,” Marx told us. “I always thought of sci-fi movies: ‘Gattaca,’ ‘Minority Report.’ I said to myself, ‘what would a popsicle in the future look like?’”

The product’s name comes from “molekyl,” the Norwegian word for molecule, and 21, the intended minimum age for the popsicles (several flavors include alcoholic ingredients).

For Marx to get the precise lines and clear facets for his ice of the future, he had to rethink the popsicle from scratch. Ordinary popsicle recipes wouldn’t do, nor would the ordinary production process other companies use, where popsicles are soaked in a mixture of water, salt and alcohol.

Problem is, the traditional method results in a slower freezing rate, which means that fewer nuclei – the seeds of ice crystals — form. This slower nucleation rate means that bigger ice crystals form inside the popsicle, changing the structure in ways that make it impossible to make the delicate shapes that Marx needs.

“The texture has to be ultra-fine; otherwise you cannot put ice into my molds,” Marx says. “You have to freeze the product as fast as you can. If the [ice] crystals are too big, at the end you can only do round objects you find on the market everywhere.”

To get the fine texture the geometric molds require, Marx has to make sure his popsicles are frozen super-fast. He uses liquid nitrogen to chill his molds beforehand, then pours the liquid in and lets it sit – no need to pop them back in the freezer!

Marx, a vegan himself, uses vegan ingredients based on oats and rice rather than milk, the better to achieve his goal of a healthy ice treat. Kyl21 popsicles only have about 50-60 calories per pop, as opposed to the 300-calorie hit you take with with a typical ice cream popsicle.

Kyl21 isn’t widely available yet, but it might be someday — and Marx is hoping to make that happen with the aid of a fundraising campaign starting April 10 on Companisto, a European equity-based crowdfunding platform.