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These popsicles taste like summer. They are icy and refreshing with a turn toward the tropical. They taste intensely of mango, with just enough lime to enliven the whole thing.

They remind me of one of my favorite agua frescas, the one I inevitably, invariably order when I find myself sitting at O’Hare for any length of time within a reasonable distance of Tortas Frontera, the airport outpost of the Rick Bayless empire.

The mango lime flavor combination just hits the spot for me. It makes everything, even waiting at the airport for a delayed flight, better.

Here, I’ve taken that flavor combination and frozen it into popsicles. I can think of nothing I’d rather let drip down my arm while sitting outside on a hot summer day.

I usually start with frozen mango pulp, which I find at Mexican grocery stores. It’s easier than peeling and pureeing fresh mangoes, but you could certainly do that if you have an abundance of fresh mangoes.

You could also thaw and puree frozen mango chunks or start with a can of Alphonso mango pulp if you have access to an Indian grocery store (lucky you!).

When using frozen pulp, I break up the frozen block and gently thaw it in a saucepan over low heat until it turns to liquid. (But you could also do this in the microwave or even let it thaw in a bowl at room temperature.)

Then I put some water and sugar in a saucepan and add some lime peels and heat until the sugar dissolves to create a thin lime-infused syrup.

I let the lime syrup steep while I squeeze lime juice into the thawed mango pulp. Then I strain the syrup to remove the pieces of peel.

Then it’s a simple matter of stirring the mango-lime juice mixture into the syrup and then pouring the resulting mixture into popsicle molds, popping them in the freezer, and waiting for them to freeze.

There are about a million different popsicle molds out there, but most of them are plastic. I’ve been trying to cut down on the plastic in my life over the last few years.

These stainless steel molds are the best plastic-free popsicle molds I’ve found. They’re sturdy, easy to clean, and my popsicles never taste plasticky, which is a win for me.

This might just be my summer of popsicles.

I’ll get to making more, just after I have another one of these.

Looking for more popsicle recipes? Try these lime popsicles, these coconut vanilla bean popsicles, passion fruit-pineapple popsicles.