These Boozy Sangria Popsicles Are the Perfect Way to Celebrate National Grape Popsicle Day

So National Grape Popsicle Day is a thing – yes, seriously – and while we will forever love those purple, lip-staining treats of our childhood, we wanted a more sophisticated take on the frosty confection to celebrate. A wine-based, spiked popsicle was the natural solution to this conundrum (hello, wine is just grape juice for adults, right?). These fruity Rosé Sangria Popsicles are the perfect hybrid of the always-classic ice pop, but made with summertime cocktail-approved ingredients. The recipe is a simple mix of rosé wine (no need to use anything too fancy), white grape juice and your fave seasonal fruit, and makes for a refreshing, eye-catching and pleasantly boozy treat for your gang’s next happy hour festivities.
Ingredients:
Makes 8 popsicles
— 1/2 bottle dry rosé wine
— 1/2 cup white grape juice
— juice from 1/2 lemon
— 1 1/2 cups chopped mixed fruit (we used grapes, strawberries, plum and green apple)
— 1 Tablespoon sugar
Special Equipment:
— Popsicle molds and sticks
Instructions:
1. Chop up the fruit into bite-size pieces — it’s nice to cut the grapes in half and cut the strawberries into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Transfer the fruit to a small bowl and sprinkle over the sugar, then stir to combine, making sure all the pieces are evenly coated. Set aside and let it sit for about 10-15 minutes while you prep the rest of your ingredients.
2. Next, combine the rosé, grape juice and lemon juice together in a large measuring cup with a spout, and stir well. Taste and adjust if needed, adding a bit more grape juice if you want it sweeter or lemon to make it more tart.
3. At this point, the sugar should have drawn out some of the liquid from the fruit and softened the pieces slightly. Layer a couple of spoonfuls into each mold, gently stacking the pieces on top of each other — it’s nice to try and layer in alternating colors and have some strawberry slices placed along the sides. Then pour in the wine until the mold is filled just below the rim. Cover and freeze the popsicles for about an hour, then add in your sticks and freeze for another 3-4 hours until completely solid.
4. When you’re ready to serve, warm up the molds a bit with your hands to loosen them slightly, and then gently remove. These will be a bit meltier than a regular fruit juice popsicle because of the wine, so serve immediately or wrap them up and freeze for later.
Prep your fruit, cutting them into bite-size pieces. It’s nice to have a mix of colors and sweet, tart flavors that go well together. No rules here really; just pick your faves and chop away!
Adding a bit of sugar to the fruit helps draw out some of the moisture and makes them a better texture for freezing. This step is also called macerating and it comes in handy whenever you’re making fruit-based desserts or drinks.
Mix together the wine, grape juice and lemon juice until you have a nicely balanced drink — not too sweet and tart enough for your liking.
Add the fruit to the popsicle molds…
Followed by the liquid mix. Pour into each mold until just below the rim.
You can put in the sticks right away and forget about them, or put the popsicles in the freezer to set up for about an hour before adding them. This trick helps the sticks sit straight once fully frozen.
This recipe makes hosting summertime happy hour a breeze and will leave your friends beyond impressed and delighted. Plus, it has you covered for drinks and dessert!
And while these popsicles are great on their own, you can take them to another level by serving them in large wine or cocktail glasses and pouring over some leftover rosé or sparkling wine. It’s the ultimate spiked, slushy cocktail experience, and we highly recommend you give it a try!
And one last hot tip: If you have any leftover fruit and wine mix, pour it into an ice cube tray and add them to a glass of wine or bubbles for an extra flavorful way to keep your drinks cool this summer.
If you like this post, check out our drinks-inspired Pinterest board for more fun summer drink ideas!
Welcome to Selfmade Finance School, our new money series with Block Advisors to help small business owners with their tax, bookkeeping, and payroll needs year-round. This week, we explore the tax implications of bringing family members into your business.
The question for today is this: Does hiring your family members make sense for your business? Let me be clear. This is not a piece about whether hiring your family members makes sense for your relationships with those family members. As someone who is part of a family business, I could fill up a lot more than 600 words on my opinions about that. For today's purposes, we focus on whether it makes sense from an overall "good business and tax implication" perspective. As it turns out, there is a decent amount of tax nuance when it comes to employing your family. Let's break it down based on relationship to the employee:
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Spouses Who Are In Business Together
Personally, if I had to be in business with my husband, it would not go well. However, many couples build viable, strong businesses together and I say, good for them! Depending on how you have your business entity structured, it will make a big difference on the tax treatment of you and your spouse working as partners. Because a business jointly owned and operated by a married couple is generally treated as a partnership for Federal tax purposes, the spouses must comply with filing and record keeping requirements imposed on partnerships and their partners. The election to file two Schedule C (Form 1040) forms, (one for each spouse) permits certain married co-owners to avoid filing partnership returns, provided that each spouse separately reports a share of all the businesses' items of income, gain, loss, deduction, and credit. Under the election, both spouses will be subject to self-employment tax and on net earnings from self-employment and receive credit for Social Security earnings.
One Spouse Employs Another
If you have a dynamic where your spouse is an employee of your business, then your spouse's wages are subject to income tax withholding, Social Security and Medicare taxes. If you are self-employed (not a corporation or a partnership), your spouse's pay does not have to be included in your federal unemployment tax account (FUTA) contributions and payments. However, if your business is a corporation or a partnership you must include that spouse's pay in your unemployment tax contribution calculation.
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You Employ Your Child
First, let's be clear. I work in my family business, but I am an adult, so I am treated just like a normal employee. However, if you, for example, run a family restaurant and want to hire your children under 18 to work for you, there are some tax benefits. But first, you should check with your state for rules on how many hours minors can work (in non-agricultural jobs) and reference the Fair Labor Standards Act for information on limitations on the kinds of work children can perform.
"This is an often overlooked or under-utilized strategy. Paying your children for true services they provide in your business can be a powerful tax-saving tool," says Cathi Reed, Block Advisors Regional Director. "If you are a sole-proprietorship or single member LLC, and the child is less than 18 years of age, the business is not required to withhold FICA or payroll taxes. The child can use his or her standard deduction against income you pay."
You Hire Your Parent
Oh dear. If you are brave enough to do this, know that you will need to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes on your parent's wages and make the appropriate withholdings, but you don't have to pay unemployment taxes. Now all you have to do is convince your parent that you are the boss. Have fun with that!
Is Hiring Family Members Worth It For The Tax Benefits?
"There are some positive tax advantages to hiring family members. It's important to treat a family member like any other employee. Hiring your children can result in substantial savings for businesses. Make sure your child has real, age-appropriate work to do and a reasonable pay rate, comparable to other employees. Consult with a Block Advisors small business certified tax pro to ensure that you are complying with all requirements," advises Reed. "Block Advisors, a team within H&R Block, is dedicated to meeting the tax, bookkeeping and payroll needs of small business owners year-round. To start working with the tax experts at Block Advisors, visit blockadvisors.com."
In my opinion, you should not hire a family member solely because of the tax benefits. You should always hire based on whether that person is right for the job and keep in mind how this hire could materially impact your relationship with that person and others in your family. Finally, as I mentioned, make sure you have a tax professional on your team when making these determinations. As you can see, things can get a little tricky!
*All details were sourced from IRS.gov and blockadvisors.com
The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect those held by Kestra Investment Services, LLC or Kestra Advisory Services, LLC. This is for general information only and is not intended to provide specific investment advice or recommendations for any individual. It is suggested that you consult your financial professional, attorney, or tax advisor with regards to your individual situation. Comments concerning the past performance are not intended to be forward looking and should not be viewed as an indication of future results. Securities offered through Kestra Investment Services, LLC (Kestra IS), member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through Kestra Advisory Services, LLC (Kestra AS), an affiliate of Kestra IS. O'Keeffe Financial Partners and any other entity listed herein is not affiliated with Kestra IS or Kestra AS Investor Disclosures: https://bit.ly/KF-Disclosures