Aaaand she's back

Y'all seriously? I have been the laziest pop maker ever. Mostly because I'm trying lose weight and that all-cream Teddy Bear Massacre doesn't help. Good news: I've received a kick in the pants. I applied to be in the next forageSF market in December and have committed to making fall/winter flavors. Can I hear it for Chai? How about a spiced cider?? Mulled wine?? I think we could go crazy with this, kids.

I also looked at a space last week which would be shared with pops and others. Not quite ready to make that jump yet--- need a commercial agent and someone who can tell me if the appliances work. Oh, and some other partners to help share the rent. Yikes. It's pretty scary if I do it, but for now it's probably just keeping me out of trouble....

My popsticks bring all the boys to the yard

The forageSF underground market was a definite success on Saturday. Thanks so much to those of you who came out to support me, Jess and Sean for being my booth bitches, and the family Sklad for providing so many things I needed to actually set up my stand.

The deets:

We got to Oakland after a sweet dry-ice run to Bayshore and after Jess took a wee nap while I hauled literally hundreds of pops down three flights of stairs to monstrous cooler Sklad provided. I mean, this cooler was large enough to be my next apartment, probably the one I’ll live in after I decide to become a full-time Popsiclist. But I digress. It was hot as balls in Oakland and I stood trying to create shade for said cooler while I yelled at it “you better stay frozen in there!” at the pops. I got the first crazypants award at the fair, which I thought the guy with suspenders really deserved. After seriously micro-managing Jessica’s sign-making (I knew I couldn’t trust her after she purchased a babyshit-colored fanny pack as our cash box), we were ready to go. It was 5pm! It was hot! The world was ready for pops!

Business for the first hour or so was pretty slow. We got a lot of “I want something savory first, and then I’ll come back.” I totally get that, and to their credit, a lot of them did actually come back. Including a person who still bought a pop even after I accused him of cheating on his taxes and murdering a hobo. How’s that for salesmanship?? We also got a lot of, “You know that ‘pop’ is what some people call ‘soda,’ right?” Well, lady, I’M THOSE PEOPLE so I can understand the confusion. Except when there is a picture of a “popsicle” and a flavor like cookies and cream. Sheesh.

My misanthropy aside, we met some great people. First, a guy who organizes an event called Dirty Dishes DJ’s who thinks pops might be right for an upcoming event – that’s right, I’m already working on my next gig! Second, a guy who talked to us about the names of the flavors (i.e.: Teddy bear Massacre) and stated, “I love pot smokers.” Quite the assumption. Quite. Third, a small black child (you know I love those) who freaked, literally FREAKED, about the Sir Berry Basil. “It tastes LIKE REAL STRAWBERRIES.” Abby: “That’s because it’s made with real strawberries.” Kid: “But it tastes like REAL STRAWBERRIES.” Rinse and repeat. Lots of lovely people. Oh! And I even had someone say that they read about my pops. Commence me shitting myself with glee.

So bottom line, I sold a good deal of pops. I got a lot of super positive feedback on the flavors. I even made a little bit of money and didn’t eat all my profits like the last time I worked at a craft fair with mom making dog collars. Let’s hope they will let me back in to the next SF market and that if I just casually start selling out of a cooler in Dolores Park, that I don’t get arrested. Mmmmmmkay?

My prezzzesh coveragezzzz

SF Examiner

Yeddy Bears Unite

Best.Week.Ever.

HOLY MOLY!!

POPStand will be at the Oakland Underground Market this Saturday from 5-11pm. To say I'm excited would be a massive understatement. Sign up here. It would mean the WORLD to me to see friendly faces as a hawk frozen treats to unsuspecting strangers.

Flavors to Savor:
Mission Chocolate (totally non-authentic Mexican spicy chocolate)
Mr Strawberry Basil, Esq. (S thought he sounded fancy, so we're giving him a title)
Teddybear Massacre (Cookies and Cream)
Red Headed Favorite (Strawberry-Ginger Beer)

If you've got better naming ideas, I'm totally open to them. Crowd-source this shit!

Also, gigantic huge massive thanks to Jessica, without whom this could never be possible. She brought the samples in to the forage guys while I was out of town. Thanks for making this first VERY BIG STEP in my dream a reality.

And now, what I spent Sunday evening doing. I'm six packets deep into chocolate pudding and there's really no stopping me.

And hey, like POPStand on facebook, why don't you?

Cupcakes vs. Pops

How about a little controversy for a Thursday morning?

So obviously I love pops. Love love love. But I'm not going to lie, I love cupcakes too. And I love the trend cupcakes have followed -- become more gourmet, try innovative flavors, show up every-fucking-where -- and I think it's a similar one to what pops can do. After all, it seems everywhere else in the US of A has their own gourmet pop provider -- certainly NYC and LA, but also places like DC and other cities without acronyms.  But it's not big in SF... why not? Is it my beloved "always fall" weather? Are we simply behind on culinary trends? Is there an over-saturation of the cold food market due to too much gourmet ice cream (Bi-Rite, Humphrey Slocombe, Three Twins)? Why haven't pops caught on in SF the way cupcakes did?

Talk amongst yourselves.

In other news, agave totally blows. Okay, it's probably user error, but trying to substitute it for sugar in a watermelon pop lead to a sticky layer of agave sitting on top of the pop instead of staying mixed in. Yuck-o. I will continue experimenting with sugar alternatives. Right now, I'm using organic evaporated cane juice and sometimes honey, but I'm open to other things. Any ideas, health-nuts?

Last piece of news: Samples are due next week for the Oakland Underground Farmer's Market. Hooray! Of course, that's the one week I'm out of town (going recruiting back in Chapel Hill, mainly to see my old puppy) so Jessica is becoming pretty much the best person ever by taking my samples in. Let's hear it for Jess! Hip, hip... hooray!! Oh, and I made up new names for them! Tell me what you think -- just offensive enough? Samples flavors are (drumroll pleeease):

Strawberry Ginger Beer  (Red-headed favorite)
Cookies and Cream (Teddybear Massacre)
Mission Brown (Mexican Chocolate)

So good I could golf!

For your Friday afternoon popfix -- here are the Arnold Palmer pops I made last night.

Refreshing and not too sweet. Although next time I'm using more pulpy lemonade -- I gotta have my texture.

Pops never looked so good!

Ohhhhhhh so I did some good work this weekend. It was gorgeous and hot in SF on Monday and I had made two kinds of pops, replacing all the melted, deformed ones in my freezer. We're talking double chocolate pudding pops (all the way) and the perfection of cherry yogurt honey.

So here are some pictures of all the hotness -- had the aperture a little low (whoops) but hey, look how good half the people look -- sorry for the half of you (Monnn) who are a little blurry. I'll take gorgeous pictures of you latah.

Thanks for being my pop models, you girls are all the hotness. So says the blanket(s) next to us as well. ;)

ALSO, who is excited for the Forage Underground Market this weekend??!??!  I'll be there (as a very hungry customer) during the evening sesh, and maybe next time, as a vendor! One can only hope!

Melting is not our friend when the pop is not in the mouth.

Well I managed to overlook actually closing the freezer door all the way the other night -- it may have had something to do with all the wine I drank and the fact that Jess brought over mini cups of ben and jerry's. Leaving the freezer door slightly ajar tends to melt things inside, or at the very least, give them a nasty case of freezer burn. Whoops. So I'm cleaning out the fridge (after work hours, I swear) and then I'll start making fresh batches of pops. This cloud of melted pop sadness has a silver lining, however. If all the pops left in the old freezer are undesirable, then everything melting combats my innate hoarding mechanism and now I HAVE to throw them out and not feed them to you. Phew.

If you're free for some Dolores Park on Monday, put in your requests now. So far I'm looking to perfect cherry-yogurt-honey (and actually include sticks this time) and the decapitated teddy grahams and cream. But it might be time to try out a basil gimlet... Thoughts? Ideas?

Links:

Chilled Out via Kate

What you can expect in Dolo on Monday -- pops and loveliness