Behind the Scenes with King of Pops
Earlier this summer, I chatted with the team behind King of Pops here in Richmond and we kicked around some ideas for a pop flavor with a vegetable twist. They’d been pondering a berry + rhubarb combination, and the wheels started turning!
Last week I had a chance to go behind the scenes and see how these new pop flavors get made! As you can imagine, there was quite a bit of taste testing along the way. No complaints here!
First off, if you’re not in Richmond, you can also find King of Pops up in Nashville, Atlanta, Athens, Savannah, Charleston, Greenville, & Charlotte. (So if you’re taking a trip around the east coast, you might spot one of their rainbow umbrellas!) I’ve been a fan of their chocolate sea salt pops for years, but King of Pops does more than just dream up delicious flavors of desserts. They’re spreading happiness across their local communities. Part of that is working with local farms to source ingredients but the other part is just getting involved in their cities. King of Pops here in Richmond hosts a free weekly yoga class in the park. How cool is that?! Their self-proclaimed purpose is “to create Unexpected Moments of Happiness.” Now that’s a mission I can get behind!
Most of their pops are made with just a few simple ingredients. This particular batch was blackberries (from Agriberry Farms, a local farm not far from Richmond!) rhubarb, sugar, lime, and salt. Simple, but such a delicious combination!
When I arrived at the shop, they’d prepped the rhubarb by cooking it down with a little sugar and lemon juice. A quick spin with the largest immersion blender I’ve ever seen whipped the rhubarb into velvety perfection. We then blended up the blackberries with a little sugar, and started the process of adding rhubarb, tasting, and repeating.
To bring out a little more of the fruity flavors, we added a few pinches of salt and a little lime juice to make the flavors pop.
Tasting after tasting until we discovered the perfect flavor balance!
Once we settled on the final combination, we poured the liquid into frozen molds, added in the sticks, and within about 30 minutes, the first batch was ready to go!
The flavor combination of the blackberry and rhubarb was awesome and you can’t beat that gorgeous color! I even got to help slip this first batch into the bags!
If you’re around Richmond, keep an eye out for this flavor! And if you’re at King of Pop’s yoga on Tuesday evening, come find me! I’ll be there on my purple yoga mat!
If you don’t have a King of Pops nearby but you’re craving some frozen treats, you can try this simple frozen pop hack or this 2 ingredient mango fro-yo. But if you have a King of Pops near by, you should swing by and try out their newest flavors!
I’ve never heard of these! Our boys love popsicles and we try to keep them on hand in the summer. Thanks!
I haven’t heard of them, but they look so good! I need to check it out during one of my trips to Richmond!
I had no idea they had a store or that they used such natural ingredients! Next time I see a King of Pops stand (or store!) I’m definitely going to try one of their unique flavors!
Yoga and popsicles…count me in!
Those pops look awesome! Beautiful produce. For me personally, I love anything strawberry or orange.
I don’t think we have one of these in our area, at least I haven’t seen one. Bu the combination sounds tasty. Thank you for sharing!