Friday, September 5, 2008

Sweetest Blackberry Ever, Here Now!

Well, in ice pop format, that is. This week, we're "Pushing it to the Limit", Paul Engemann-style with deliciously tart blackberries, tangy-fresh Ronnybrook Farm yogurt & super-sweet honey. You'll also want to have a lick of our famously fashionable Watermelon, Cucumber & Hyssop pop. Just remember...this could be our last week of the season. So, come on down!!!

Btw, Serious Eats had a serious review about us only just yesterday!

And so did our buddies over at PSFK! Thanks guys!


Menu - September 7th

Pops
Blackberry, Honey & Yogurt
Watermelon, Cucumber & Hyssop

Shave Ice
Tristar Strawberry
Lemon & Basil

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Daily Candy Does Us!


Well, it seems Daily Candy digs our pops! The people's pops was their featured story on yesterdays e-mail blast...and we're absolutely thrilled!

While we've been inundated with a bunch of supportive e-mails, questions, cat-calls, propositions & favors, we'll be sure to keep our pops & ice as right as rain for our next showing at the Brooklyn Flea on September 7th! (We're taking this weekend off to take advantage of a few of those much needed "favors".)

Check back with us next week about our menu for the 7th!

Oh, and big ups to Eric Demby at the Brooklyn Flea for keeping it real!

Thursday, August 21, 2008

The Last Days Of Peach?


The peaches are still keen, but not for long. We think we've the best batch of peach, chamomile & honey yet for this coming Sunday, the 24th of August's Brooklyn Flea . Get 'em while their hot. Err, cold. Also, we've been running out of Watermelon, Cucumber & Hyssop pretty quickly lately, so we're going to bring the reserves in this week.

Our friends at Bergen Farms saved us a special basket of the juiciest blueberries we've tasted this summer so after blueberry & cardamons brief hiatus from shave ice, it'll be back with passionate fervor this week!


Check it out: Alexis at the Itis, called us hams!

And we're "laid back", according to Chris L. on Yelp!

Men
u - August 24th

Pops:
Peach, Chamomile & Honey
Sugar Plum & Mint
Watermelon Cucumber

Shave Ice:
Blueberry & Cardamon
Lemon & Basil

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Get Some: Sugar Plum & Mint Pops!


So, peaches are still the sh*t. No question. But we thought we'd add a little fuel to the fire with a tart, sweet & minty batch of sugar plum & mint ice pops!
These cold little mouth-rockets kick 90 degree summer days in the rear end. And 95% of doctors agree with us 132% of the time. Trust us.

It's true.

See you at the Brooklyn Flea this coming Sunday the 10th of August!

MENU - August 10th

Pops:

Sugar Plum & Mint

Peach, Chamomile & Honey

Watermelon, Cucumber & Hyssop


Shave Ice:
Strawberry
Lemon & Basil

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Peach, Chamomile & Honey Pop? Say What?

Ok. Here's the deal. Peaches are in right now. Like, in the best way. Tree-ripened. Sugar-sweet. Juicy. White & Yellow varieties.

It's crazy.

So, in honor of this glorious harvest, we've made up a legendary treat with peaches, fresh chamomile flowers & golden honey. They put asses in seats. Pair it with our classic watermelon, cucumber & hyssop that's sweetened with a touch of cane sugar.

Check us out this Sunday, the 27th of July at the Brooklyn Flea. And get there early, before we run out and ruin your day!

Le Menu - July 27th

Pops:

Peach, Chamomile & Honey
Watermelon, Cucumber & Hyssop

Strawberries & Cream

Shave Ice:
Blueberry & Cardamon
Lemon & Basil

Monday, July 14, 2008

Brooklyn Flea Is The Place To Be. At.

What a fantastic time we had at the Brooklyn Flea this past Sunday! Massive sunburns aside, we loved our inaugural bash at the Flea.

While we'd love to be back next week, it just won't happen in real life. See you in 2 weeks!

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Brooklyn Flea: The New Home of the people's pops!


We're unbelievably excited to announce our new home at The Brooklyn Flea! Keep an eye out for a gleaming block of ice and an ice-cream cart from 1972 (The cart's actually brand new. Just looks like a blue-striped tube sock.) this coming Sunday the 13th.

Oh, and if you see The Brooklyn Flea's main man Eric Demby strolling around, give him a high five for the people!

Here's our menu this coming week:

Pops:
Strawberries & Cream
Watermelon, Cucumber & Hyssop
Lime & Raspberry

Shave Ice:
Blueberry & Cardamon
Lemon & Basil

Monday, June 30, 2008

New Amsterdam Market: HUGE Success!


What an amazing day! New York came out in droves to support the market, and Peck Slip rang with the crack of fresh sourdough and the slosh of pickles in their jars and cheese bubbling on hot grills and oysters gasping for breath, and people hawking, licking their fingers, and the ringing of cash, cash, kizz-aaash.

And, of course, the buzz of a shaver rolling over ice, the slurp of syrup sliding down the inside of a Dixie cup, and the clack a borrowed freezer makes when it opens and closes about 300 times.

By 2 pm, the people had spoken. We were sold out. I don’t know who found the bottle of bubbly, but by the time the rain came, it was drained. After about two seconds of packing up, we were off to the bar for as much beer as our massive stack of ones would buy. Thank you, New York!


Also, it seemed the press was as excited about us as our customers were! Check out these lovely reviews about us below:

New York Magazine:


Eatery:



Serious Eats (No review, but a pretty swank photo!):


What I Made For Dinner:


Until next time!

Saturday, June 28, 2008

New Amsterdam Market, Here We Come!


Much to my surprise, we’re ready, and in the past 48 hours—this is a conservative estimate, now—the five of us have only aged on average ten years apiece. We have our freezer, rented from a cool old-school Italian-ice-vendor freezer manufacturer in Queens, Worksman Cycles; we’ve rented a van, to carry the freezer; we laid chalkboard paint on plywood to make signs with; we ironed names onto our t-shirts; we have business cards and hats and dry ice and 75 pounds of wet ice and 300 pops and a few gallons of lemon-basil syrup and g*ddamn it we’re still alive.

Game time!!

Menu

Pops:
“Strawberries and Cream”

“Rhubarbalicious”

“Blue Velvet” (blueberries, yogurt and honey)


Shave Ice:
Lemon and Basil
Cherry and Cocoa (interesting)

Friday, June 27, 2008

Trials & Icy Tribulations

The People’s Pops hasn’t seen much action, but it’s time to mobilize if this is going to happen. In hotel rooms (I’ve been traveling all month) my two preliminary trials have yielded totally mediocre results: rock-hard pops, bland, with the julienned mint I’d added for flavor and aesthetics giving the effect of finding pieces of dental floss in your sorbet. It is now clear why gums and stabilizers enjoy such a privileged position in commercial pops. What are the chances there’s a stall at the ass end of the Greenmarket that’ll sell me some…?

OF COURSE, because luck is just soooo on our side, none of the fruits for sale at the end of June are ones any of us have experimented with (my friends Lucy and Ben and David and Joel have joined the effort at this point, and thank God, because now there’s five of us going insane instead of just me). We bought cherries, which Ben spent hours pitting, only to discover once we’d thrown them in the blender that we’d bruised their beautiful red into a bloody, muddy, ugly brown. Sieving blueberries of their seeds and skin, we now know, leaves you with basically nothing. And organic lemons at Whole Foods cost a f*cking dollar apiece.

What a sh*tshow.

Love, NJ

Monday, May 26, 2008

The Birth of the People's Pops

When my friend Robert Lavalva told me he was putting on a one-day summermarket to continue publicizing his cause, the New Amsterdam Market, I jumped at the chance to participate. The only question: what to sell?

The only answer: ice pops. Who doesn’t love these refreshing little nuggets of fruit and sugar and ice, crystallized summertime? I even like the crappy ones.

We can do better, I think. Industrially produced ice pops are little more than water laced with high fructose corn syrup, juice from concentrate, gums and stabilizers. What about pops made just with locally, sustainably grown fruit and herbs, organic sugar, and a low proportion of water?

In a bar, my roommate suggests the name: The People’s Popsicle. It’s perfect. [update, April 2010: Just got a cease and desist letter from Unilever. Let history heretofore be rewritten: we are The People's Pops, and have been since day one!!]

The most democratic of snacks, upgraded to both taste better and be better. The people are going to love it!

The market is a month away.

love, NJ