Meet Our Vendors: Seattle Pops
Image courtesy of Seattle Pops
As we make our way through Seattle’s third heat wave of the summer, we’re in the mood for a sweet treat to help us cool off from the sun. Nothing hits the spot quite like a fresh Seattle Pop!
Seattle Pops is a locally owned and operated popsicle business. They make all-natural pops with a hyper-local & organic ingredient focus. You’ll even recognize some of our farmers and vendors on their list of ingredient suppliers.
Owner and founder Megan Janes began making test popsicle recipes with her dad in ice cube trays in 2013. They had their first pop stand at the Phinneywood Block Party in 2013. In 2014, they began selling at the Columbia City and University District Farmers Markets. Since then, the company has grown and they now sell at all seven NFM markets every summer.
The original recipes that Megan designed with her dad act as the base for their recipe repertoire, but over the years they have added unique and fun seasonal and specialty flavors to the lineup. “Our flavors are rotated with the local produce calendar. When peaches are in, we make Peach Perfect & Peaches & Cream. If it is a late harvest for any particular ingredient, we wait,” Megan says.
“Our product is so special because of the ingredients we use. We source from local farms, buying thousands of pounds of fruits each summer. We don't cut corners regarding the integrity of our pops. If a batch comes out off, we don’t serve them. We believe in providing the best-tasting pops and that all starts with the ingredients we use.”
The importance of quality pops is also clear in the processes that the team goes through to make each pop. One example of this hard work is the process behind the Peach Perfect flavored popsicles, “We peel the peaches, so we don't have the skins the flavor. This involves a time-consuming process of a "flash boil" of the peaches and then hand peeling off the skin and pitting of each peach. We then blend them and strain the excess juice from the skins for even more peach flavor,” Megan says.
Their most popular flavors are Strawberry Lemonade, Very Strawberry, and Cookies & Cream, and they have a variety of vegan, gluten free, and nut free options, so there’s always a flavor for everyone. They aim to change their menu about every 4 weeks, and sometimes they will change the flavors mid-week, so if you see a flavor you want to try, go for it then because it might not be back the following week.
Maintaining such a fast-growing business is a lot of work, and Megan finds herself doing a little bit of everything, including behind the scenes tasks social media, admin work, HR tasks and kitchen shifts to help with production. Megan and her wife recently had a baby, so the workload has shifted a bit this year, but she’s still managing to find a balance between her business and her newly-expanded family!
You can find Seattle Pops at any of our seven markets!