Out with Strawberries in with Mangos!

We've learned a lot in the past 10 months of running this little business.  People like color -- especially red and ESPECIALLY strawberry.  While our pops do stay "fresh" for a while in the freezer, we strive to use in season fruit.  So, sadly soon, strawberries will no longer be in that category -- even though they are the chosen favorite of kids and adults alike.

Out with these -- this might be the last batch...

And in with these... a personal favorite of ours!

Yummy yummy mangos!

Cayenne Pineapples

We found these GIANT sized Cayenne Pineapples at the shops yesterday.  We like their name -- goes with the Cayenne Pepper that we put in with the pineapple to make our pops.  Apparently, the queen pineapple (much smaller) is used for fresh eating and the cayenne pineapple is used more for canning and juicing.  We'll let these ones ripen up a bit and then start Hluhluwe Pop production. 

A Very Rainy Wonder Market

We tried to be very festive and upbeat at the Wonder Market today for about an hour.  Then, the relentless rain kicked in and we headed home.  It's no fun to sell pops in the rain! 

Our four flavours that were on offer

We tried to be festive with Halloween decorations!

Halloween Pop

We love Halloween and we love an excuse to come up with a new flavour of pop.  So here's to introducing our special Halloween Pop -- a layered concoction made to resemble the American sweet, candy corn.  It has pineapple, orange and coconut milk in it and is delicious!

Here's what the new pop looks like.

We will be giving away lots of little treats at the Wonder Market in honor of Halloween!

Our test group testing out the new flavour!

Lucky kids!

I heart market

We were captured on film by Caelin Roodt serving up a delicious pop to a young customer.  How's this for a beautiful picture?

Sunny Pop!

We ran across some yummy peaches from Mpumalanga the other day so we took to the kitchen and made Sunny - a scrumptious blend of peaches and lavender. It's fast becoming a favourite among our taste testers and is like swallowing sunshine. 

These small peaches pack a powerful punch of flavour!

Biking and Skateboarding

We've got some talented tasters in the family who can eat Qhuma Pops and ride bikes and skateboard.  Ever tried it?

Wonder Market September

We spotted quite a few people enjoying Qhuma Pops at the past Wonder Market.  Make sure to stop by and taste a pop at the next one on 27 October!

Such style so young with a perfect pop accessory!

Satisfied customers!

Each with a different flavour!

The Pucker Pop

Introducing the Pucker Pop; a delightful combination of strawberry and lemons.  As you eat it, you can't quite decide if it's sweet, sour or a delightful mixture of the two.  It's a crowd pleaser and was a bestseller at its debut at the Wonder Market. 

Steph, the chief pop maker at Qhuma Pops, ran a 14k beach race on Saturday.

She was pretty excited to enjoy a Qhuma Pop with her daughters post race! 

Strawberry Shortcake Pop!

Spring seems to be around the corner here in KZN.  And with spring comes a bounty of strawberries. We recently found some beautiful, rather inexpensive, South African grown strawberries in the shops.  We thought a new pop centering around this beautiful fruit was a necessity! 

Introducing the Strawberry Shortcake Pop -- succulent ripe strawberries combined with vanilla yoghurt make this a real crowd pleaser!

Stars and Stripes!

We are celebrating America's birthday on July 4 and made a new limited edition Qhuma Pop to commemorate the occasion.  Introducing the Stars and Stripes pop which has fresh strawberries, vanilla yogurt and blueberries. Happy Birthday to the USA.  Come sample a Stars and Stripes pop at the I heart market at Moses Mabhida Stadium on 7 July from 9-2!

Our First Try at Poptails!

We tried out our new poptails (smaller pops with alcohol) at the Wonder Market on 26 May.  The weather was spectacular - 30C and perfect for eating Qhuma Pops.  Here is a bit about our new type of Pop!

The flavours are:  El Mexicano (lime and tequila), Hair of the Dog (Bloody Mary), Pair (pear and Sauvignon Blanc), Fresh (watermelon and vodka) and Crispy (caramel apple and spiced rum). 

Here's the stall at the Wonder Market with one side offering regular pops and the other offering poptails. 

Introducing Mini Poptails!

Here's a peek at our latest concoction! Miniature poptails that are perfect for your next soiree. Wonderfully tasty and the perfect refreshment for an afternoon.  Yummo!

Where Would You Enjoy a Qhuma Pop?

Qhuma Pops make the most delightful of afternoon treats.  Here's A eating hers up a leopard tree.  Where would you like to enjoy your Qhuma Pop?

Happy Worker's Day

It's Worker's Day here in South Africa. However, the Qhuma Pop factory is in full swing. We're preparing pops for Saturday's i heart market and perfecting some boozy pops for a book club and baby shower. The "poptails" are a little too tasty.

Here's some evidence of the juicing we had to do for the tangy Splash flavour as build our biceps!

Yummy!

Here are four of our flavours and the ingredients that are inside...

For top left: Crisp, Oregon, Splash and Summer.

April Wonder Market

The Wonder Market is a market that is dear to our heart -- it was our first market and a jumping off point for us to start this whole little business.  This month's Wonder Market was a huge success for us -- we had a sell out of EVERY flavour and went home with empty coolers.

Summer was the first to sell out and sadly we won't be seeing that flavour until watermelons come back into season.  Our new tangy citrus flavour, Splash, was the second to go -- we'll be busy juicing this week to stock up for I heart market on Saturday. The third flavour, which we had stock of in the freezer from when mangos were still in season was Wonder, which again won't be back until December when mangos are back in season.  Crisp, our caramel apple cinnamon concoction with fourth followed by Vervet (banana, peanut butter and vanilla yogurt) and finally Oregon (pear, ginger, almond and creme) was last to go.  All in all, a wonderful busy market with beautiful weather.  Certainly a day to remember -- our first SELL OUT!

These are the best tasters we can ask for!

They even help out a bit!

Getting ready for a remarkable day!

Litchi Orchard

We did the Litchi Orchard Night Market on April 26.  There was a great festive ambience and for a first time stall holder, we didn't do too badly.  It's always great to just get our name out there.  Sometimes we have to remind ourselves that we've only been "in the business" for three short months! We had a couple of repeat customers -- customers who tried one flavour and then returned to sample another and one gentleman even had three pops!

Our flavours for the night

What our table looked like. 

Autumn Flavours!

We've got a busy couple of weeks ahead of us.  First off, we have the Litchi Orchard Night Market in Ballito on Friday, April 26 from 5 - 9 pm.  Then it's the Wonder Market on Sunday, April 28 from 9 - 2 at Chris Saunders Park. Then on May 4, we have the i heart market at People's Park.  

For these markets, we are working with Autumn flavours -- aren't we lucky to live in a place where apples, pears and citrus are all in season right now?  

St. Patrick's Day Pop!!

We've got a special St. Patrick's Day pop that will be sold at the Wonder Market on March 17.

It's a dazzling mix of kiwi, KZN sugar cane juice and baby spinach.  It definitely will give you a qhuma of flavours in your mouth with its unique blend of GREEN ingredients.

Dessert!

It's always nice to have a mom who "travels" with coolers, dry ice and body boards in her boot (trunk) or rather had all of the above because she's finishing up her catering order tomorrow.  Hence, we took a little trip out to visit the barn swallows in Mt. Moreland with friends and dessert was Qhuma Pops! Yum and refreshing on a hot summer night...

Looking out for barn swallows.

Yum. 8 happy kids.

Wonder Market Take 2!

We had our second Wonder Market on Sunday. One of the great things about living in a "small town" or rather a suburb of a rather large metropolis is that at community gatherings like the Wonder Market, you feel like you see nearly everyone you know.  It was great to see so many friends, acquaintances and familiar faces and most of all that everyone seemed to enjoy our refreshing pops.

We are constantly learning new things with each day and market -- how to streamline things, how long dry ice lasts, what flavours seem to be the most popular (Summer and Wonder), which ones aren't as huge of a hit (Grove and Hluhluwe), that many people don't really understand my American pronunciation of banana and sample, kids like colour -- doesn't matter the taste, they like red and bright colours.  We are always learning and observing new things which is oh so fun.  We are enjoying the ride and looking forward to another I Heart Market on Saturday.  First though, we have our little catering gig to finish up... Back to the pop making factory I go!

Menu for the Wonder Market

These are my best employees and customers!
Luckily they work for pops.  

Samples!

We are busy today at the Qhuma Pop factory getting ready for Wonder Market tomorrow.  One thing we offer at the market is free samples so you can taste each pop before you decide which one you want to buy.  Here are some Summer Pops getting popped out of their ice cube container. The weather looks to be amazing on Sunday so we are hoping for a record selling day...

A Tribute to the Talbot Pop

All of our pops are named after a memory, place or thing that is significant to us.  Talbot is a small town  outside of Salem, Oregon, USA where Stephanie's father lives.  It's a beautiful rural area with many vineyards and mint fields.  It's also a place where we've picked plums from the side of the road!  Here's the evidence...

Little cutie picking plums September 2009

Not as little of a cutie eating a Talbot pop 

February 2013

Cutie's sister eating a Talbot Pop

February 2013

The Freezers Are Filling Up!

Qhuma Pops has started off with a bang and we are working with a catering company, Food Matters, to provide pops for one of their events, which is the launch of a new Chevrolet car.  We are pretty excited to be a part of this and are busy figuring out logistics of deliveries, how long dry ice lasts, and just how much we can cram in our limited freezer space! It's all just a bit crazy with markets in between all of this and an extra 1000 pops to get out.  But hey, better busy than sitting around eating our pops!

After School Snack

This whole business started because I regularly offered my kids smoothies and frozen fruit popsicles.  Now, my kiddos are pretty excited to have an almost unlimited supply of pops available to them.  I'm pretty happy to give them a Qhuma Pop because I know exactly what's in it and rest assured knowing that the treat they are enjoying has minimal sugar and sweeteners.  I think these are pretty lucky girls to have a mom in the business. 

A's enjoying a Talbot pop (plum and mint) and S's enjoying a Wonder Pop (mango and nectarine)

I Heart Market

We woke up to rain this morning and were quite disappointed -- not as disappointed as our son, whose cricket match was cancelled, but sad because well Qhuma Pops are best eaten when it's hot out.  So, we knew it might be a slow day at our first I heart market.

We arrived and set up our little display and while we didn't sell loads and loads of pops, at least we made some new friends and fans.  We had five people come back for second pops because they loved the first ones so much.

Next market is on Sunday, 26 February at the Wonder Market.  We've got some new plans for our display so stay tuned and hope to see you there!

The Talbot Life Cycle

Here's how the Talbot Pop is made. We start with fresh juicy bright red/purple plums, cook them up and add a little mint. And voila, fresh and flavorful refreshment on a stick. Yum!

Back from the Market!

There is a lot of fruit ripening around here with lots of new recipes being worked on!

It's a Family Affair!

Here's Elliott, age 7, working on the sign for a market.  

Qhuma Pops is definitely a family affair!

Our first Wonder Market

On January 26, we attended our first Wonder Market. We had a wonderful time selling our pops and even sold out of two flavours!  Rave review for our first market.  We'll be sprucing up our booth a little for the next one and introducing a new flavour at each market.