Atlanta-based popsicle company greets FIFA and fans with new World Cup-inspired flavors

Caption

Five flavors of King of Pops frozen treats are seen.

Credit: King of Pops

Georgia's participation in the FIFA World Cup got a little sweeter last month with the rollout of new flavors from the King of Pops. That is Atlanta-based Popsicle purveyor Steve Carse, whose popsicles are sold at outdoor carts in 10 states. Over his company's 16 years, Carse estimates he and his team have come up with more than 500 flavors. For the World Cup, he's highlighting the flavors of World Cup teams coming to Atlanta, and he spoke with GPB's Orlando Montoya about it. 

Orlando Montoya: I just knew someone would do this, you know, because we have the world coming to Atlanta, and it just makes sense that we would highlight the world now. So tell me a little bit about this idea that you have. 

Steve Carse: Yeah, I'm so excited about it as well. We do one big kind of flavor push each year on a theme. So we were trying to think of our theme last year and it almost seemed like a no-brainer to, like, yeah, "What's the big thing happening in Atlanta? The World Cup." But it just seemed like the best way for us to show up as a local brand would be to kinda celebrate and highlight and kinda figure out a way for the people that are local and also the people that are visiting to kinda participate in something that we do. So we did a ton of research on the countries and tried a bunch of flavors that we thought might translate into good pops and then got to work on making them. 

Orlando Montoya: You're choosing one flavor for each of the countries that are coming here, such as Spain's Tinto de Verano. 

Steve Carse: Yup.

Orlando Montoya: How did you go about making these up? Tell me about Tinto de Verano and what these things are gonna taste like. 

Steve Carse: Yeah. So that one in particular, I think, you know, we knew people from Spain. It was kind of a little easier. So we chatted with them like, "Hey, would this feel on brand or off brand?" And we would make two or three flavors. And then some of them — this is a good, a good example of one — we did put our spin on it a little bit. So like we're using muscadine, which is probably not what they're using in Spain, where they've got a lot of great vineyards there. But, um, you, you know it's a, a take on something that is a popular Spanish drink. But I think the others, so think about Morocco, mint tea, it's kind of just, if you've been to — I haven't been to Morocco, but when we talk to people about it, it's like, yeah, you basically are gonna get like forced to drink a bunch of mint tea when you're there. So you might as well get used to it. So we were inspired by that as a big, just like part of it. And it makes for a delicious pop. I mean, it has to do both, two things: It has to be kind of a fun flavor that we think associates, like, authentically with the country, and then it also needs to be delicious. Those are kind of our two criteria. 

Orlando Montoya: Now, when you get to a country like Uzbekistan?

Steve Carse: It was a bigger challenge. We didn't know too many people from Uzbekistan as well that we could reach out to. We did eventually find some folks. So yeah, kompot: that one is like probably the hardest for us to make. It's a lot of kind of filtering of fruits. So that's a slow process when you're trying to make a large batch of things. It's easy to make 20 of them, it's harder to make thousands. But yeah, we haven't done a whole lot of stuff with apricots, So that was exciting. I mean, we've been doing this for 16 years now. So I feel like we've made most flavors and then, you know, you start to look at cuisines of other countries and you're like, "Oh my gosh, never even thought of that." So it's inspiring in that way. 

Orlando Montoya: How many flavors have you guys made so far in all these years? I mean, have you even counted? 

Steve Carse: We have not counted. My off-the-cuff math is about a little over 500, though. Quite a lot. 

Orlando Montoya: And do you still get excited about new flavors and rolling them out and seeing the look on people's faces when you go out into the parks? 

Steve Carse: I certainly do. And I think this was even a more fun one. I mean, I shouldn't take the credit because Jessica Luna, who does, like, our pop development, is improving recipes all the time. She spearheaded these flavors and did a great job. I think it's going to just, it's gonna be a fun one for us. It just feels like a sweet spot for us as brand overall. 

Orlando Montoya: Now, the most controversial one, I think, is USA. You could have gone with chocolate, you could have done with key lime, you could've gone with any number of things there, but you are picking the official dessert flavor of the USA? How do—?

Steve Carse: Yeah, you're right. Well, it looks like a bomb pop, so that's pretty American. It's red, white, and blue, so it's a three-tier, which people like. It looks like our flag. And then just think, you know, vanilla ice cream, strawberries, and blueberries. I don't know that I'll claim it is the official American dessert, but I think it'll be a fun one. It'll definitely be very Instagram-able. 

Orlando Montoya: And finally, I didn't want to let you go without giving you an opportunity to talk about your new book. You released a book last year, and it's got a lot of great messages in it. So in the brief time we have left, what is the book about? 

Steve Carse: Yeah, so I wrote a book about Work is Fun. I would say it's a mix of the King of Pops story and my perspective that maybe we're all taking ourselves a little bit too seriously. And that if you're gonna spend a bunch of time doing something — most of us do spend a lot of time at work, whether we want to or not — you should at least be trying to have fun. So I don't promise that everyone can have fun all the time, but I do promise you can make it a little bit more fun no matter where you're at. And it's got some practical tips on how to do that and hopefully it's just some inspiring kind of stories of what we went through. But that's been a fun process. I've been doing some public speaking about it and it's helped for us to kind of get our brand out there in a fun way as well. 

Orlando Montoya: Steve Carse, King of Pops, thank you for joining us. 

Steve Carse: Thank you so much. It's a pleasure.