If you walk through Woodruff Park to class, you might’ve noticed it already—an umbrella bearing every color under the sun shading an ice cream cart with orange wheels. On the cart’s side, there’s an image of an orange popsicle wearing a crown. The guy standing beside it selling tasty, handmade popsicles is Steven Carse.
The youngest out of three brothers, Carse started the King of Pops around mid-March of this year. The idea came while traveling around Mexico and Central America during a three-year brainstorming session,
“I used to be at AIG working as a product analyst until I got laid off last December,” Carse said. “So the timing worked out perfectly.”
Almost immediately after losing his job, Carse’s work was well underway. He bought materials to construct his business from scratch, and began to experiment with different flavors.
Now, a normal day for Carse begins at 7 a.m. with ingredients-shopping, then pops-making, then he freezes the pops until 3 p.m. For the remainder, he sells his handcrafted fare somewhere (it depends on the day) until around 8 p.m. Despite his long days, the University of Georgia graduate still claims that he is much happier doing what he is doing now.
Originally, Carse started selling at the corner of North and North Highland avenues in the Buddy’s gas station lot. Though both he and his brother Nick Carse, who also works with Steven, like the idea of having ice cream carts, they hope to establish a store sometime next year.
Lucky for us Georgia State students. in the meantime, the Carse brothers have opened up a new cart location near Aderhold. Many have already caught onto the hype—a steady stream of excited customers at the new spot is already commonplace.
Though the menu changes every single day, flavors like Banana Puddin’, Blackberry Mojito and Chocolate Sea Salt tend to be the most popular flavors with King of Pops fans.
“We always make sure to have chocolate though,” Carse assured. “If people come by and ask for chocolate, they usually don’t want anything else.”
But there’s much more to choose from than just chocolate— the King of Pops’ rotating menu includes more than 150 unique, signature flavors. And though the price may be a bit higher compared to manufactured pops ($2.50 each), your extra buck guarantees you the freshest ingredients from local farmers markets. Carse makes all of his fruit popsicles with organic fruits, and the cream-based popsicles contain organic whole milk from a local organic dairy where cows are grass-fed.
The King of Pops operates in Woodruff Park between 11:45 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. throughout the week. For more chances to try the King of Pops, see http://www.kingofpops. net.
