Pop Culture

Going full locavore has its limits. But you’ve pushed them, finding locally made vodka and rum, milk and butter, and even chocolate. But you somehow still miss eating shave ice and its chemically sweetened, fake-fruity flavors.

But what kind of frozen, fruity, sweet treat can you really make with uncomplicated, all-local, farmers-market-fresh ingredients? Brothers Joe Welch and Josh Lanthier-Welch found the answer – popsicles! – and made over the kiddy dessert with flavors your sophisticated adult tastes will love.

The result is Onopops, the just-launched line of frozen pops that have more in common with Mexican paletas (essentially fruit frozen on a stick) than the familiar artificially-flavored popsicle. Onopops are made in small batches in the brothers’ Hawaii Kai kitchen with many of the same ingredients you tote home from the market: Kula strawberries, Maui Surfing Goat Dairy goat cheese, guavas, kona coffee, Thai basil, pineapple and li hing mui.

Eight year-round flavors are available, and four seasonal flavors will appear over the next few months. And the concoctions are some strangely delicious combinations — Kula strawberry goat cheese; GuavaChiffon, a creamy translation of the classic diner pie; Kona Latte, an especially rich treat Josh has dubbed "the fat bomb;" Ume Thai Basil; and Pineapple Li Hing.

The packaging has personality too. Each flavor has its own character, like Paps Mui who appears on the Pineapple Li Hing label, and is the father of Little Hayden Mui, who will grace the packaging of the forthcoming seasonal Pickled Green Mango, one of the four new flavors slated to launch over the next two weeks.

Fresh ingredients turned into crave-worthy eats?
That’s what you call local-moco.

Onopops are available this Saturday only at the Kapiolani Community College farmers market. They are also available at the Wednesday farmers market at the Blaisdell, Mu‘umu‘u Heaven (767 Kailua Road, Kailua), Koko Head Elementary School’s Saturday farmers market, and the Hawaii Kai farmers market, a Saturday market that starts May 22 at Kaiser High School.