KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 6 — Would you like to savour “50 Shades of Earl Grey”? Or experience the “Big Bang Berry”?
If ice cream, popsicles or smoothies are your thing, then these flavours - courtesy of homegrown frozen smoothie popsicle purveyor POPMAN - might well excite your taste buds.
POPMAN is the brainchild of Desmond Ng, 35. The F&B entrepreneur had graduated in finance from the University of Southern California but rather than entering management consulting or investment banking like most of his peers, he decided to follow his passion.
Ng shares, "While I was tempted by the six figure salary, I knew deep down I was meant for the food industry. Sharing food is most definitely my love language. Sharing food is my way of expressing love.”
During his senior year in college, Ng set up a booth at a concert event, serving his personal recipe for açaí bowls.
He recalls, “To my surprise we sold out within three hours! I knew I was onto something special. So I launched a food truck called Amazebowls. Seven years later, we had two retail stores, a catering division and the food truck. This was my venture prior to POPMAN.”
You might have guessed that POPMAN is a portmanteau for “Popsicle Man”. There is a tinge of nostalgia to it, certainly.
Ng explains, “The name pays homage to the ice cream man who used to come around my neighborhood when I was a child. Every evening I would wait outside my front gate waiting for the ice cream man, and when I heard the jingle, I’d get super excited.”
Little children are not known for their restraint, however. Ng recalls, “After eating my second ice cream, my tummy would hurt. And of course, I would get lectured by mom and then I felt guilty on top of a tummy ache.”
But with tribulation comes invention (or was that “necessity”?), as gluttony proved to be a catalyst, decades later, for a new product development idea.
Ng says, “This trade-off between eating delicious food and nourishing food has been a bane of my existence. I refuse to believe that there has to be a trade! I believe that it is possible to have both.”
This led him to create POPMAN, which at first glance looks like another brand of popsicles (or “pops” as they commonly called), albeit of a creamier variety. What makes it stand out?
Ng explains, “We are not ice cream, not frozen yoghurt, and not ais krim potong. Technically, our pops are frozen smoothies. We do not use any stabilizers or preservatives. Only clean, nourishing ingredients.”
That last attribute might be what differentiates POPMAN from other ice cream or popsicle adjacent products in the market. Real whole foods go into these “frozen smoothies” with catchy names such as Big Bang Berry, Choc Me Daddy and Mango Coco Yum Yum.
Take their bestseller Nuttin’ Butter flavour for instance. Because the taste profile is of almond butter, raw honey and bananas, not many people realize that the main ingredient is, in fact, spinach.
Ng says, “It is the ultimate tasty cheat code to increasing fibre in our diets. Fibre improves digestive health and promotes regular bowel movement.”
Similarly, Choc Me Daddy is made with plant-based chocolate, bananas, cashews, oat milk and sweetened with raw honey.
Another popular flavour, Berry Good Matcha, has a creamy base of matcha and mango which “is juxtaposed with the crunch and sharpness of the blueberry chia seed jam. These ingredients provide high antioxidants, which reduces the risk of heart disease and certain cancers.”
Perhaps the most memorable name is The 50 Shades of Earl Grey, which evokes visions of Jamie Dornan and the Bridgertons in equal measure.
Ng shares, “When I was creating this recipe, I remembered my favorite macaron was an Earl Grey flavor from Bottega Louie in LA. I knew I wanted to have an Earl Grey pop on the menu so I experimented with many different fruits - blueberries turned out to be a fantastic pairing for Earl Grey tea.”
“Initially POPMAN was based out of Ng’s apartment. He notes that it was enough for "lots of research and development and testing out ideas and flavour profiles with friends and family. Now we’ve moved to a central kitchen space so our capacity is much bigger.”
“A far bigger challenge was introducing an original idea to the market. Ng explains, “Unlike Amazebowls where I based the business model off of existing açaí bowl brands, POPMAN is something that I dreamed up from scratch with no existing road map to follow.”
As such, Ng’s guiding principle was his belief that “clean, healthy eating should be just as tasty and enjoyable as all those other foods Malaysians love and crave.”
Another obstacle was extending the shelf life of their products. Ng says, “When we first started, the shelf life of our pops was only two weeks. Many food scientists I spoke to kept trying to persuade me to use ‘natural’ gums or ‘natural’ stabilisers, because that’s the industry standard.”
While tempting, he persevered in researching other approaches. Ng says, “We found production and packaging techniques that now give our pops a 15-week shelf life.”
Moving forward, POPMAN is collaborating with Good Juju Barbell Club coming up - two new flavours, PB&J and Avocado Dates, will be released as part of the team-up - and more pop-ups are in the pipeline, to spread awareness of their brand and products.
Ng says, “My dream is to have a fleet of cute mini popsicle trucks that can roam around schools and neighborhoods bringing joy and wellness to kids in the future! And once we iron out the kinks, we will expand into Singapore and other international markets.”
Ultimately the energetic entrepreneur hopes that one day POPMAN will “stir excitement for kids, the same way the ice cream man did for me.”
POPMAN
https://www.instagram.com/popman.my/
