Ice pop entrepreneurs are onto something cool

By Anya Tikka
MILFORD — Age is no obstacle to starting a new business, if you find your niche.

Six-year-old Lalibella and sister Lizzie Dillon, 13, have spent the summer making their all-natural, vegan, non-GMO, non-sugar ice pops. And they’re already expanding.

“We had the idea for a couple of years already,” said Lizzie, who goes to Delaware Valley High School.

Their mom, Dawn Marie Dillon, owns the breathless Beauty health food store in Apple Valley, where the girls operate.

“This is not the first business they’ve had," said Dawn Marie. "They had their ‘Sisters Lemonade’ stand outside the store in the summer months previously. They’re real young entrepreneurs.”

The girls came up with the idea because their parents didn’t let them have store-bought ice pops because of their high-sugar content and additives. Sisters Pops are non-dairy, and use only agave for sweetening. But most fruits are sweet enough without it.

Every day the sisters make a 40-pop batch, which is sold out by the end of the day. They sell for $3 each.

Seven flavors are available — although the exact ingredients and how they’re made remain a secret:

Pineapple Is Nice
Zion Original

Zion Nana
Banana Llama
Oh My Chai

Aunt Marie’s Apple
Choco Natty Nana

Meeting a demandThe customers keep coming. Demand is high for natural products, and the girls have promoted their pops at their schools.

“Now in the summer, my friends walk around and come for a pop,” Lizzie said, smiling.

And the taste? They’re like regular ice pops — or not so much, depending who you ask. The texture is a little softer that regular pops, like soft crèmes, the girls explained. Rice milk or coconut milk are used in place of milk in some of the recipes.

Deliveries are made to area shops, like the Mill Market in Hawley, Tequila Sunrise in Milford, Cocoon Café in Hawley, and Village Diner in Milford. Key Foods and the Grotto Restaurant have also shown interest. And plans include expanding to the Big Apple.

“Several vendors have been invited to come to a sampling,” said Dawn Marie said.

To bring their pops to the Milford farmers market on Sundays, and other places, the girls need a refrigerated cart that’s being specially made for them from environmentally friendly aluminum.

The pops are wrapped in see-through material. The girls' trademark is: "Sisters."

Both girls talk up their products at school. Lalibella’s school, Shohola Elementary, got a donation of pops at its end-of-year events.

“Most people like them,” Lizzie said.