It is really about making parents’ lives a little easier, said Dave Ackert, in describing how he has gone from selling advertising and sponsorships for apps and websites to stirring up what he hopes will be the next snack sensation.

Mr Ackert and his wife, Eve, along with their two children, Sophie, 15, and Noah, 9, are the creators and distributors of Fruple, an all-natural iced dessert. Made from just two ingredients — organic fresh fruit and maple syrup — Fruple is the Ackerts’ answer to oversweetened, artificially flavored and colored treats that populate the marketplace.

“My career was at a crossroads, with the company being sold for the third time, so I decided to find a start-up company,” Mr Ackert said. Around that same time, the summer of 2014, he observed a scene that unfolded regularly when the ice cream truck pulled into the market. Parents and children inevitably argued about buying treats, and what kinds of treats from the truck were healthy enough for the parents to fold and say, “Yes.”

His own children have issues with dairy products, adding to their disappointment when only ice cream products were available.

Mr Ackert set out on a mission to make the families in his Sandy Hook neighborhood happy. He was familiar with the Hawaiian shaved ice dessert popular on the West Coast, but the artificial colors and flavors, and high sugar content, did not appeal to him.

“I knew I wanted an all-natural solution,” he said. He experimented with blending watermelon and freezing it, but it was too bland. That is where maple syrup came in.

“In the Ackert family, making maple syrup is a tradition,” said Mr Ackert, both by tapping trees in his Sandy Hook property and trees in Vermont, where the family has a second home.

“I started fooling around with different flavors and sweetening it with maple syrup,” he said, and then beta tested it by handing it out to the children taking part in swim lessons hosted at his house. The next thing he knew, youngsters were coming to the door and asking for more. Better yet, the parents were happy with the product. When his neighbor Bill Begany offered to help market “Fruple,” and designed the branding for it, his neighbors were very supportive.

“Who doesn’t like maple syrup, and who doesn’t like fresh fruit? Those are the only two ingredients. It’s fat-free, gluten-free, nut-free; it’s guilt-free,” he said. “My kids don’t even have to ask anymore if they can have it. They don’t even know they are getting a serving of fruit in every container,” said Mr Ackert.

Each 4-ounce cup of mango, strawberry, or lemon Fruple has 45 calories or less, and contains 12 grams of sugar, or less, which Mr Ackert pointed out is an improvement over most other iced desserts.

The Next Coconut?

“I totally believe maple syrup is going to be the next coconut,” Mr Ackert said, referring to the current coconut oil, water, and flakes health trend. While the Ackert family has always loved maple syrup for its flavor, in doing research for the nutrition labels, Mr Ackert found that maple syrup has two-thirds the sucrose of sugar; more potassium than a banana; more calcium than milk; and contains 54 antioxidants. Adding high quality fruit to the mix only raises the health factor.

Because the Ackerts wanted Fruple to have a different consistency than traditional Italian ice or slushies, they developed a special process for making it.

“It has a fluffier, silky consistency,” Mr Ackert said.

By December 2014, the family was ready to take the plunge and go commercial.

Mr Ackert admitted that there was a huge learning curve to producing and marketing a food item.

“We had worked a little in restaurants, and we like to eat,” Mr Ackert said, but that was the extent of their experience in the world of food production.

They started out producing Fruple in the kitchen of the Alexandria Room of Edmond Town Hall, but because the facility cannot be used for a commercial enterprise, they had to find another space. That, coupled with the need for a bigger capacity than what was available in town, led them to an out-of-state site.

“We were lucky to find a wonderful food processing center in Greenfield, Mass.,” Mr Ackert said, where roughly 10,000 of the 4-ounce cups have been produced just since this spring. The Franklin County Community Development Corporation is also a central location to the more than 50 locations in Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York that now carry Fruple.

Working with New Morning Natural and Organic Market in Woodbury, Mr Ackert is able to get organic fruits from reputable companies. And even though Fruple is made in Greenfield now, he samples each order of fruit to see that it meets standards.

“The fruit flavor profile must be right,” he said.

All of the maple syrup used to make Fruple comes from either the Ackerts’ Connecticut and Vermont properties, or from a maple sugarer in Vermont.

The Local Market

Locally, NYA Sports & Fitness Center was the first Fruple account. Mr Ackert was pleased to see that not only the young athletes, but the parents working out at NYA were equally enamored of the treat.

The Creamery at Ferris Farms is a Fruple customer, and that actually makes sense, he said.

“Families who might have one person in the family with dairy or gluten issues can now all go there for ice cream, when they might have stayed away before,” said Mr Ackert.

The Newtown and Sandy Hook Delis carry Fruple, as does Cover Two in Sandy Hook, My Place Restaurant on Queen Street, and the Rock Ridge Country Club snack bar. All three of the markets owned by Caraluzzi’s — Bethel, Georgetown, and Newtown — are Fruple accounts. He is hoping to add The Big Y to the list of stores selling Fruple, in the near future.

The Ackerts are thrilled that Caraluzzi’s has designated their product a “local legend,” allowing shoppers to accrue additional Caraluzzi Care Award points when they purchase Fruple.

Fruple has found success in several co-ops and grocery stores in the neighboring states, but Mr Ackert is very excited that four Whole Foods stores in the area are now carrying Fruple. Whole Foods shoppers can buy Fruple at the Danbury, Milford, and Fairfield stores, and most recently, the Whole Foods in Jericho, N.Y.

“Now,” he said, “it’s real!”

The whole family is in gear to promote Fruple in the upcoming months. “We’ll be doing a lot of demos and events,” Mr Ackert said. “Sales get better traction when we do demos,” he added.

Taking It North

Having already given away samples at the Ben’s Bells Kindness event in Dickinson Park in June, and at the Kindness Dream Ride event, the Ackerts are bringing Fruple north for the month of August. Demonstrations are scheduled at the August 1 Jamaican Jerk and Reggae Festival in Killington, Vt., and then at the Full-Tilt Boogie Music event in Pownal, Vt., August 22.

In between, they will return to the area for Fruple sampling at the three Caraluzzi Markets, the weekend of August 14-15. The Newtown Caraluzzi’s will host Fruple from 11 am to 2 pm, Saturday, August 15.

In September, revelers at the Norwalk Live Green Festival will find samples of Fruple available.

His next drive is to get Fruple into schools, where he hopes it will be a healthy alternative to the chips and ice cream downed by many students.

“Philosophically, [getting Fruple into schools] is the most important area. I’ve seen what kids snack on at high school,” Mr Ackert said. Westover High School in Middlebury, where Sophie is a student, has carried Fruple since March, selling more than 200 cups.

Packaging Fruple in pints and restaurant-sized containers is also in the works, he said.

Having created a successful and healthy snack food is a good feeling, Mr Ackert said, but the real reward is in people’s reactions.

“To see the smiles on people’s faces when they taste it, that’s the great thing,” he said.

Visit Fruple on Facebook at Facebook.com/frupleice, or visit frupleice.com for more information.