Kiki’s Juice Box

Kiki’s Juice Box

LAFAYETTE’S NEW KIDTREPRENEUR

“So,” I asked the barely four-foot tall, fluffy-haired and bow-tied CEO of Kiki’s Juice Box, “How does it work?” Leaning over the handle of a hand-operated juicer almost as tall as he is, six-year-old Noam “Kiki” Naquin didn’t even look up from the grapefruit as he explained his business plan: “Well, I pick them. Then, I juice them, then I put them in there.” He pointed to the glass pitcher half full of grapefruit juice. “Then, I put them in the bottle and put ‘Kiki’s Juice Box’ on it. Then, I sell them and I get money.”

His mom and business partner, creative strategist Jenée Naquin, laughed. “He really is the boss,” she said. “And he’s the face. And the master juicer.”

The business debuted on New Year’s Eve, when Kiki set up his first citrus juice stand—a Kiki-sized cardboard booth emblazoned with the business name in orange paint—in his driveway. The idea had been conceived just a few months before in the backyard, when Kiki’s green-thumbed grandfather “Pa Jet” had come over with his usual surplus of satsumas. (“Back when we lived in New York and I’d come home for Christmas,” explained Jenée, “I used to bring an extra suitcase to accommodate all of the citrus he’d send me home with.”)

“Noam,” asked Jenée, “tell us again how Pa Jet got you to first start juicing?” About a squeezed grapefruit and a half later, he looked up and said, “What? Sorry, I’m too busy juicing.”

Smiling at him, she said, “Anyway, my dad showed him how to use the juicer, and to our surprise he was really into it, and doing it every day.” As a family of self-proclaimed entrepreneurs, it didn’t take long for talk of a juicing business to arise. “We kind of just got it together,” said Jenée. “I am a brander by trade, so I was like you need a logo, a name. We had a naming session all out on the trampoline.”

Still new to town—the family moved to Lafayette from Brooklyn in August— the New Year’s Eve stand turned out to be a great opportunity to interact with their neighborhood, which has been a challenge in this era of COVID-19. “Kiki, tell her about how we advertised for that first stand,” urged Jenée. He looked up, “What does that mean?” We laughed and she explained, “How did we let everyone know about it?” “Oh!” Putting his head back down, he explained, “Mom made posters and we put it in their little slots or stuck it in the door or put it on the ground.”

That first day, they sold out of their inventory. “We had like forty-six bottles or something,” said Jenée, who added that the bottles they use come from her mother, who collects them to recycle. “It’s neat to have so many of our family members contribute in some way to this project,” she said. “Though, next year we hope to start using a more sustainable packaging source than plastic.”

After that first sale, Kiki’s parents didn’t know how far his interest would go. “You always wanted me to be like ‘aw man’ about juicing!” he said. “I was waiting for you to get tired,” Jenée said, “but you just stayed so enthusiastic about juicing! It’s amazing.” Since that first New Year’s Eve stand, Kiki’s Juice Box has participated in two breakfast pop-up events hosted by Lilou Café and thrift shop in Downtown Lafayette.

“It’s been really neat as a parent to watch him find his thing,” said Jenée, “this thing that motivates him, keeps him going. He sets goals for himself, says we’re gonna do twenty bottles tonight. And I start to see him get tired around fifteen, and obviously I would let him go if he wanted. But he powers through to meet his little goal.”

When I asked Kiki what his favorite part of the process was—the picking, the juicing, the selling—he told me, “I like putting the cap on.”

“You know, from day one, you always wonder ‘Who will they be when they grow up?’,” said Jenée. “You put these projections on them. Not that I know he is going to be a juicer or if this juice stand will be a thing when he is twentyfive or even next year, but it’s amazing watching him learn how to thrive, how to support himself, how to take something off of a tree and turn it into money. That’s such an important life skill.”

As for the money, Jenée explained that they told Kiki from the beginning that he would need to donate some of it to charity. “This is such a luxury, especially at this moment when people are out of work, are sick, are hungry,” said Jenée. “I knew some of the money had to go towards helping people. He has never put up a stink about it.”

Hoping to support an organization that correlated with the lessons towards sustainable success that Jenée and her husband Ari Dolegowski are trying to teach their son, they selected Right 2 Thrive as the beneficiary of their proceeds. “Those are kids that don’t have any moms or dads,” explained Kiki. “And my money got them a lot. It got them water and stuff to go to school.”

All the while we were talking, Kiki never stopped juicing, and had even whipped up something altogether new. “You’ll be the first customer to try this one,” said Ari as he held out a freshas-can-possibly-be bottle of grapefruit mixed with blood orange (Kiki’s favorite). Before I could grab it though, Kiki took it and burst into song and dance, shaking it with his whole body, “Jujujujii ju ju! Now, it’s nice and mixed up for you,” he said, handing it to me with a huge master-salesman heartthrob grin.

As citrus season comes to an end in South Louisiana, Kiki doesn’t seem to be letting up. “I’m looking for ways to extend this throughout the year, since he’s so taken with it,” said Jenée. They started with planting a set of new trees in their backyard, making the entire operation truly yard-to-bottle. “Noam, how long do you think we’ll do Kiki’s Juice Box?” she asked him. “Well, until I’m a hundred basically.”

Keep up with Kiki’s Juice Box on Instagram at @kikisjuicebox. His next pop up at Lilou will take place on March 7.

Jenée Naquin