Aubrie Sink has always had an entrepreneurial edge about her. When she was a little girl, she used to deliver newspapers around her neighborhood.
"I've always had a drive to work, even when I was 8 years old," Sink, owner of Freezin' with Aubrie in Florence, said.
That drive never faltered, as she began selling jam and apple butter four short years later. That eventually led to her finding her passion for creating freeze-dried candy and other sweet treats, becoming somewhat of a Willy Wonka in Northern Kentucky.
Now, at 18, the Hebron native and University of Kentucky student has a flourishing freeze-dried sweets store, with several big-name partnerships, such as the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, Six Flags, Jungle Jim's, Knotts Berry Farm
and even Disney World and Disneyland.
How Freezin' with Aubrie got its start
Sink's business didn't always revolve around freeze-dried treats. Candy wasn't even her first interest.
Jam and apple butter were her first love. When she was 12, her grandmother gave her a "really good" jar of jam and asked if she wanted to learn how to make it.
Like any sweet granddaughter, she couldn't tell her grandma no and thought of it as a way to spend time together.
"She taught me how to make it and then my mom, like the proud mom she is, (posted on social media) like, 'Look what my daughter just made, who wants some?' And I just delivered a bunch of jam for free to the community."
But the demand kept growing, so she eventually decided to ask her grandmother for her permission to sell the jam (since it was her initial recipe). After Sink tweaked the recipe just a little, she sold jam at flea markets and craft shows, and she found success.
Sink had all the intentions of saving up that money to buy a car, until something else caught her eye.
"I saved up all that money to buy a freeze-dyer instead. It took like six months to convince my mom (to let me buy it)," she said, adding her mom, Cristina Sink, is now probably "so grateful" she allowed her to purchase the machine.
And she is.
Cristina told The Enquirer her daughter constantly asked her to buy a freeze dryer after watching TikTok videos daily, but she was hesitant about it.
"I didn't want her to spend her hard-earned money from jam on a machine that we didn't know anything about," she said. "After six months, I went and bought a bag of freeze-dried Skittles from Amazon. We tried them and then decided that we would give it a shot. Good thing, too. Now we have 11 freeze dryers!"
Sink recalled that Skittles were the first candy she ever freeze-dried. She then experimented with Peeps, Nerds Gummy Clusters, Jolly Ranchers, gummy worms and other popular candies she saw on TikTok.
Cristina, who previously taught college online, even made Freezin' with Aubrie her full-time job, saying it was a hard decision to come to.
"I prayed about it for a few months," she said. "We had freeze-dried stuff all over our house, as it was consuming everything. I was working over 100 hours a week by helping her make candy and go to events. Something had to give, so I took a leap of faith and went all in to help support her dream. Now look at us!"
After her purchase, Sink slowly transitioned her focus from the jam and apple butter to making freeze-dried candy, which started going viral around 2020 and even becoming too much to make in her house. She had to eventually get a commercial kitchen, which led her to her Florence brick-and-mortar at 4997 Houston Road.
@freezinwithaubrie How I cut my candy! Feel free to ask any questions you have! Happy Easter!!#freezedried #freezedriedcandy #bitohoney #jollyrancher #caramel #freezedrier #harvestright
♬ original sound - FreezinWithAubrie
From Kings Island and Kalahari to Walt Disney. You can find Freezin' with Aubrie at dozens of parks
Sink said she wasn't sure exactly how many states her freeze-dried candy is sold in, but both she and her mom estimated it to be about 30 or so states.
According to the store's website, Sink currently sells over 100 freeze-dried items and has various partnerships in Greater Cincinnati (not to mention her larger out-of-state deals like Disney). And, although Disney isn't her biggest customer (order-wise), it's her most well-known brand partnership.
Sink told The Enquirer the partnership with Disney came to fruition after her aunt spoke with a Disney buyer about the space-themed candy. After that, Sink made a little "thank you" video for meeting with her aunt, and that's the moment their talks with Disney got serious.
Now, her freeze-dried treats are sold at the gift shops as you exit rides such as Space Mountain at Tomorrowland, located in Magic Kingdom and Mission: SPACE at Epcot.
With large orders coming in, it can seem like a lot to handle for her store, which has about 14 employees, but Sink, who leads her team diligently, can handle the mounting tasks.
While Freezin' with Aubrie doesn't ship products out daily, they're constantly packing boxes to load up.
"It just depends. Right now, we're working on Disney and Kalahari's (orders), so those get a lot more boxes, so we're just getting all those done and then put them on the skid, and when the skid is ready, we ship it out," she said, adding that a big order takes about two to three weeks to get ready.
"It might take longer because things like ice cream take so long to make, so it might take like a month to get all that stuff made and then we can ship it out to them."
What's next? Freezin' with Aubrie hopes to expand
While Sink juggles school and her already growing and bustling business, she doesn't plan to slow down anytime soon.
The 18-year-old told The Enquirer she has the goal to expand her business, potentially opening another store or her own trailer or food truck for dirty sodas, but don't worry, "the candies won't go anywhere."
To purchase candy from Freezin' with Aubrie or for more information, visit freezinwithaubrie.com.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Northern Kentucky has its own Willy Wonka and she's only 18
