Owners April and Elias Acuna with their children, Ozeya, Bella and Elias III, in front of CZP’s Frozen Treats.
Reminder Publishing submitted photo
MONSON — Since moving to Monson five years ago, husband and wife Elias and April Acuna dreamed of starting a business in town. Now with their brand-new shop, CZP’s Frozen Treats, they hope to create something to deepen their roots in the community.
At CZP’s, the couple does all housemade frozen treats primarily popsicles right now, fruit-based and ice cream-based with flavors such as strawberry basil vinaigrette, pineapple ginger lemonade, peanut butter banana dipped in chocolate, mixed fruit, mixed berry and limber de coco — coconut cream, coconut milk and coconut water.
Monson resident Sue Eggleston Giguere is excited CZP’s has opened their shop in town and will be trying all their flavors.
“We don’t have many things around here, so we are excited for them,” Giguere said. “I think this is going to be a great thing for our little town.”
Another Monson resident, Rachel Mengel first learned about CZP’s from Facebook and is thrilled to have another small business opening in the heart of downtown Monson.
“It’s so nice to have more Monson residents aiming to bring the community together,” Mengel said. “People love ice cream and frozen treats, and what better time to have them available than in summertime, freshly made, and so close to home.”
April works as a paraprofessional at Boland Elementary School in Springfield and Elias has been a real estate broker for 20 years at Acuña Real Estate in Springfield. They decided to open CZP’s on June 27 to introduce themselves to the public.
“This whole thing just came out of a whim,” said Elias.
In February of 2024, the previous owner of the building who had run a sandwich and small ice cream shop there for 19 years was interested in selling it.
“April and I had spoken to my parents about it,” Elias said. “They knew our passion for the town, and they also love Monson as well. They are the ones that ended up buying the location. They bought the building, and we closed in May.”
He continued, “It was probably at the end of April that we were coming up with ideas on what we could actually do. We came up with a couple of different ideas and by the closing of the property we were thinking of popsicles. Some people thought we were crazy for trying to open a restaurant in a month, but we were lucky enough to be able to make everything work.”
April and Elias told Reminder Publishing they are bringing creativity and uniqueness to the Monson community where people can get treats they normally can’t get at other places.
“We love Monson because of the small-town feel and the support of the community,” said April. “We have benches in the front and people are just sitting out there with their popsicles. We see people walking by at the storefront windows and they wave to say hello. It’s a nice vibe.”
In the meantime, their goal is to sell popsicles and get them to as many events as possible. In the future, they hope to do parties & birthdays, box orders, custom orders, and deliveries.
CZP’s is located at 221 Main St. across from Main Street Tavern. Follow them on Facebook for their hours of operation. For questions, call 413-205-8555 or email monsontreats@gmail.com.
