Sisters teen keeping drivers awake with caffeine lollipop business
Published 3:00 am Tuesday, April 14, 2026
A Sisters teen teamed up with a Portland businessman to run a caffeine lollipop business, with the goal of ensuring people don’t fall asleep at the wheel.
Kale Gardner, the 19-year-old co-owner of Alert Pop, owns several businesses, including a home owner care business out of Black Butte. He got involved in Alert Pop because it seemed like a great product, he said.
“I saw an absolutely amazing product. Obviously, the biggest thing is it’s never been done,” he said. “I do really believe that in six months, 12 months from now, this will be in every glove box compartment in the world.”
Stephen Caldwell, 62, has been a food creator for the last 15 years, and came up with the idea for Alert Pop. “I’ve been a pseudo chef and foodie since the age of five,” Caldwell said.
His daughter told him about a friend falling asleep while driving and totaled his car, and he thought about how that could have been his daughter or someone else he knows.
“I found out that 1 in 25 drivers on the road today admit to falling asleep at the wheel,” Caldwell said. “That’s the ones that admit to it, and it’s one of these things, we’ve all done it, where you’re driving down the road at night or any time during the day, and all of a sudden two or three exits go by, and you don’t recall seeing those.”
Alert Pops come in three flavors — espresso, blue raspberry and watermelon — and are sweetened with xylitol and erythritol. Parents and college students are the main demographic, he said. College athletic directors have also expressed interest, as have truck stops.
“If I’m driving home from Bend to Sisters, it’s about a 30-minute drive, and I’m tired. I don’t want to go to a gas station and buy a five hour energy, because I’ll be up until three in the morning,” said Gardner. “We genuinely care about driver safety.”
The company is planning to launch at national retail stores and is sold online. Gardner and Caldwell are preparing for the Sweets and Snacks Show in Las Vegas in May, where they will pitch the lollipops to the National Retail Association, and sign agreements with retail stores.
The lollipops are manufactured in the U.S. Caldwell is planning another caffeine candy product in lozenge form.
“Kale brings an energy and a youth to him that is years beyond his age in business, and growing up in a very successful family in Eastern Oregon, he has been surrounded, like a sponge, to the business acumen that it really takes to be part of a company like this,” said Caldwell.