TREVOSE, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar 25, 2025--
Mini Melts USA, the leader in premium beaded ice cream, is expanding its footprint in the convenience store sector through a new distribution partnership with Royal Farms, a regional favorite known for its high-quality food and unbeatable service. Beginning today, Mini Melts’ signature frozen novelty treats will be available in nearly 300 Royal Farms locations across Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, making it easier than ever for on-the-go consumers to enjoy a spoonful of fun.
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“As Mini Melts continues to grow its presence in the convenience retail space, partnering with a brand like Royal Farms is a natural fit,” said Dan Kilcoyne, president and CEO of Mini Melts. “Both of our brands are committed to quality, innovation and delighting customers, and we’re excited to introduce Mini Melts to even more consumers looking for a fun and delicious frozen treat during their daily routines.”
The launch of Mini Melts at Royal Farms arrives just in time for spring road trips, fueling long drives, snack breaks and laughter-filled backseat debates. Whether it’s a quick stop for a refreshing treat or a roadside refuel, Mini Melts delivers spoonfuls of fun on the go. Royal Farms locations will feature Mini Melts grab-and-go freezers, offering six fan-favorite flavors with a bundled price of two for $7.00.
“We’re always looking for new ways to enhance the Royal Farms experience, and Mini Melts are a fantastic addition to our lineup of grab-and-go treats available year-round,” said Eric Price, director of retail operations for Royal Farms. “Their creamy taste and bite-sized fun make them a great choice for customers of all ages. We’re excited to offer this refreshing snack to make every visit to Royal Farms even sweeter.”
Mini Melts is rapidly expanding its retail presence, with Royal Farms representing the latest milestone in the brand’s c-store growth strategy. This expansion follows Mini Melts being recognized — for the third consecutive year — as a Bain & Company Insurgent Brand in 2025. With a footprint in more than 35,000 points-of-purchase nationwide, Mini Melts continues to solidify its position as a top-performing frozen novelty brand, boasting three of the top five ready-to-eat frozen novelty items and delivering unmatched sales velocity in the category.
Stay tuned for future partnership developments, including exclusive perks for ROFO Rewards members. For more information on where to find Mini Melts, visit minimelts.com.
About Mini Melts USA
Founded in 2004, Mini Melts is one of the fastest-growing ice cream novelties in the U.S., offering a premium beaded ice cream experience made with 14% butterfat for unmatched flavor and quality.
Mini Melts is distributed through a variety of channels, including automated kiosks, grab-and-go freezers, and custom serving carts and huts, all equipped with -40°F cryogenic freezers to preserve the perfect temperature for a uniquely enjoyable melt-in-your-mouth experience. Beloved flavors like Cotton Candy, Cookies & Cream and the non-dairy fan favorite Rainbow Ice are enjoyed across more than 35,000 locations nationwide.
Mini Melts is headquartered in the Philadelphia Metro Area, with a manufacturing facility in Norwich, Connecticut, and distribution centers strategically located across the U.S. For more information, visit minimeltsusa.com or follow along on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
About Royal Farms
Royal Farms is a renowned operator of fast and friendly neighborhood convenience stores with over 300 locations. Royal Farms opened its first store in Baltimore, Maryland in 1959. Today, the chain has locations in Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina. Royal Farms has been satisfying customers’ hunger for Real Fresh food served Real Fast. The Royal Farms Kitchen is well known for its Always Fresh, Never Frozen World-Famous Royal Farms Chicken that is lightly hand-breaded and pressure-cooked in Trans Fat Free cooking oil to golden brown perfection. Royal Farms Western Fries are hand-cut from fresh Idaho potatoes, hand-breaded, and cooked right in store. Most locations are open 24 hours, 365 days a year. For more information about Royal Farms, visit: royalfarms.com.
Complete lineup of premium beaded ice cream flavors from Mini Melts USA
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Four astronauts embarked on a high-stakes flight around the moon Wednesday, humanity’s first lunar voyage in more than half a century and the thrilling leadoff in NASA’s push toward a landing in two years.
Carrying three Americans and one Canadian, the 32-story rocket rose from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center where tens of thousands gathered to witness the dawn of this new era. Crowds also jammed the surrounding roads and beaches, reminiscent of the Apollo moonshots in the 1960s and ’70s. It is NASA’s biggest step yet toward establishing a permanent lunar presence.
“On this historic mission, you take with you the heart of this Artemis team, the daring spirit of the American people and our partners across the globe, and the hopes and dreams of a new generation,” said Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, the launch director. “Good luck, Godspeed Artemis II. Let’s go.”
Artemis II set sail from the same Florida launch site that sent Apollo’s explorers to the moon so long ago. The handful still alive cheered this next generation’s grand adventure as the Space Launch System rocket thundered into the early evening sky, a nearly full moon beckoning some 248,000 miles (400,000 kilometers) away.
Five minutes into the flight, Commander Reid Wiseman saw the team’s target: “We have a beautiful moonrise, we’re headed right at it,” he said from the capsule. On board with him are pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canada's Jeremy Hansen. It was the most diverse lunar crew ever with the first woman, person of color and non-U. S. citizen riding in NASA’s new Orion capsule.
Tensions were high earlier in the day as hydrogen fuel started flowing into the rocket. Dangerous hydrogen leaks erupted during a countdown test earlier this year, forcing a lengthy flight delay.
To NASA’s relief, no significant hydrogen leaks occurred. The launch team loaded more than 700,000 gallons of fuel (2.6 million liters) into the 32-story Space Launch System rocket on the pad, a smooth operation that set the stage for the Artemis II crew to board.
NASA also had to deal with some issues beforehand but was able to resolve them and allow the launch to proceed without delay, one of them related to commands not getting through to the rocket’s flight-termination system, which is needed to send a self-destruct signal in case the rocket veers off course and threatens populated areas.
That issue was quickly resolved, according to NASA. It also had to troubleshoot one of the batteries in the capsule’s launch-abort system. Launch controllers scrambled to understand why the battery’s temperature was out of limit. Ultimately, it didn't prevent the launch from taking place.
The astronauts will stick close to home for the first 25 hours of their 10-day test flight, checking out the capsule in orbit around Earth before firing the main engine that will propel them to the moon.
They won’t pause for a stopover or orbit the moon like Apollo 8’s first lunar visitors did so famously on Christmas Eve 1968, reading from Genesis. But they stand to become the most distant humans ever when their capsule zooms past the moon and continues another 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers) beyond, before making a U-turn and tearing straight home to a splashdown in the Pacific.
Once settled in a high orbit around Earth, the astronauts planned to assume manual control and practice steering their capsule around the rocket’s detached upper stage, venturing within 33 feet (10 meters). NASA wants to know how Orion handles in case the self-flying feature fails and the pilots need to take control.
Four days later during the lunar flyby, the moon will appear to be the size of a basketball held at arm’s length. The astronauts will take turns peering through Orion’s windows with cameras. If the lighting is right, they should see features never before viewed through human eyes. They’ll also catch snippets of a total solar eclipse, donning eclipse glasses as the moon briefly blocks the sun from their perspective and the corona is revealed.
All of NASA’s moon plans — a surge in launches over the next several years leading to a sustainable moon base for astronauts assisted by robotic rovers and drones — hinge on Artemis II going well.
It’s been more than three years since Artemis I, the only other time NASA’s SLS rocket and Orion capsule have soared. With no one aboard, the Artemis I capsule lacked life-support equipment and other crew essentials like a water dispenser and toilet.
These systems are now making their space debut on Artemis II, ratcheting up the risk. That’s why NASA is waiting a full day before committing Wiseman and his crew to a four-day trip to the moon and four-day journey back.
“There’s always been a lot riding on this mission,” NASA’s Lori Glaze said ahead of launch. But the teams are even more “energized” now that the space agency is finally accelerating the lunar launch pace and laser-focusing on surface operations — seismic changes announced recently by new administrator Jared Isaacman.
With half the world’s population not yet born when NASA’s 12 moonwalkers left their boot prints in the gray lunar dust, Artemis offers a fresh beginning, NASA’s science mission chief Nicky Fox said earlier this week.
“There are a lot of people who don’t remember Apollo. There are generations who weren’t alive when Apollo launched. This is their Apollo,” said Fox, who was 4 when Apollo 17 closed out the era.
NASA is in it for the long haul this time. Unlike Apollo, which focused on fast flags and footprints in a breakneck race against the Soviet Union, Artemis is striving for a sustainable moon base elaborate enough to satisfy even the most hard-core science fiction fans. But make no mistake: Isaacman and the Trump Administration want the next boot prints to be made by Americans, not the Chinese.
Until Isaacman’s program makeover, Artemis III was crawling toward a moon landing no sooner than 2029. The billionaire spacewalker slid in a new Artemis III for 2027 so astronauts could practice docking their Orion capsule with a lunar lander in orbit around Earth. Astronauts’ momentous landing near the moon’s south pole shifted to Artemis IV in 2028 — two years before an anticipated Chinese crew’s arrival.
Like Apollo 13 — astronauts’ only moon landing miss — Artemis II will use a free-return, lunar flyby trajectory to get home with gravity’s tug and a minimum of gas. The gravity of both the moon and Earth will provide much if not most of the oomph to keep Orion on its out-and-back, figure-eight loop.
The danger is right up there for Artemis II. NASA has refused to release its risk assessment for the mission. Managers contend it’s better than 50-50 — the usual odds for a new rocket — but how much more is murky.
The SLS rocket leaked flammable hydrogen fuel during ground tests, a recurring problem that engineers still do not completely understand. The hydrogen leaks and unrelated helium blockages stalled the flight for two months, coming on top of years of vexing delays and cost overruns. Both problems also thwarted Artemis I, whose capsule returned with excessive heat shield damage. To NASA’s relief, Wednesday’s countdown was leak-free but a few issues cropped up in the final hours.
Beating the Soviet Union to the moon made the huge risks acceptable for Apollo, said Charlie Duke, one of only four surviving moonwalkers.
“I’m cheering you on,” Duke said in a note to Wiseman and his crew before their flight.
During a weekend news conference, Koch stressed how humanity’s path to Mars goes through the moon, the proving ground for points beyond.
“It is our strong hope that this mission is the start of an era where everyone, every person on Earth, can look at the moon and think of it as also a destination,” she said.
Added Glover: “It’s the story of humanity. Not Black history, not women’s history, but that it becomes human history.”
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
NASA's Artemis II moon rocket lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39-B Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
NASA's Artemis II moon rocket lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39-B Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
NASA's Artemis II moon rocket lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39-B Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
The NASA Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket with the Orion spacecraft launches at the Kennedy Space Center, Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
Astronauts, Mission Specialist Christina Koch, right, and Pilot Victor Glover wave to family members as they leave the Operations and Checkout Building for a trip to Launch Pad 39-B and a planned liftoff on NASA's Artermis II moon rocket at the Kennedy Space Center Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
Artemis 2 crew member Commander Reid Wiseman holds "Rise" after the crew's arrival at the Kennedy Space Center Friday, March 27, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
Commander Reid Wiseman poses for a photo with family members after leaving the Operations and Checkout Building for a trip to Launch Pad 39-B and a planned liftoff on NASA's Artermis II moon rocket at the Kennedy Space Center Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
Astronauts, from left, Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen, of Canada,, Pilot Victor Glover, Commander Reid Wiseman, and Mission Specialist Christina Koch pose for a photo after leaving the Operations and Checkout Building for a trip to Launch Pad 39-B and a planned liftoff on NASA's Artermis II moon rocket at the Kennedy Space Center Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
NASA's Artermis II moon rocket sits on Launch Pad 39-B at the Kennedy Space Center hours ahead of a planned launch attempt Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
This photo provided by NASA shows NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Artemis II commander, from left, Victor Glover, Artemis II pilot, Christina Koch, Artemis II mission specialist, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, Artemis II mission specialist, right, in a group photograph as they visit NASA's Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft, Monday, March 30, 2026, at Launch Complex 39B of NASA's Kennedy Space Center, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)
NASA's Artermis II moon rocket sits on Launch Pad 39-B at the Kennedy Space Center hours ahead of planned liftoff Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
