Ketchup and soda were rarely part of the health-conscious childhood of sisters Naomi Kashi and Dorit Simone. But granitas, sweet icy Sicilian beverages, were a common treat courtesy of their great aunt Valentina.

On the hunt for tasty fruit- or chocolate-flavored granitas a couple of decades later, Kashi was disappointed that none of the L.A. offerings lived up to her childhood memories.

“I’d go to places where you think smoothies are healthy, but they’re made with a ton of sugar and artificial ingredients,” she said.

She and Simone, East Coast transplants now in their 30s, think they have an answer to that: Zia Valentina, a granita stall in the Original Farmers Market in the Fairfax District. The shop, which opened earlier this year, was the product of five years of work, during which Kashi turned her home kitchen into a granita lab, experimenting with recipes for sugar-free drinks.

With help from friends and Italian manufacturers of specialized granitas blenders, Kashi, who worked in marketing for advertising giant BBDO in New York, and Simone, a talent manager, settled on a recipe.

The stall is one of the only places in Los Angeles to specialize in the beverage, though Kashi views chains such as Jamba Juice and Starbucks as competitors.

“I feel my real goal is to change the general public’s slight intimidation of eating healthy,” Kashi said. “Healthy can taste good.”

– Justin Yang