Opened this summer, the Sweet as Real Fruit Ice Cream shop is in the Hukilau Marketplace and brings beloved flavors and styles all the way from New Zealand to the North Shore. A Sweet as Ice Cream employee said watching the ice cream be blended on the spot is a much-needed experience, and those who taste the New Zealand-style ice cream are in for a delicious treat.
Nicole Gardner, a Kahuku resident and owner of Sweet As ice cream, explained the idea to make the shop came from a seven-month surfing trip through New Zealand. She said her family fell in love with the real-fruit ice cream there and wanted to bring it to Hawaii.After talking to people in New Zealand about ice cream and how the shops work, Gardner said she knew it was something she wanted to do in Hawaii and hopefully in other places too.
[The ice cream] was just a favorite of ours. I had a baby when we got here and I was homeschooling, so it took a while to get the [business going]. I had a strong feeling to come to the Polynesian Culture Center [PCC] one day and check it out. Everything fell together from there.”
Setting up shop
After spending a few months preparing and getting the shop set up, Gardner said they opened in the Summer of 2019. “We had the idea and a lot of research done for a long time. We were initially thinking of doing a food truck and park it around Sunset Beach, but we were able to set it up here.”
The name of the shop, Sweet As, Gardner explained comes from a common slang term in New Zealand. “In New Zealand, ‘Sweet as’ is like Hawaii’s, ‘Shoots.’ It means, ‘Cool,’ ‘Awesome,’ or something along those lines if you had to translate.”
Gardner described the design and vibe of the shop as also being inspired by their surf trip in New Zealand. “We took our boards and went all around the coastline, so we wanted to bring that back with us to the shop. We had a local artist, Jack Soren, do some work for us because I wanted him and his colors to be a part of the shop.
“The wood of the shop comes from New Zealand. We wanted to implement everything that was special to us about New Zealand into the shop.” Gardner said her husband, a BYU–Hawaii alumnus, did most of the construction in the shop redoing the interior and exterior.“
There were many late nights we did to get the shop ready, but it was a labor of love and a really fun project to do as a family.”
Customer reaction
Reaction from customers has been positive, Gardner shared. “New Zealand is known worldwide for its ice cream. People love it. Unless you’ve been to New Zealand, you probably haven’t really seen this kind of thing before. We have to educate people on what it is because they don’t know exactly what’s going on.”
Having worked at the shop since it opened, Nicole Kelly, a senior from Oregon majoring in elementary education, said when people first come, they are confused because there are many steps.
“People get so fascinated when we make the ice cream with the machine,” she said.
Gardner explained, “It’s an experience. Instead of just scooping ice cream, they watch it blend and see it created in front of them. We use locally-sourced ice cream either vanilla, coconut with frozen yogurt, and your choice of organic fruit, blended in this machine to make a soft ice cream.”
Kelly said making ice cream is fun and she can see it truly makes people happy. “You get to meet and talk to people from all over the world. Locals come too and it makes me feel part of the community.”
The shop uses handmade cones and waffle cones, and Gardner noted their most popular flavor was mixed berry, with mango and strawberry being popular too.
Gardner said New Zealanders are also reacting positively. “I had people from there who were really excited because they are here now, and they aren’t going back. To have this New Zealand-style ice cream shop here is great for them. They are bringing their families and really enjoying it.”
Comparing the ice cream to similar dessert from his native New Zealand, Tyrell Gemmell, a senior majoring in psychology, said, “The ice cream is as good as it can be without the same ingredients. I think the ice cream is good and going there is a treat.”
Gardner said the next step for Sweet As Ice Cream is building a food trailer so they sell at local events around the community including weddings, celebrations and possibly at the farmers markets, too. Sweet as Real Fruit Ice Cream is open Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.