Lapperts - Kauai Pie

Kauai Pie - Kona Coffee Ice Cream, Hawaiian Macadamia Nuts, shredded and lightly toasted coconut, and rich dark chocolate fudge

Today we look at the second pint in my recent shipment from Lappert's Ice Cream, the Northern California brand with the tropical Hawaiian connection.   Today's flavor is called Kauai Pie.  Kauai is fourth largest Hawaiian island (behind the big island of Hawaii, Maui and Oahu) and is located northwest of Oahu.  It was in the town of Hanapepe on the island of Kauai where Walter Lappert founded his ice cream company back in 1984.  This flavor contains coffee, chocolate, coconut and macadamia nuts.  Macadamia nuts are a new ingredient for me.  Indigenous to Australia, the macadamia is not produced in many places across the world from South Africa to Brazil to California.  They were introduced to Hawaii in the late 1800s and Hawaii is now particularly famous for them.  They are higher in fat and lower in protein than other nuts, but they are known for their sweet, rich flavor.  The combination of all of the flavors in this pint sounds pretty decadent.  I can't wait to dig in.

The top of the pint shows a rich brown coffee base, some macadamia nut pieces and lots of chocolate.  This looks incredibly rich and I haven't even picked up my spoon yet.  Digging in, the coffee ice cream is a dark roast of Kona coffee and is quite flavorful.  The chocolate fudge swirl is quite strong and has the biting flavor of a chocolate syrup.  The macadamia nuts are crunchy and there are quite a lot of them.  The coconut was something I picked up as a texture first -- there are a lot of 'strings' of coconut present.  It took a while for me to toast the coconut itself simply because the other flavors were so strong.  There are a lot of coconut chocolate and nut (usually almond) flavor around and I am a bit sucker for almost all of them but this one turns it up a notch by also including coffee.  This is extremely delicious.

This is an amazing pint of ice cream.  This flavor alone almost justifies my entire six-pint shipment.  The coffee, chocolate and macadamia go extremely well together and although the coconut plays more of a supporting role here it adds to the overall richness of the pint.  Don't eat a big dinner before having this so that you can fully indulge.