Lapperts - Nuku Hiva

Nuku Hiva - Coconut Pineapple Ice Cream, Brownie Pieces, and a Raspberry Sorbet Swirl

Today is the final pint from my six-pint shipment from Lapperts Ice Cream.  The flavor is called Nuku Hiva.  I love these flavor names!  Nuku Hiva is the largest of the Marquesas Islands -- a territory of France.  It is pretty far east as far as polynesian islands go, so far east that it is in the Western Hemisphere.  The island was a popular topic of 19th century novelists, with Herman Melville, Robert Louis Stevenson and Jule Verne all mentioning it.  It was also the location of the fourth season of Survivor.  What ingredients make for a Nuku Hiva ice cream?  A lot of them!  Coconut, pineapple, raspberry and chocolate!  I've had a coconut pineapple flavor before and lots of brands do raspberry-chocolate combinations, but I never thought about mixing all of those together.  This should be fun.

I had no idea what to expect when opening the lid.  It was a bright white to yellow-ish white base with bright darkish pink swirls.  Lots of sugar-cube-sized brownie pieces visible right away as well.  It's beautiful.  Digging in, the ice cream is quite sweet.  The raspberry and pineapple are the flavors that hit me right away.  It is a better combination that I expected.  I like that the raspberry swirl is done with a sorbet instead of a jam or sauce.  I'm not sure if I've seen a sorbet swirl before, but it is a great ide.   The coconut I first notice from the texture there are strings of coconut in the base.  I noticed the coconut flavor, too, but it was more of a supporting role.  The brownie pieces are fun.  They provide some chewy chocolate without distracting too much from the fruit flavors.  I like the sugar-cube size.

This is a very fun and imaginative combination of flavors.  I really liked this.  It is a bit on the sweet side, but that is not inappropriate for a fruit-based ice cream.  The pineapple & raspberry sorbet swirl were the stars for me.

That completes my six-pint shipment from Lapperts.  Despite hearing about them from a television show, they still have a small-scale family-owned feel.  I wonder if the TV show will increase demand for them?  Anyhow, it is good quality ice cream with well-implemented, imaginative and fun tropical flavors.  If you are on the west coast and you see one of their scoop shops, stop in to check them out.