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.

Lapperts - Horchata Cajeta

Horchata Cajeta - Rice Cinnamon Ice Cream with a Mexican-style Caramel Swirl

Today we review the penultimate pint of my six-pint order from the Sausalito-based Lappert's Ice Cream.  Today's flavor is called Horchata Cajeta.  I had to look up both of those words!  Horchata is a rice milk beverage common in Mexico and Guatamala that is often spiced with cinnamon.  Cajeta is Mexican confection made from caramelized goat milk or a mixture of goat milk and cow's milk.  It is a bit like dulce de leche, but with the inclusion of goat milk.  Checking the flavor description here, we have rice and cinnamon for the horchata part of the name and caramel for the cajeta part of the name.  There is no detailed ingredient list, so I'm not sure if there was any goat-milk used but I approve of the colorful inspiration.  This is one of the flavors that Isaac Lappert talked about on the Ice Cream Show and rice milk is a new ingredient for me, so I am looking forward to this pint.

The top of the pint is an off-white color -- you can tell there is cinnamon.  There are hints of a caramelish swirl as well.  It looks very thick and you can tell that it is hand-packed.  Digging in, I can taste the rice right away.  I did not notice any actual grains of rice, but the flavor reminded me a lot of rice pudding.   There is just enough cinnamon in the mix to add to the flavor without distracting too much from the rice.  It is quite delicious.  The caramel swirl is a nice addition to the mix.  It is a bit sparse near the top of the pint, thought there was more caramel as I ate my way down.

This is a fun pint of ice cream.  The rice milk base is the star of the show and is quite delicious and unique.  More brands should try a rice milk base!  The cinnamon and caramel were good too, albeit in supporting roles.  If you like rice milk or rice pudding, you should definitely check this out.

Lapperts - Hana Road

Hana Road - Chocolate Ice Cream with Marshmallows, Walnuts, Macadamia Nuts, and Chocolate-Covered Almonds

The fourth pint of my six pint shipment from Lappert's Ice Cream is called Hana Road.  This is basically their implementation of "Rocky Road", but the flavor is given a more Hawaiian feel by the inclusion of macadamia nuts and invoking the famous "Road to Hana" along the northern coast of Maui.  This should be fun.

Opening the pint, the base chocolate is quite dark.  Digging in, the chocolate base tastes a bit like a fudgesicle.  I remember thinking the same thing about a McConnell's pint a while back.  Most chocolate bases have a frozen-chocolate-milk feel, but this is a bit thicker and deeper chocolate than that.  The marshmallows are the same size and shape as the mini-marshmallows that you can buy in a bag, but they are a bit higher quality than that.  They   The nuts are generously mixed in and provided quite a bit of crunch.  With three different kinds of nuts in the mix, I never really knew which one to expect.  It kept me on my toes.

This turned out to be a fairly standard implementation of Rocky Road.  Yes, there was macadamias in there but their presence was diluted by the other nuts.  My favorite Rocky Road is still Haagen-Dazs because of the superior marshmallow mix-ins but for those that like a darker chocolate base and a more exotic mix of nuts, this is pretty good, too.

Lapperts - Date Casablanca

Date Casablanca - Medajool Date Ice Cream with a Date/Caramel Swirl

The third pint in my shipment from Lapperts is called Date Casablanca. What a fun name!  I have only had dates in ice cream one other time.  In that case, there were so many spices in the mix that the dates played only a textural role.  This looks like a much more date-centric flavor.  Lappert's specifies that medjool dates are used here.  The medjool date is a soft variety of date which originated in Morocco -- hence the 'Casablanca' part of the ice cream flavor name.

Opening the pint, the base ice cream is quite light in color.  The caramel swirl and a couple of the date mix-ins are visible right away.  The pint has a neatly hand-packed look to it.  Digging in, the base is thick, soft and creamy.  The date mix-ins are delicious.  The caramel coats the dates in a way that sometimes make them feel like they have a candy coating.  It almost reminds me of a chewier version of a praline pecan.  The base itself does not have a very strong flavor but seems like the perfect vehicle for these mix-ins.

I really liked this pint of ice cream.  It makes me wonder why dates are not a more commonly used in ice cream.  Maybe good dates are hard to find or maybe no one else has figured out how to do them as well as Lapperts has here?  Date lovers should have this, but it is quite good for those like myself who are not all that familiar with dates either.

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.

Lapperts - Ube Macapuno

Ube Macapuno - Ice Cream flavored with Philippine purple Ube Root mixed with Macapuno (coconut) puree

There is a new show this year on the Vice Network called the Ice Cream Show.  It is a fun and whimsical show featuring different kinds of ice cream, popular ice creams in different cities and includes many behind the scenes looks at how ice cream gets made.  The host of the show is Isaac Lappert of Lappert's Ice Cream.  I checked out their website and the flavors seemed unique and interesting so I figured that I would give them a shot.  My online order of six pints arrived just before I went on vacation to New York.  I am back home now, so I can try them out.

Lapperts was founded in 1983 by Isaac's grandfather Walter Lappert.  Walter had 'retired' to the Hawaiian town of Hanapepe on the island of Kauai, but he did not like the local desserts so he started making ice cream.  This led to a successful second career selling tropical-themed ice cream flavors throughout Hawaii, several western states and even in Japan.   When Walter died in 2003, the company split.  His former wife and business partner inherited what is now Lapperts Hawaii and his son Michael (Isaac's father) inherited the part on the US mainland which is centered in Richmond, California.  I got a shipment from the Lappert's in California.  If you looks at the flavor menus for the two companies you can see the shared heritage.  Both specialize in tropical flavors and many of the flavor names are the same.


Today's flavor is called Ube Macapuno.  I must admit that when I first saw this flavor selection, I had no idea what either of those words meant.  One of the fun things about this blog is trying new things so once I confirmed that neither word meant something terrible I decided to give it a try.  An ube is a purple yam native to southeast Asia and its neighboring islands.  Macapuno is a soft, gelatinous variant of coconut.  The two commonly occur in dessert recipes.  It should be fun to check this out.

The first thing I notice is that the side of the pint carton is blank.  There is only brand-labeling on the lids.  What should I take a picture of?  I took a picture below, but perhaps that doesn't make a good 'avatar' for the article as it appears in the mobile feed?  So, I also included some marketing imagery from their website.  I could go either way on that, though.  Taking off the lid, the ice cream is a beautiful lavender color.  Digging in, the flavor is unique and not too strong.  It is not as sweet as a sweet potato, but it is definitely sweeter than taro root (which is what it visually reminds me of).  You can taste a little bit of the coconut, but it is blended in really well.    I notice tiny bits of ube pulp in the mix.  Because of their small size, they provide only a small bit of textural variation, but they do confirm that this is made from natural ingredients. The flavor builds a little bit as I continue eating, but it never gets too strong.

This was a very interesting pint of ice cream.  Because the ingredients are so new to me, I feel like I can only describe what I ate rather than try to compare it to anything.  The light purple color certainly gives it a tropical vibe.  The yam-coconut flavors are quite mild but they are also quite light and refreshing.  This is definitely worth a try if you are curious.