In Hawaii it’s never a challenge to find something delicious to eat, and with the continued spotlight on health and sustainability, there’s a growing abundance of fare that appeals not just to the palate, but to the conscience as well. This includes locally made frozen desserts, a staple in this perennial hot-weather climate.
Here a few offerings by some principled producers:
Lynette Jee has been a well-known face on the local scene for more than a decade for her tea blends. Dignitaries and everyday folk alike love her product; her Pacific Place Hawaii teas are served at premier hotels and restaurants as well as her outdoor Pacific Place Tea Garden Café at Ala Moana Center.
One drink popular with the populace is Jee’s sorbet floats, which combine her teas with tea-based sorbets and gelato she creates herself. The SorbeTeas and gelato, until this week available only at the cafe, are now sold by the pint at Whole Foods Market, where they also sell Jee’s tea, enabling shoppers to make the floats at home.
Jee has long stressed that her products are flavorful without being laden with sugar. Instead, she maximizes the natural essences of the teas, fruits and herbs she blends. SorbeTeas are a mix of top-grade tea leaves, fresh-fruit extractions and as little sugar as she can manage.
“I taste it and take down the sugar 10 percent, taste, take it down 10 percent,” she says of devising SorbeTea recipes. “Then I up the other ingredients to balance out the flavors until I hit upon something that tastes really great. For people interested in trying tea, this allows them to experience it in a way that’s fun. This is part of a larger movement of promoting healthy choices.”
Gerry Nakashima had his eye on producing an artisan product when he realized there were none in the way of ice cream on the Hawaii market. So in 2007 he created Cold Fyyre all-natural ice cream, made almost exclusively from local products.
Nakashima goes beyond simply sourcing local — he features flavors unique to Hawaii.
“I find it interesting that Hawaii is the only place in the country that grows vanilla, coffee and chocolate … and not only do we grow all three, we grow some of the best in the world,” he says.
The menu of flavors also includes lilikoi, strawberry, apple banana and mint chocolate chip.
Nakashima’s products, including a gourmet ice cream sandwich made with shortbread, are sold at markets across the state and at Hawaii Farm Bureau’s Kailua farmers market. Nakashima sells about 100 gallons a month.
“Initially I was using Meadow Gold products. But then I met folks at the farmers market — farmers from Keopu Coffee, Kahuku Farms, Starpoint Farm, Naked Cow Dairy — and I immediately switched.
“Hooking up with farmers was a big step tied in with my mindset,” he says. “There are other locavore movements, but they can’t do coffee, vanilla and chocolate.”
Clayton Chang is one of the latest to jump on the locavore bandwagon. Well known as friendly Uncle Clay at the old Doe Fang store in the Aina Haina Shopping Center, he’s partnered with his nephew Bronson to open a revamped venue: Uncle Clay’s House of Pure Aloha, home of the latest all-natural shave ice. The store opened four months ago.
“We’re out to make shave ice more Hawaii,” says Bronson Chang, who consulted with chef Raina Suzuki last year to create recipes for fresh fruit- and vegetable-based syrups.
“We had to play with the consistency of the syrups,” Chang recalls. “If they were too thick, they wouldn’t be absorbed by the ice. If we added water, sometimes they wouldn’t be sweet enough. Basically, it was a matter of the right consistency with the right strength of flavor.”
In the end, the shop, also called HOPA (for House of Pure Aloha), ended up with flavors such as strawberry, pineapple, papaya, mango, lychee, lilikoi, coconut, coffee, milk chocolate, li hing, acai and “kale-spin.”
Kale?
“I’m not sure there’s another vegetable-based syrup out there,” says Chang. “Raina came up with this kale and spinach mix that has apple juice, lemon and simple syrup. It’s nutrient-packed and refreshing. You can really taste the veggies, which are from Otsuji Farm.”
Chang says the shop tries to source ingredients locally, but if there isn’t supply, they tap distributors.
“It’s a step-by-step process, building relationships with growers. But our syrups will always be all-natural,” he says.
Though running businesses guided by idealism doesn’t offer an easy path to success — “It’s actually easier to get product if it isn’t local or fresh,” says Chang — the dessert makers agree their endeavors are fulfilling.
“It’s lots of work, but it’s so much fun it’s not like work,” says Nakashima.
Jee’s ties to tea go back to her childhood, and she enjoys sharing what she’s learned.
“My grandfather was a Chinese herbalist, and I grew up standing in his kitchen tasting his concoctions, so I know drinking herbs can have a tonic effect,” she says. Nowadays, “customers are seeking more information. It’s about educating rather than selling, and I like that.”
In the end, says Chang, HOPA is all about “aligning everything we do with our values. When we source locally, we align our actions with our value for taking care of the community and the environment. Even though our relative impact is small on the overall food system … we want to be one drop in that bucket of change to create the world we want to live in.”
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On the net:
>> www.thepacificplace.com
>> coldfyyre.com
>> houseofpurealoha.com
Orange and blossoms add flavor to punch
Tisanes are not tea; rather, they are dried fruit, flowers and herbs. Tisanes are caffeine-free and offer interesting flavor possibilities. The punch recipe below, from Lynette Jee of the Pacific Place Hawaii, uses one of her tisane blends.
Jee says the punch would be extra delicious with one scoop of Hibiscus Orange Tisane SorbeTea, which she also created, added to each glass.
Jee’s SorbeTeas, tea-based sorbets that are low in sugar, are now sold by the pint along with her tea-based gelato at Whole Foods Market.
Hibiscus Orange Tisane Fruit Punch
Lynette Jee
1/4 cup Hibiscus Orange Tisane
1/2 gallon boiling water
2 cups unsweetened apple juice
4 slices fresh ginger, smashed and sliced into 1/4-inch pieces
5 sprigs fresh mint
1 tablespoon honey
Hibiscus Orange Tisane SorbeTea (optional)
Infuse and steep tisane in boiling water for 5 minutes, then strain.
Add apple juice, ginger, mint and honey. Stir and let infuse for 10 minutes.
Remove ginger and mint. Serve over ice.
Add one scoop SorbeTea to each glass, if desired. Garnish with fresh mint. Makes 8 to 10 glasses.
Nutritional information unavailable.
