You could say that I’m biased writing this but this is the shave ice I grew up with. Every summer, my grandparents would take my little sister, Teri, and I to get shave ice. From what I remember, I never had a favorite flavor — I would tend to try different flavor combinations. It’s been over a decade since I last had a Baldwin’s shave ice but from the first bite, it brought me back to my hana-batta days. — DF
Nestled among the numerous restaurants in Waimalu Shopping Center, Baldwin’s Sweet Shop has its following among the Pearl City/Aiea/Pearlridge neighbors looking to cool off on hot, humid summer days. There is a wall-full of syrups with add-ons, such as ice cream or azuki, and a choice of sizes (keiki, small, medium, large, etc.).
The syrups are a tad sweet but flavorful. I wanted strawberry cream, which is my new favorite flavor, but they didn’t have it. So, we tried Melona and passion fruit. Both flavors tasted like the “essence” of Melona and passion fruit. The ice was slightly fine but hard and grainy. It finished well with some mixing. They use standard-size cups, instead of cones. The prices are reasonable : $2 for a small, which a small turned out to be pretty large.
Baldwin’s has plenty of parking, is wheelchair accessible, and has a wide variety of other snacks.
What sucks? The workers seemed a bit pushy and was impatient with us since we took a while to decide what flavors we wanted.
Rating: 2 cones
