About

We love shave ice! It’s a simple treat: flaked frozen water covered with a brightly-colored sweet syrup. The best ones are light – never icy – with a sweetness that isn’t so cloying sweet that it covers up the delicious taste of nature’s goodness, like that ubiquitous favorite, strawberry, or the much loved sweet-sour-salty taste of li hing mui that our Mainland friends never seem to order.

In Hawaii, or at least in Oahu, shave ice is available in every other neighborhood. If your shop is sub-par, the stand dies a quick and painless death in the arena of public opinion: the masses come in slipper-shod feet, taste, debate and leave with an indelible impression: junk. The stand will be left to cater to the unknowing, who happen upon the stand accidentally or because of desperation, while the knowing stand back, glancing up to notice this transaction, all the while thinking the stand is getting away with, well, if not murder exactly, something close.

We started this blog to fight for shave ice justice! To slay the truly heinous: those trying to make bank with junk shave ice. And, of course, to elevate the art of shave ice: celebrate those hard-working artistes with stained and frozen fingers who’ve made our shave ice the best in the world.

We welcome your comments and suggestions.