Known for its hot and humid summers, Hong Kong features many desserts to relieve the heat, including ice cream, shaved ice and more traditional Hong Kong fruit desserts. With that in mind, here are our choices for some cold and icy desserts to help escaping the heat!
Photo by: Smokey Ice, located in Mong Kok, is a Western-style dessert shop that serves a range of icy dessert drinks and creative ice cream treats. Rather than just serving ice cream the classic way in the form of banana splits or sundaes, Smokey Ice cleverly presents their ice cream desserts in the form of savory food. Their signature desserts include the medium-well ice cream steak, fried ice cream shaped like a fried pork cutlet and coconut roll and fried mochi. They also have smokey nitrogen-like ice creams with flavors like peach, yuzu, oreo and Hokkaido milk. Cool down this summer by trying these “savory” desserts.
Photo by: With picturesque presentations and delicious sweet flavors, i Cremeria takes authentic Japanese desserts and adds a Western flare. Enjoy their Frutta Crema desserts that combine signature Hokkaido fresh milk ice cream with scrumptious Japanese fruits. One of their more popular desserts combines a creamy soft serve ice cream with a Japanese melon, placing the scoop directly in the center. Their heartier desserts are part of the Giapponese Cream collection - uji matcha ice cream (from Kyoto) topped with Japanese sweets like dorayaki (Japanese pancakes), anmitsu (agar jelly) and red bean. If you want a little caffeine boost from your icy dessert, try the affogato series with iced ILLY espresso coffee topped with your choice of soft serve.
Photo by: Serving ultimate ice cream creations straight out of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, Emack & Bolio’s originated in Boston, United States before moving international. It is the place to go for a dense and sweet summer treat. This classic American ice cream shop has everything from ice cream and sorbets to milkshakes and ice cream cakes. All of their ice cream flavors are unique to the store and are densely packed with different sweet treats. Try their Grasshopper Pie with mint, chocolate chips and Oreo cookies or Stoney’s Dream with fudge swirl, cookie dough and brownies. Pair the ice cream with their specialty Froot Loops or Rice Krispy marshmallow cones for an amazing crunch to match the taste.
Photo by: A frozen yogurt chain in Hong Kong, Smile Yogurt & Dessert Bar has amazing frozen yogurt parfaits and cones that are refreshing and healthier than ice cream. With 10 different signature parfaits to choose from and the ability to create your own, Smile Yogurt has the perfect parfait for everyone. All of the parfaits are made using their signature Smile frozen yogurt, perfectly layered with the right ratio of ingredients. The Vanilla Sky parfait with blueberries, mango chunks and vanilla sauce is quite popular, as well as the Smile Coffee parfait layered with homemade crunches and coffee jelly, topped with a couple coffee walnut cookies. They even have a Mango Fever parfait, with fresh mangos, mango pudding, mango and passionfruit marshmallows all topped with a mango sorbet.
Photo by: An often-crowded small Japanese dessert shop, Via Tokyo has become extremely popular in Hong Kong due to their creamy matcha flavored ice cream. Their signature matcha soft serve ice cream has an authentic and defined matcha flavor. For those more adventurous, Via Tokyo has over 30 different matcha and hokkaido milk soft serve combinations with toppings of different traditional Japanese sweets. Try their signature Soy Bean Powder Shiratama Azuki Matcha Soft Cream bowl or Warabi Mochi Mix Soft Cream bowl for a taste that packs a punch. In addition to their classic flavors, Via Tokyo has recently reintroduced their popular limited edition black sesame flavor - made using black sesame from a Japanese family in Kansai. The ice cream is a perfect combination of nutty and rich - visit Via Tokyo soon before this special edition flavor runs out!
Written by: Audree Wang