Duck Island Ice Cream - Crafting Frozen Dreams
Every sauce and crumb, cookie or cake in these exotic ice creams is made in-house, in the factory next door to Kim’s work desk. Visitors can try or buy everything – including an array of one-off seasonal flavours - at the scoop store where it all began.
Taste bud thrills
“It was a bold idea to open an ice cream shop in the middle of a Waikato winter,” Kim says of the three-way decision to open their first store in Hamilton East, in 2015. Her partner in life and business, chef Cam Farmilo, has set down his kitchen knives to assume the chief executive mantle. Cam was raised on a farm where extra-large ice cream tubs were a freezer staple. The couple’s friend, former pastry chef Morgan Glass, is Duck Island's recipe developer and a fellow founding director.
Together, the trio have a history of thrilling Hamiltonian tastebuds. They launched successful Hamilton restaurant Chim Choo Ree and ran it together for six years before veering into frozen desserts. The ice cream store concept, which sprang from their eatery’s unusual dessert menu, was further refined during a research trip to the United States.
An incredible palate
Those inventive restaurant desserts were largely Morgan’s doing and it is she who concocts Duck Island’s renowned and sometimes outrageous-sounding flavour combinations. Raspberry, coconut and coriander, for instance. Or hummus made with tahini, an olive oil swirl, cumin seeds and lemon juice. Or the original roasted white chocolate and miso that netted the first of many awards. “Morgan’s incredible. Her palate is spot on and she’s now at the helm of a team of flavour developers who get really excited about new possibilities and finding new things that work. It’s a real team effort.”
The Hamilton East store boasts a core range of 28 options, with three or four special additions on rotation at any one time. The latter might include seasonal produce – feijoas, passionfruit, pumpkin - or perhaps fresh mint in summer and orange blossom in winter.
Serious about allergies
A collaboration with a boutique chocolatier or peanut butter maker can inspire other short-term releases. The enthusiastic, ongoing search for new flavours is paying off. These days, supermarkets stock the company’s take-home tubs nationwide while dozens of different ice creams, ice cream sandwiches and ice cream cakes are shipped to Duck Island stores in cities around New Zealand. “Ice cream is like a unifier. A lot of people really love it, from all walks of life. So we’re really serious about having enough dairy and gluten and nut-free and vegan options and we take food intolerances and sensitivities seriously. In our scoop stores, our teams are trained in allergy protocol, to ensure that Duck is as reliable as possible. It means a family can go out for ice cream and there’s an option for most.”
Using what is local
The gluten-free maple and brown sugar waffle cones are made in-house. So is the vegan salted chocolate brownie flavour, and the maple pecan sticky bun ice cream. The strawberry, coconut and lime leaf ice cream is not only gluten and dairy-free, it is made using Waikato berries. “Those strawberries are from a farm 15 minutes east of us, while the boysenberries in our boysenberry cheesecake ice cream are from a farm 15 minutes south. We’re passionate about using what’s around us. Our limes come from a local family that has one lime tree that can produce enough for a seasonal lime ice cream for all our stores.”
Note: The business takes its name from a nearby island on a bend in the Waikato River. While it is officially Graham Island, it is colloquially known as Duck Island and its beach is a favourite swimming spot for Hamilton children.
