Tropical Dreams at $26 a Gallon is Worth Every Penny!

Hubs and I knew one MUST DO on the Big Island was stop at Tropical Dreams ice cream farm. The short version is we stopped, bought our half gallon of Banana Storm, and ate it back at our vacation unit. The much better story is the first time we ever discovered Tropical Dreams.

On our very last trip to the Big Island before we moved from Hawaii, we kept reading about Tropical Dreams ice cream. It was supposed to be THE ice cream on the face of the planet. We set out to find the farm and forgot our guidebook! We remembered the farm was in Kamuela. Somehow, the idea of a FARM did not stick in our brains. We drove all over the small town looking for an ice cream SHOP.

We spotted a hot pink store front and pulled over. We asked if they served Tropical Dreams. NO. Before loading in the car, my kids spied a huge turtle coffee table in the real estate office next door. They wanted to pet him, but he seemed made out of Koa wood, and I thought the better of it. I steered them toward the car when Hubs slipped inside. I did not notice right away. He talked story a bit, and walked to our car with papers in hand. I thought he had property information. Ha! The realtor printed out map and directions to the FARM, less than two miles away. We found the farm in a few minutes. In the middle of this farm is a warehouse.
Now we just weren't sure what to expect. Hubs hopped out alone to check things out. A few minutes later he emerged from this warehouse, swinging a plastic bucket, clutching a brown sack, and making eyebrows at me with a wide smile across his face. This stuff had to be serious. In fact, it was. In his prized bucket was Banana Storm, at $26 a gallon. He had a half gallon, and paid $13. For some reason they were closed, but had the door to the warehouse open. The owner(?) sold him the ice cream anyway, with some plastic spoons and some styrofoam bowls. She said the ice cream was super hard, but should be just right if we made the drive to Hilo, 60 miles away. We were headed that way, anyway. She told him all about the ice cream. Mmmmm. I am getting there.

Hubs thought we needed a serving spoon because plastic spoons are just not the best for serving a half gallon of ice cream. It was a Saturday, and we rounded the corner from the farm and saw this sign:

Hubs flipped the rental around, and pulled over at a home in the neighborhood. I slid out of my seat onto the driveway, and he handed me a few dollars. I poked around a bit and found a handful of stainless steel serving spoons perfect for scooping ice cream. I asked the lady how much for one spoon, and she said I had to take them all for fifty cents. Deal.

I jumped back in the car, and we started the drive toward Hilo. Soon enough the kids were wise to our ice cream bucket, and were STARVING. Oh they just could not wait. Oh they were so HUNGRY. When were we going to stop??? Hubs caved and pulled over at a nice park along the Hamkua Coast. We grabbed a package of wipes, ice cream, spoons, and bowls and sat at a picnic table under a huge tree, looking down at the Pacific Ocean. We pulled the top off of Banana Storm. I took one long look and scrambled to pull the shirts off the boys. I could only imagine they might want to bathe in the ice cream, and I had not even smacked Banana Storm across my lips yet.
Oooh la la...Banana Storm. This is what we learned about this ice cream. The ice cream was named by an employee originally from Guam. When storms grace Guam, bananas fall to the ground everywhere. So it is called a banana storm. This ice cream is made with all kinds of local fruit. And it isn't like other ice creams where you get a little chunk of this or that about the size of a penny. No.NO.NO.

Oh. My. Word. I have NEVER ever had such frozen goodness grace my buds.

The ice cream is classified as "superpremium." Such ice cream is made with 18% butterfat and is "low overrun," meaning the amount of air mixed in while freezing. It makes the creamiest, densest ice cream EVAH. (Grocery store ice cream is 10 to 12% butterfat.) And the bananas are NOT the long yellow ones sitting out at your grocery store. Oh NO. These are locally grown apple bananas. There are half strawberry fruits and half oreo cookies in there. These are not little ground up chunks. NO. I am talking about half pieces of cookie from the top of the plastic tub all the way to the bottom. Mmm mmmm mmmmmmmmmm!
This was officially the beginning of the end of my South Beach diet in December. I am only going to confess to having at least two bowls. I will not confess more than that. My family had just as much as I did, too.
We were so thrilled to visit Tropical Dreams once again on our trip this summer. Hubs and the owner talked story again when he picked up the half gallon. We will be back, Tropical Dreams!