Best ice cream in the Bay
Nothing says ‘summer’ like fast-melting ice cream. The Coastal Bay of Plenty is lucky to have LOTS of specialty ice cream parlours serving up original flavours plus your sweet-as favourites all year round. Get ready, cause you’re in for a real treat!
MOUNT MADE ICE CREAM
262 Maunganui Road, Mount Maunganui
Known for inventive flavours such as black hokey pokey ice cream (yes, it is black but tastes just like hokey pokey), Mount Made creamery is as cool as they come. Their small batch ice cream is hand-crafted using local ingredients such as Solomon’s Gold chocolate, Bionic coffee and Sommerfield’s strawberries.
POLAR DESSERT BAR
10 Prince Avenue, Mount Maunganui
This dessert bar at the Mount is a super fun experience and serves cold-plate ice cream and gelato. Choose your base ice cream flavour and whatever toppings you wish like Nutella, crushed Ferrero, Snicker’s pieces, Tim Tams, mango, coconut flakes (you get the idea), and watch as they’re frozen, smashed and rolled all together on the cold plate before being drizzled in sauce. Wow!
SEA PEOPLE ICE CREAM
107A Maunganui Road, Mount Maunganui
This plant-based (non-dairy) ice cream is made using a unique blend of cashew and coconut milk. Their menu of staples includes berries & cream, espresso brownie and pecan caramel, and flavours are complemented by seasonal additions. Plant-based gluten-free waffle cones are baked and rolled daily on site at Mount Maunganui.
BLACK STUMP
1841-1949 Tauranga East Road, Pāpāmoa Beach, Te Puke
Black Stump Berry Farm is half way between Pāpāmoa and Te Puke and grows the biggest, juiciest strawberries you’ll find anywhere in the land. Needless to say, plenty of these strawberries are transformed into real fruit ice cream at their café, complete with an enormous berry plopped on top.
Please visit their Facebook page for opening times as they only open during the berry season.
YOMI
97 Maunganui Road, Mount Maunganui
Yomi is Mount Maunganui’s latest ice cream obsession: a premium, self-serve frozen yoghurt and açaí bar. Grab a bowl, hit the machines, then go wild at the toppings bar. Think Biscoff crunch, hokey pokey clusters, nuts or fresh fruit.
COPENHAGEN CONES
14 Adams Avenue, Mount Maunganui
The queue for this legendary ice cream parlour at the Mount is out the door and down the street all year round. But don’t worry, you’ll soon be at the front and struggling to pick which delicious flavours to load up your handmade waffle cone with. Add sauce, sprinkles, whipped cream and you’ll be in sticky sweet heaven.
MONTE GELATO
Shop 2, Tower One, Marine Parade, Mount Maunganui
Thick pillowy piles of Italian gelato greet you as you enter this store, and it’s amazing how many delicious scoops you can pile inside one waffle cone. Ripples of sauce and chunks of chocolate, fruit and other treats will tempt you as you try to pick from dozens of gelato and sorbet flavours.
STASSANO DELI
107 Grey Street, Tauranga
At the top of Grey Street, Stassano Deli brings a taste of Italy and the Mediterranean to downtown Tauranga. As relaxed as it is refined, it’s fast becoming a go-to for city catch-ups and lingering lunches. Alongside boutique wines, wood-fired pizza and Supreme coffee, you’ll find silky gelato scooped fresh from the gelato window. A true city-centre deli at last, serving up everything you’re craving in one delicious stop.
