23 Nov 2020

Duck Island: bringing back the ice cream parlour

From Nine To Noon, 11:35 am on 23 November 2020

Kiwi company Duck Island are known for their amazing flavours, such as Toasted Marshmallow, Orange Blossom Chocolate Chip and Fairy Bread, which won People's Choice at this year's NZ Ice Cream Awards.

After starting up in Hamilton five years ago, Duck Island now have five ice cream parlours around the country and their tubs are stocked in supermarket freezers.

Australia is big on scoop gelato but before Duck Island, there weren't a lot of speciality ice cream scoop shops in New Zealand - mainly just dairies, Cameron tells Kathryn Ryan.

He and his partner went on a research trip to the States and enjoyed the ice cream parlours there, especially New York's Morgenstern's Finest Ice Cream.

In the year after launching in 2015, Duck Island won a Cuisine Artisan Award for their Roasted White Chocolate and Miso Ice Cream and getting stocked in Auckland's Farro Fresh supermarkets gave them a kickstart, Morgan says.

Their refurbished vintage ice cream truck - one of only original ten Mr Whippy trucks brought to New Zealand in 1964 - has also been a hit.

Duck Island is named after a small island in the Waikato River where local kids swim in the summer - it's not far from their flagship Hamilton ice cream parlour and factory where all of their products, ice cream sandwiches and ice cream cakes are still made in Hamilton by "humans stirring pots of sugar and cream", Morgan says.

Next year they'll move to a bigger Hamilton factory and open some new ice cream parlours around New Zealand.