Shave-Ice Syrups

Shave ice came to the local table through the Japanese plantation communities, whose kakigōri, ice shaved to a fine snow and dressed with sweet syrup, found a place in the islands' stores and stands. The syrups belong to the same sugar-cane landscape that shaped the beverage tradition of Hawaiʻi: sugar, water and fruit, boiled and cooled. Kysar writes the home version around fresh fruit syrups of strawberry, lilikoʻi and vanilla, and it is carried by families and by the shave-ice stands of Oʻahu and Kauaʻi that make their own.

A shave-ice syrup is a simple syrup of sugar and water, simmered with a flavouring and cooled. Kysar's three are strawberry, made from sliced ripe berries; lilikoʻi (Passiflora edulis), made from the pulp; and vanilla, made with a split and scraped bean and sometimes tinted blue. Strawberry and lilikoʻi are strained through a fine sieve, vanilla need not be. Plain 1:1 syrup, ginger syrup and honey syrup stand beside them as the base syrups of the same kitchen. The syrup is poured over ice shaved to a feathery softness, which is not the coarse crushed ice of a snow cone, and the bowl may carry vanilla ice cream beneath and li hing powder above.

Shave ice is eaten alone in heat, often with vanilla ice cream beneath and li hing powder over, and the sour-salt powder is there to set against the sugar. Lilikoʻi, with its acidity, balances the sweetness of the syrup where strawberry and vanilla are softer. The structure is cold fine ice absorbing sweet liquid, so a syrup must be sweet enough to hold its flavour as the ice melts.