Results of Taste Testing

Click here for information regarding Hawaiian Snow shave ice flavors as well as various Hawaiian shave ice toppings.
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mattream
Posts: 231
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Location: Parker, CO
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Mon Mar 04, 2013 7:32 am

There are always a lot of questions about which syrups are the best. There are at least a dozen companies out there selling flavor concentrates and the choice is not easy. It depends on a lot of different factors. I believe in real, live testing to get some results to help make the decision.

I organized an official testing session with three different flavors this past weekend. We had friends over to sample ice and fill out a survey. I bought strawberry, pina colada and blue hawaiian from each of the following vendors: shaveicesupplies (HTK), 1-800-shave-ice, and Southern Snow. Obviously, this was not an all-encompassing test either with flavors or suppliers, but it gave me some great results.

I was going to list the winners, but I want to see what other people think, first. Out of those three, how would you rank them? I will respond later with my results. ;)
Matt
MaunaSnoa Shave Ice
http://www.facebook.com/MaunaSnoa
TWH
Posts: 97
Joined: Sun Dec 23, 2012 2:22 pm

Mon Mar 04, 2013 12:20 pm

Without guessing which company won, I will go out on a limb and say the same company did not win all three. I am performing similar tests myself and that was my conclusion, As a side note I will reveal that I am in the process of doing the same thing on an official scale in the near future. I will be posting about that, ironically, within the next day or so.

I look forward to your results.
hunterlundahl

Mon Mar 04, 2013 9:37 pm

Very excited to see results I've been debating between these 3 company's
mattream
Posts: 231
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Thu Mar 07, 2013 8:25 am

Ok, then. Here's what I discovered among those three companies:

1. HTK (Shave Ice Supplies.com) took first place in two of the three flavors. And it was not close, either. They were the hands-down winners of Strawberry and Blue Hawaiian. Distant third place in pina colada.

2. Southern Snow came in second. They earned a very close first place in Pina Colada, with 1-800 coming in second.

3. 1-800 earned no first places, but were second in pina colada, as mentioned, and distant second in Blue Hawaiian. Dead last in Strawberry.

One thing to consider: the pina colada I used from HTK was yellow, while the other two were white. Many people commented on the color. A couple people thought the "after-scent" (whatever that is) was medicine-y. I think that biased the results.

For me, there is a clear answer to "who provides the best flavors" at least out of these three. I would be interested to try Rio and Harders to see how they compare, but I probably won't.

Also, I'll be honest with you, that Blue Hawaiian literally transports me to the Islands! I love it!
Matt
MaunaSnoa Shave Ice
http://www.facebook.com/MaunaSnoa
ShaveIce
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Fri Apr 12, 2013 11:30 am

Excellent and unbiased review Matt! Kudos.
www.shaveiceshaveice.com
Forum for Hawaiian shave ice, shave ice supplies, shave ice flavors, and shave ice machines.
knowpow
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Joined: Sat Jun 16, 2012 4:25 pm

Wed May 08, 2013 3:03 am

Isn't Blue Hawaiian the same as Pina Colada?
capitalist
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Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2009 4:05 pm

Wed May 08, 2013 11:23 am

Blue Hawaii is a vanilla coconut mix. Pina Colada uses pineapple
ShaveIceSupply
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Mon Aug 13, 2018 12:48 pm

Bump up again for the excellent review from Matt
Providing quality shave ice products in Hawaii and all over the mainland for over 20 years. Visit http://www.shaveicesupplies.com.

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IceClouds
Posts: 95
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Tue Aug 14, 2018 10:10 am

Great Idea! We may have to do something similar. We only used HTK last year and this year we used southern. I prefer HTK's flavors while my business partner prefers southern. We will have to hold a private tasting event before we start next year. :D
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