Mochi Ice Cream from Bubbies (Honolulu)

89 degrees and sunny in Hawaii. If it’s not a Waiola Shave Ice day, then it must be a Bubbies Ice Cream day!

Bubbies Mochi Ice Cream

Bubbies mochi ice cream 4

Bubbies Ice Cream is an institution in Hawaii. Started in 1985, it became widely known through out Honolulu and then the rest of the state for having the best ice cream around. I was turned on to it early in my college days, as their main store is just down the street from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Annie and I would go there a lot after movies when we were dating. Whenever we go back home to Hawaii, Bubbies is always at the top of the list of places to eat at.

Bubbies Storefront

bubbies storefront

The parking lot is cramped and the inside of the store is usually crowded with people in line or sitting at the tables, enjoying this super-premium ice cream. They usually have a dozen, freshly made flavors available each day, and the flavors rotate daily. My favorite ice cream flavor is the Espresso, which comes with coffee grounds mixed in for added texture and flavor.

Besides ice creams, Bubbies also does floats, shakes, and pies. The pies have humorous names like “Come Here Little Girl”, “Knock Me Up on the Blower” or everyone’s favorite, “Multiple Orgasm“.

Bubbies Menu

bubbies menu

But what Bubbies is really known around the world for is their mochi ice cream. Traditional mochi is a Japanese confection made from sweet glutinous rice paste and normally filled with sweet azuki bean paste. Ice cream replaces the red bean filling in a Mochi ice cream. The Mikawaya brand out of Los Angeles sells mochi ice cream in many stores around the US but they cannot compare to the quality of Bubbies.

“Why,” you ask? Besides the phenomenal ice cream flavors, the texture of Bubbies mochi remains soft and chewy whereas all others get hard and brittle.

Bubbies Mochi Ice Cream

Bubbies mochi ice cream

Bubbies has 20 different flavors of mochi ice cream, plus special “flavors-of-the-month”. Annie’s favorite is Passion Fruit (the two on the top left). We also got the canteloupe (bottom left), lichee (two white ones), green tea (top right), sakura, azuki bean, raspberry, guava and strawberry (all the pink ones – you figure it out!). The azuki bean and the green tea are classics, but the sakura is good and the quava is divine.

Bubbies Mochi Ice Cream

Bubbies mochi ice cream 2

If you want Bubbies mochi ice cream, you can order them online (for a pretty penny, of course). You could find them in specialty stores and gourmet restaurants (I’ve read you can find them at Whole Foods around here – can anyone confirm?). And of course, you can find them at their main store on University Avenue in Honolulu.
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This favorite dessert was entered in Sticky Gooey Creamy Chewy’s Blogiversary Bash roundup.

Aloha, Nate

32 thoughts on “Mochi Ice Cream from Bubbies (Honolulu)”

  1. >CONFIRMED! I just bought raspberry white chocolate Bubbies at Whole Foods 🙂 I went to the new store in Cupertino on Stevens Creek Blvd. They are located at the bottom of the freezer case and I found four flavors: green tea, mango, raspberry white chocolate, and vanilla. The price was $7.49 for 6 pieces … I hope there are 6 pieces, I didn’t check to see how many there were, maybe only four. Thanks again for this tip — I now need to go dig into them!

  2. >@Erlin – hi there! Selamat datang *waves*

    @Carolyn – well, Allen confirmed that it’s sold at least in the Cupertino Whole Foods. gonna have to go check it out!

    @Allen – thanks so much for doing that. I hope you liked what you got. Too bad no pistachio huh? Maybe we can ask the manager to bring those other flavors in!

  3. >Although I’ve been to Hawaii many times, I’d never heard of Bubbies before. Today I was at Central Market in Houston, Texas and I came across this product. They had a box of 8 for $7.99. After reading this thread, I’m going back there tomorrow to buy the Passion Fruit!

  4. >@Anonymous – cool!

    @Christie – thanks for letting us know that Central Market carries it as well. Next time you’re in Honolulu, you must go to Bubbies because they have lots more flavors than are available in the stores.

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