Why We're The Best | Ululani Hawaiian Shave Ice

Why We’re The Best

Alohatude: A Spirit of Aloha with Gratitude

At Ululani’s Hawaiian Shave Ice, our genuine service mindset, Alohatude, is what makes us truly extraordinary. Every detail of our process is thoughtfully designed to create the BEST tasting shave ice and an experience filled with warmth and care.

Alohatude means recognizing that every customer interaction is an opportunity to make a positive difference. We understand that with every encounter, there might be someone facing challenges—whether they’ve lost a loved one, endured personal struggles, or received difficult news. In these moments, kindness, a warm smile, and the Spirit of Aloha can mean everything.

This mindset extends to our team as well. We support one another with the same compassion and gratitude, ensuring that the spirit of Aloha is at the heart of everything we do—both for our customers and our team.

Creating Memories, One Shave Ice at a Time

Over the years, Ululani’s Hawaiian Shave Ice has been part of countless meaningful moments and cherished memories.

From standing in line and watching your shave ice being hand-crafted with care, to sharing the joy with family or loved ones, every step of the Ululani’s experience is designed to be unforgettable.

Superior Ingredients

100% Ultra-purified Water

It all starts with the water! We use ultra-purified water to craft both our ice and syrups. Since water and ice are the foundation of our shave ice, we ensure every drop is of the highest quality to deliver the best possible experience.

Our Signature Syrups

At Ululani’s, we craft 100% of our syrups using our own unique recipes, developed from years of tasting and perfecting. We use only the finest ingredients, including pure cane sugar, all-natural purees (when our recipes call for it), and premium extracts and concentrates.

40%–50% of our syrups are made with real fruit and natural ingredients.
Seven of our current flavors are all-natural, with more coming by the end of 2024.
Ten of our flavors contain no artificial colors.
With over 50 gluten-free flavors to choose from, the possibilities are endless!

Every batch is carefully crafted to ensure the best quality and flavor in every bite.

Gourmet Ice Cream

To ensure our ice cream add-ons meet the highest standards, we exclusively partner with Roselani Ice Cream from Maui. Known for crafting exceptional ice cream for over 87 years, Roselani uses scratch recipes to create the finest flavors on the island.

We use their Gourmet line, which offers a higher fat content and more macadamia nuts, delivering a truly elevated experience. While it’s more costly for us, we believe it’s worth it to provide the best Maui has to offer.

For locations outside of Hawaii, we collaborate with top-tier ice cream makers in their respective regions, ensuring that we always offer our core flavors—Vanilla, Macadamia Nut, and Coconut—for a consistent, high-quality experience no matter where you visit.

Premium, Handmade Add-Ons

At Ululani’s, we use only the finest, time-tested add-ons—many of which we make ourselves to ensure the highest quality and consistency. Each shop or franchise prepares their own mochi, following our carefully crafted recipe to maintain the perfect texture and flavor. We also make our own toasted coconut, haupia cream, snow cap, ube snow cap, and cheesecake cream toppings, ensuring that every bite is as fresh and flavorful as possible.

At Ululani’s, everything we do is intentional and different.

We’ve put in the work to perfect every aspect of our shave ice experience, ensuring that each step—whether it’s the ice, syrups, or service—stands out as unique and exceptional.

Our finely shaved ice is the key to our distinctive taste. Unlike the chunks of ice served elsewhere, our ultra-fine shave allows the syrup to fully saturate the ice, ensuring each bite is perfectly flavored from top to bottom.

And it’s not just the ice that makes us special—our syrups are a defining feature. While all our syrups are delicious, many are exceptional, crafted to complement our finely shaved ice and elevate the entire experience.

Add in premium toppings and the warm, caring service that defines the Aloha Spirit, and you’ve got a truly fulfilling and memorable experience.

Our Process

All shave ice is NOT created equal.^®

At Ululani’s, we are experts and innovators in the world of shave ice. We were the first to introduce many unique techniques that give our shave ice its signature ultra-light, fluffy texture, while maintaining the rich, creamy feel of sorbet or ice cream.

While these innovations require more time and attention, we believe they’re essential to providing a truly exceptional experience—one that sets us apart from the traditional shave ice you’ve known for years.

We don’t compromise on quality for the sake of speed. Instead, we focus on creating a product that’s as extraordinary as it is delicious. Here are just a few of the things that make our shave ice so special:

Innovative Poking Technique: Our signature technique—now used by many shave ice companies—creates “flavor tunnels,” ensuring the most flavorful and consistent syrup coverage in every bite.
Ululani’s Shave Ice Guarantee: We strive to pour the perfect amount of syrup, but if you ever want or need more, simply head to the front of the line, and we’ll gladly add extra syrup for you.
Trimming & Rimming Process: We carefully sculpt each bowl to eliminate any icy spots and wipe away excess syrup on the rim, similar to how fine restaurants rim plates before serving.
Unique Pouring Style: Our pie-shaped, third-style pouring technique (as opposed to the traditional rainbow ribbon style) ensures full, distinct flavors in each section and six vibrant colors when blended. Even long-time shave ice institutions have adopted our method.
Premium Ingredients: We use ultra-purified water for both our ice and syrups, and pure cane sugar in all of our syrups to provide the best possible base.
Real Fruits & Premium Purees: Our syrups are made with real fruits and high-quality purees combined with our ultra-purified water and pure cane sugar to create bold, true-to-taste flavors.
Handcrafted Syrups: We craft 100% of our 60+ syrups using our own recipes, with time-honored ingredients, and we’ve recently added a line of great-tasting sugar-free syrups.