How This Summer’s Best Ice Cream Got Made with Comvita x Giapo

15 December, 2022 Isaac Taylor

Ah Summer, the one time of year we have to face up to the fact that while the rest of the global community is singing carols about snowmen and Jack Frost, we’re living large out in our togs and flip flops. The only ice we’re encountering is on the end of a cone, and of those, the best is found, of course, at Giapo. In recent years, this boutique ice cream store has been turning heads with its creations. When your slogan is “Normal ice cream is boring”, you better be ready to pull out all the stops. Their ice creams are as much art as they are instagrammable; every scoop its own piece of viral marketing.

Their latest is no exception – smashing together the world of honey and ice cream alongside Comvita, famous for its premium Manuka Honey. It’s a match made in heaven really, as Manuka honey has always been a healthier alternative to standard cane sugars. The two companies are veterans of collaboration, so bringing honey literally into the mix had to happen. To get the recipe right, Giapo Grazioli went back and forth bringing out the Manuka flavours: “We played with the acidity of the yoghurt and some other tasting notes of Manuka honey, like orange peel and molasses to smooth it,” he told M2woman.

The idea for this summer’s cones came after Giapo visited Comvita’s Wellness Lab and experienced the tasting tour in the lab’s 180-degree theatre and learned about the bees. The end result is a kid and adult cone, both distinct.

“The kid cone is a vanilla honey yoghurt. Yoghurt and Honey is a match made in heaven,” Giapo says. “We hand drew a chocolate bear and covered the cone with Honey Pokey.”

They made the traditional hokey pokey with Comvita Honey and made it to resemble a bear caught in a honey jar.

Using Comvita’s Manuka Honey UMF 5+, the adult cone features a cookie resembling a honey comb. “In regards to the flavour, our goal here was to get people to experience Manuka in a pure form. We used Comvita UMF 5+ and we wanted the special taste of the Manuka to come out.”

When quizzed about the process of bringing these designs to life, Giapo told us, “The ideas came to us with more clarity as we attempted them. It took time and many reiterations to feel comfortable with our final creations”.