The Rise Of Real Fruit Ice Cream in New Zealand: Where Does It Come From?

Across the world, real fruit ice cream is being deemed a “New Zealand-style” treat. Is it really an invention Aotearoa New Zealand can claim? Madeleine Crutchley takes a winding trip through the archives to map a brief and surprising history of real fruit ice cream.

Two to three thousand.

That’s the amount of real fruit ice cream cones one staff member from Riverhead’s Good Planet estimates selling on a busy day.

While Good Planet owner Boman Zakeri sees scores of people stream from the nearby pick-your-own strawberry fields to queue for real fruit ice creams, he’s not quite sure about the origins of this ice cream concoction.

Overseas, Aotearoa is crowned as the creator: the light, smooth, pinky-red sweet swirl of frozen fruit and vanilla ice cream has been labelled “New Zealand-style ice cream”.

The national fondness for this treat is on peak display in the summer months.

Beaches, berry orchards and roadsides play host to the proliferation of ice cream machines, satisfying queues of peckish patrons. There are also permanent establishments across the country, from Keri Berries Farm Store in Kerikeri to Kraker Jacs in Waihōpai Invercargill, where cones are filled each summer.

This seasonal indulgence likely makes a hefty contribution to the estimated 20.1 litres of ice cream New Zealand consumed per person in 2023 (according to Euromonitor International).

The earliest recorded mentions of ice cream and real fruit in New Zealand’s newspapers are in the 1920s.

In a 1925 copy of the Feilding Star, the advertisements column proclaims the deliciousness of “Ice Cream With Real Fruit” at Groomsbridge’s Marble Bar.

Another advertisement from a 1929 edition of the Timaru Herald promotes ice cream from The Regent Confectionary. It promises the scoops are “served promptly and daintily with all the popular fruit flavourings”.

While these archives point to a growing appetite for fruit flavourings, they’re not referring to real fruit ice cream as we would recognise it today.

Chris Newey of the NZ Ice Cream Manufacturers Association, who has worked hard to curate a long and ultra-detailed history of ice cream in Aotearoa New Zealand, says these references throughout the 1920s are detailing the use of fruit in otherwise normally processed ice cream.

“The fact is that fresh fruit contains too much water to be used directly in ice cream that is stored frozen – you will get very icy ice cream. So, the fruit is first mixed with sugar and heated to make a syrup, before adding to the mix. Adding real fruit was a step forward from using flavour syrups, but didn’t change the way the ice cream was made.”

The next step in the 50s, Chris explains, was the addition of vibrant fruit “ripples”. This involved “swirling or extruding fruit syrup into the bulk ice cream as it is pumped into the filler for packing”.

The dessert expert estimates the technology we use to make real fruit ice cream now, which blends fruit into the ice cream right before eating, came from developments later in the 20th century.

“I think the technology used currently is quite recent even though the concept is pretty simple. It relies on a powerful mixer to pulverise the frozen fruit pieces and reduce the ice crystals to a small enough size that they are not obvious when mixed in with the ice cream.

A search between 1970 and 1989 within Papers Past (an archive of digitised New Zealand newspapers, magazines and journals up to the 1990s) returns relatively empty. The closest a researcher at Motat’s Walsh Memorial Library comes to finding a record of real fruit ice cream machinery are images of Tip Top tricycles in action in the 1970s – but there aren’t any swirls to be found here.

However, a researcher at Nelson’s Provincial Museum dusts off some helpful sources. In 1995, regional newspaper the Nelson Leader profiled Trevor Ivory, a Nelson berry fruit gardener, who was celebrating 25 years in business.

Within the piece, Trevor claims to have brought the first mechanical berry harvester and real fruit ice cream machine to the region. The article reads:

“The garden’s real fruit ice cream, another Templemore trademark, is making waves in the export industry. It has also created business for Tahunanui firm Hermes Manufacturing who produce the machines.”

The Tāhunanui Hermes Manufacturing firm mentioned in this report was an Auckland-based machine manufacturing company started in 1976 by Nikos Patousis (who emigrated to Aotearoa from Greece). The company expanded in the 1990s, after engineer Warren Watts moved to Nelson and became Hermes’ South Island manager.

Warren Watts, who still lives in Nelson, worked with Trevor Ivory to manufacture a new version of a real fruit ice cream he imported from the US in 1995. The import model took frozen berries and blended them with ice cream.

“It kind of worked but not that well, so he brought it to me,” says Warren.

Warren developed a prototype and the New Zealand-made machine began to sell around the country. As the Nelson Leader profile explains:

“The machines, which are marketed by Mr Ivory’s Real Fruit Ice Cream Company, can now be seen from the Bluff to Auckland and about 40 orders have just been received from Australia.”

Not many of those machines made it over the ditch, Warren remembers, as plans around money or marketing on the other end of the deal changed. Trevor continued working on the ice cream machines though.

“It was his baby,” Warren says.

In the years following, Hermes was bought out and the design of the machine continued to be developed by other companies.

Warren says these newer models, from companies such as Little Jem and Flavorama, have distinct differences from the Hermes design.

“They are different machines. The original machine had a stainless-steel worm and a compressor that went with it to give it enough power to chomp through the frozen berries and cut them up.

“The newer machines... the worm spins them around and sort of melts the berries down and puts them in the ice cream.”

The change, Warren says, has altered the texture of the ice cream.

“The original real fruit ice cream, you can actually taste the little bits of berries all through it. The ones they do now are more blended. [The older machines created] quite a unique texture. You’re having an ice cream, which is reasonably soft, and then all these little hard bits of frozen berries all through it.”

Dennis and Chris Little, brothers and the co-owners of Little Jem, have continued to advance the design of these machines. Now, Little Jem is a major player in NZ’s exportation of the technology.

After making a living as a market gardener for several decades, Dennis acquired the distribution rights for an imported ice cream blender from Australia. In the years following, Dennis and his family purchased Berry Lands, a pick-your-own berry farm in Nelson. They installed one of the imported machines and began to sell real fruit ice cream from the fields.

However, Dennis encountered issues with this model.

“The machines we had initially would fire berries out the top and they were incredibly messy to operate.”

Dennis turned to his brother Chris, an engineer, and the two collaborated to build a new prototype. The Little Jem machines were tested over a handful of summers at Berry Lands (making hundreds of ice creams a day), before they finalised the design they retail globally today.

Dennis says the Little Jem machines, designed and made in New Zealand, have now been exported to more than 25 countries. The makers have recently sent machines to South Korea and France. Little Jem is also seeing “lots of traction” in the US and Canada.

So, the archives reveal that the blenders were likely imported to Aotearoa before engineers developed new prototypes. Why is New Zealand receiving the credit for its creation?

Dennis theorises that New Zealand embraced the concept of real fruit ice cream more than any other country, early in the 2000s.

“I believe this [was] due to the number of pick-your-own berry gardens and roadside stalls in NZ that have incorporated real fruit ice cream.”

He points to the visibility of the treat in all sorts of places across Aotearoa too.

“Real fruit ice cream can now be found in dairies, cafes, restaurants, service stations, ice cream parlours and mobile outlets.”

The proliferation in Aotearoa is fuelling interest overseas.

From Texas to Oregon, growing curiosity for “New Zealand-style ice cream” in the US is recorded and bolstered by regional newspapers – articles often marvel at the unfamiliar fruit-filled swirls and the machines that make it. Though, as observed by the New York Times, US proprietors are taking liberties with the treat, adding sugary toppings such as graham crackers, Oreos and molten hot fudge.

It’s enraging some purists: one user rants on a Reddit forum r/icecream about a cone they picked up in Boston:

“I went inside and to my horror saw that the store was putting CHOCOLATE, HONEY (not even mānuka!), AND SPRINKLES (!!!!) ON THE FRUIT ICE-CREAM!”

[Capital letters and punctuation are the original author’s own.]

In Aotearoa, offerings tend to be more minimal. The most important aspect is the ratio of ice cream to fruit, and grumblings can arise if the balance is not struck. With a really adventurous spirit, you might stick a chocolate bar into the swirl.

The sugary adaptations abroad don’t bother Dennis.

“It all tastes delicious,” Dennis says. “My favourite is boysenberry and banana blended together. It’s great with frozen yoghurt too.”

Really, the US adaptations are the continuation of the historical developments in Aotearoa – where the cravings of those making and buying the ice creams lead to experimentation and innovation.

These adaptations are sure to continue. Places across the world have integrated all sorts of ingredients beyond berries into their swirls. Boman Zakeri says vegan real fruit ice creams are currently being tested at Good Planet.

Of course, it’s difficult to feel bothered while eating your own cone – too busy caught in the race to hoover every single drop, before the beating sun consumes it for you.

Do you know more about the history of real fruit ice cream? Email Viva@nzherald.co.nz.

Madeleine Crutchley is a multimedia journalist for Viva and premium lifestyle and entertainment at The New Zealand Herald. She covers stories relating to fashion, culture and food and drink, from her hometown of Tāmaki Makaurau. Recently, she’s written about climate change and fashion, rising local jewellers and sporty street style.

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