Ice Cream
From Chocolate to Ice Cream
nicao's ice cream grew out of our chocolate-making.
In the summer of 2024, we began experimenting with a simple idea: what if we made ice cream from our chocolate?
We didn't simply want to make chocolate-flavoured ice cream. We wanted people to enjoy nicao's chocolate in a different form.
To do that, we needed to work with people who had the skills and experience to make ice cream.
Making It Together
Making ice cream requires different equipment and skills from making chocolate.
So we began experimenting with a specialist ice cream workshop in Sapporo.
At nicao, we develop the flavour ideas and make the chocolate and chocolate chips that go into the ice cream. The ice cream itself is produced by the workshop, using its specialist equipment and expertise.
We didn't have a finished recipe from the outset. We tried things, tasted the results and made adjustments. Through that back-and-forth, the ice cream gradually took shape.
Our Chocolate in Ice Cream
For our Double Chocolate ice cream, we use cacao powder made from cacao grown on the same farm in Guatemala, along with chips made from nicao's 70% dark chocolate.
Rather than buying chocolate chips specifically for ice cream, we make the chocolate ourselves, turn it into chips and send them to the workshop.
Our matcha ice cream also contains white chocolate chips made at nicao.
Even when making ice cream, we want to make the most of the cacao we've worked with over the years and the chocolate we make ourselves.
Ice Cream on Its Own Terms
Simply adding chocolate doesn't automatically make it nicao ice cream.
We use Hokkaido milk and beet sugar as the base, without eggs. Working with the ice cream workshop, we adjust the recipe to suit each ingredient, whether chocolate, matcha or something else.
Rather than letting any one ingredient dominate, we look for a balance that allows each flavour to come through naturally.
Double Chocolate, Matcha with White Chocolate Chips, and Passion Fruit all began with the same approach. But the sweetness, the amount of chocolate and the overall balance vary depending on the ingredients.
We bring what we've learned from making chocolate, while recognising that ice cream calls for a different approach. Discovering those differences is part of what makes creating something new so interesting.
