The Shop: Puhoi Valley Cafe
Location: Puhoi, New Zealand (45 minute drive north of Auckland)
We visited the Puhoi Valley Cafe, about a 45 minute drive north of Auckland, since they had won the “Supreme Award for Boutique Manufacturer” award in New Zealand three years in a row from 2015-2017, most recently winning for their Chai Latte Ice Cream. We thought the ice cream was great and we liked the ambience. We wouldn’t make a special trip from Auckland just for the ice cream, but we’d definitely recommend going if you’re in the area.
We tried the Chai Latte Ice Cream and thought it was good, but our favorite was the Sour Lemon Sorbet, which was absolutely fantastic but sour as promised! They only had 8 flavors, 3 of which were running quite low. It’s a good place to go if you like normal, one-ingredient flavors. Three other offerings were “Violet”, “Raspberry”, and “Lemon Yogurt”.
If you like things besides ice cream, they had some delicious award-winning cheeses; some of our favorites were the blue cheeses. They also had custard which was tasty, and a cafe with sandwiches and entrees that we didn’t try.
The ambience is quite nice, with a large outdoor seating area, and a large grassy area and playground where kids were happily running around. It’s definitely a nice place to bring a family.
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