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6 Min
27/04/2026
Ice + syrup + pure imagination, that’s the secret formula behind some of summer’s most iconic frozen desserts. Like seasonal cameos in your favourite shows, shaved ice desserts keep popping up in the likes of Disney’s Lilo & Stitch (Luki's Shave Ice), anime and K‑drama summer festival scenes as a quintessential warm‑weather treat enjoyed after school or at night markets.
When the temperature climbs, and the fan drags hot air across the room and exhausts you, there's one thing every culture seems to have – shave some ice, pour something sweet over it, and call it a dessert. Shaved ice dessert is quite a simple concept, with variations across countries. It’s almost like Gully Boy went global – born on the streets, refined in palaces, and now trending on every food feed imaginable.
What makes this dessert so fascinating is that each version carries centuries of history and a distinct personality. The fluffy nature of Japanese kakigori is nothing like the milk-soaked layers of the Korean bingsu. India’s ice gola is filled with sticky syrups and comes in neon-bright colours and on a stick, which is worlds apart from Hawaii's pastel-soft shave ice. And yet, they all scratch the same, hot itch.
Japan’s shaved ice dessert, ‘kakigori’, translates almost directly to ‘shaved ice’ in English. ‘Kaki’ means to ‘scrape’ or ‘shave’, and ‘gori’ comes from the word ‘kōri’, meaning ‘ice’. Despite its simplicity, Japan's endless hot springs supply the ice, so you get mineral-rich ice. Many shops use hand shavers or well-tuned automated ones to produce a texture that is fluffy, soft, and smooth. Every season brings new trends, and one beloved classic is the ujikintoki: kakigori flavoured with matcha syrup, azuki beans, mochi, and matcha ice cream.
In India, shaved ice is known as gola or chuski, which is flavoured with sugar syrups, fruit flavours, with classics like rose, khus, or kala-khatta, and often topped with condensed milk. A literal translation of this ‘ball of ice’ runs across languages – barfacha gola in Marathi and barf no golo in Gujarati. Gola is made with a hand-crank machine, and once the ice reaches the right texture, it's compressed into a cup, soaked with fruit syrup, and stabbed with a stick to create the feel of a popsicle.
Known as patbingsu in Korea, which translates to red bean ice flakes, bingsu uses shaved ice as the base. It is topped with condensed milk and an assortment of toppings like sweet red (azuki) bean paste (pat). Sometimes it is topped with pieces of tteok or injeolmi, which are Korean rice cakes. There’s also fresh fruit, cereals, coffee, jellies, cream or corn as toppings. Bingsu originates from the Joseon Dynasty, when it was enjoyed by the royal family and aristocracy during the hot summer months. Unlike kakigori, which uses water, bingsu uses milk to create the shaved ice, giving it a richer mouthfeel.
This Taiwanese shaved ice dessert is made with a block of ice shaved into thin layers, then topped with sweet syrups, fruits (rambutans, litchis, mangoes), and other toppings. Beyond the usual toppings, bao bing can also feature more modern combinations like chocolate and green tea. There’s one bao bing called xuehua bing that uses frozen milk instead of water, which is creamier than the usual ones. This snowy mound of ice is also known as tshuah-ping or tsua bing and is also popular in China and Vietnam, sold across night markets in summer.
This shaved ice dessert literally means ‘mix-mix’ in Tagalog, and the mixing is mandatory. Halo-halo is served in a tall glass that showcases its various layers from the shaved ice, fresh fruit like jackfruit, sweet potatoes, bananas, leche flan, sugar palm fruit, purple ya, jam, jelly, sweet red beans, coconut, something crunchy on top like rice cakes or cereal, and a scoop of ube ice cream. This dessert used to be sold by Japanese vendors in the Philippines at street stalls around the 1940s and is said to have been inspired by the Japanese summer dessert anmitsu.
Namkhaeng sai, also known as wan yen or chamba, is a Thai shaved ice dessert. It is simply shaved ice in a bowl, poured with sweet syrup and condensed milk. Its origins trace back to the reign of King Rama IV (Mongkut) of Siam, when ice was imported from Singapore and transported by steamboat – it used to be a luxurious item that eventually led to the construction of Thailand's first ice factory in 1905. Today, it's no longer a royal novelty, and it is sold everywhere from roadside stalls to dedicated cafés.
Hawaii’s shaved ice dessert is a bit different and uses thinly shaved ice that gives it a powdery and snowy texture. In Hawaii, shaved ice is topped with sweet syrup and other sweet ingredients. The most popular flavours are cherry, grape, and pina colada. The Japanese were behind the introduction of shaved ice to the island through Japanese immigrants who were working in the sugar and pineapple fields. The toppings are sweetened condensed milk, azuki beans, chewy mochi balls, and Li Hing Mui (salty plum) powder. There’s also mango, pineapple, coconut, and ice cream.
From the colourful gola of India to the velvety bingsu of Korea, shaved ice desserts are a great way to beat the heat. Consuming them is also a way of celebrating numerous cultures, creativity, and reliving summer memories. Each version combines history, local ingredients, and modern twists into one icy, Instagram-worthy bite. Whether you’re strolling a night market in Bangkok, enjoying a café in Seoul, or reliving childhood summers at a local street stall, these frozen treats are life’s simplest pleasures.
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