Island X Hawaii

We love the shaved ice real fruit flavors. Best in the island. My husband and I looked everywhere for the real fruit flavors couldn’t find one until we got to North Shore in the little town of Waialua.

A side trip up to the North Shore brings you past vast, picturesque plantations of pineapple, papaya, bananas, mangoes, sugar cane, and coffee, until you arrive in the historic town of Waialua. A wonderful, leisurely scenic drive.
Island X Hawaii is a factory outlet store for their Hawaiian clothing line, but also features local island products.
While everyone else was ooohing and aaahing over the gift shop, I was taking a closer look at the clothing. I frankly did not find the clothing line particularly well made, although it was quite colorful. I did however find it barely acceptable for children’s wear, if you are not expecting much wear and tear mostly because they would outgrow it fast enough. It was also inexpensive. It also gave me uncomfortable thoughts of substandard working conditions. Hopefully I am wrong.
The large gift shop was inside a quaint, converted old building that was reminiscent of plantation days, and featured many food items with long shelf lives: coffee, chocolate, meat rubs, jellies and jams, nuts and butters. Great gift items. Some of their food items were available for tasting. They also had a decent selection of Hawaiian memorabilia and books, and the obligatory coffee mugs and cheap jewelry. Typical. Shaved ice is also sold here.
What sets this place apart from other tourist traps was the «free» mini tour. Step out the back door of the gift shop, take approximately ten steps, and you have arrived. 15 minutes tops.
What we saw was the periphery of a functioning coffee and cocoa plantation now owned and managed by the Dole Corporation.
Coffee and cacao are not native to the islands, but have thrived since their introduction here a century ago. We viewed a few historic buildings, a couple «demonstration» cacao trees bearing small blossoms and large pods on the trunk, and tasted the slightly sweet and fruity white pulp that surrounds each bean, also some unsweetened, roasted beans. Nearby were large bins of empty, discarded pod shells and screened drying areas for the harvested beans. Not much, but ok for a quick introduction.
These cocoa beans have, in the past, been sold and marketed under the familiar Guittard brand name. According to our tour guide, Guittard will have to find another source as they will no longer be sent to the mainland for processing. Hawaiian chocolate will now be processed on the island and proudly bear their own product name.

Hands down to one of the best shave ice on island!
I am not a fan of «fake or artificial» 100+ shave ice flavors!
This place is the totally opposite!
Here the reviews:
–Ambience: this is the old sugar mill and you can find shave ice but also souvenirs to take back home, snacks, coffee, etc.
–Parking: plenty, right in front (free)
–Service: 10 points! Really friendly staff!
They also give free samples ;)
–Shave ice:
These ones are made with real north shore grown goodies! All natural fruits, no artificial NOTHING!
Gotta love this place.
I have tried almost all of them but my favorite is the coconut and i like to add condensed milk to it! Yummy!
Small size is $ 5.95 and large is $ 7.50
You can also get the artificial kine for $ 2.50 (small) or $ 3.50 (large)

Love this place! The hubby and I stop in here at least once each trip to O’ahu.
Killer local coffee, expensive but delicious.
Lots of Hawaiian made items, gift/​souvenir type things.
However the reason to come is the natural shave ice syrups, to die for good. Don’t worry fake flavor junkies, they have those too… but the natural can’t be beat. Lilikoi is my favorite!
Take the chocolate/​coffee tour — only about 5 – 8 min and ya get to try local chocolate!

What an awesome souvenir shop! They have just about everything you could want. Chocolate, coffee, stickers, fridge magnets, night lights, shirts, shells, bottle openers, etc. Employees are very friendly and everything is reasonably priced! I picked up 7 things for $ 20. Reba our cashier was such a sweetheart — will definitely be coming back to this shop!

This place was outstanding, a bit off the beaten path but we’ll worth the 5 minutes out of the way it was.
Tons of great non-​generic gifts, most locally made.
Had my first shave ice here and it was wonderful. All natural, home made syrup with no worries about chemicals.
They roast coffee on site and the smell is amazing.
Friendly and wicked helpful staff

This is a review for their natural shave ice. While they also serve artificial flavored syrup shave ice, their natural shave ice, which is made of natural ingredients, just shines. I went back there again after my visit last year because their natural syrup tasted amazing. Passion fruit, pineapple, and mango were the flavors that I tried. They were just out of this world. Passion fruit was sweet, but balanced with just enough tangy flavor to it. Pineapple and mango both had their natural fragrance to them, very enticing. I strongly recommend trying this place for shave ice. You won’t regret it. Plus, the owner insists on customers tasting the flavors first, so you can’t lose.

We come here for the shave ice. They have either natural or artificial syrup for the shave ice. We’ve only tried the natural flavors — strawberry, pineapple, coconut. There are more flavors but those are the ones we tried and you can’t beat the natural flavors. It’s super sweet though. Next time I’ll try the artificial just to see the difference. I use to go to Matsumoto’s but that place is over rated, the line is super long and it’s just not that good anymore. This is our new go to place for shave ice. The only draw back is the natural flavor shave ice is pricey — over $ 7 for the large.

We went on their coffee/​chocolate tour and it was great. They show you how they ferment then dry the cocoa beans in the sun. The cocoa plants are owned by Dole in SF so they can’t sell their chocolate but they can sell their coffee. They teach you about the different types of coffee and the peaberry coffee too. If you’re a tourist with free time before you hit that traffic going into north shore visit this place!

Great place to come and buy local souvenirs! Also must try their shaved ice! All local and natural flavors! Must also try the variety of coffee they have here and better yet but a bag of their Waialua coffee! There’s also a soap factory too, surf shop and cute women’s wear boutique all in same parking lot. This spot is off the beaten path but worth coming to check out.

Very interesting factory outlet store. Lots of random Hawaiian stuff in here.
Check out the free coffee samples in the back too ! They were too strong for me though.
Lots of cool gifts, souvenirs, and snacks you can buy here.
Even though they said it’s an outlet, the prices are still steep.

*Is it kitchscy? yes. loaded with «stuff»? yes. a place you must stop in if you are in the area? YES
*Super friendly service, cannot say enough about the people and their shaved ice is their own stuff, no off the shelf bottled stuff, the REAL DEAL
*While you visit here, swing by the little surf shop too, cool little spot

Came here with friends since they wanted natural shaved ice. Our toddler loved it (and I didn’t have to feel guilty about artificial colorings). We got the strawberry/​mango with condensed milk/​ice cream and lilikoi/​pineapple with coconut syrup/​ice cream, I also had some tastings of chocolate, watermelon, and coconut. I’d say I was ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ on the flavors, some were hits, but some of them were too mild for my taste.
I liked the pineapple, mango, and watermelon the best. They tasted like sweetened versions of the actual fruits. Lilikoi and chocolate were pretty good too, the chocolate reminded me of cocoa powder (not too strong a flavor). The coconut and strawberry had too mild a flavor (or maybe they didn’t put enough syrup on?)

We recently stopped by to get their natural flavored shaved ice. We ordered our usual which is the strawberry mango with condensed milk and the Lilikoi with the coconut sauce.
For about $ 5.50 each, not sure what happened but this time it was TOO SWEET to even eat. It was like sugar water. You couldn’t even taste the fruity flavor! Maybe it was an off day or someone’s hand was too heavy on the sugar? But maybe next time we’ll just stick to getting their coffee.

Was referred to this place by a local and it’s a nice hidden spot you wouldn’t know was there unless you knew the area. They serve natural shaved ice made with real sugar and real fruit juice. It wasn’t as sweet as the typical shaved ice but tasted more like real fruit.
I got pineapple and strawberry which was really good. The strawberry was my favorite out of the two. My GF got coconut and lilikoi. The lilikoi was excellent. My favorite flavor overall. The coconut flavor was mild but came through nicely at the end of each bite.
The staff is super friendly and if you’re looking for something a little different, I highly recommend this place.

Super friendly staff. Also, you have to try the natural shaved ice. I got the lilikoi and coconut and it was so flavorful. No artificial syrups used… But they do give you the option of you want to go that route.
Here you can sample the coffee and tour the facility. There’s a gift shop so you can pick up souvenirs, but a local recommended we stop here for one of the best shaved ice on the island. It did not disappoint!

I came here for the free coffee! Ha. But seriously, there’s a ton of free coffee samples to try, and they are all pretty dang good. The store is a bit pricey, welcome to Hawaii. The local feel and friendly staff make the entire ambience pretty cool. I definitely recommend going by and checking out the soaps, chocolate, shave ice and coffee this place has to offer. There are some cool souvenirs to bring back to the mainland that are authentic and delicious.

I can’t believe I’ve been to the North Shore several times and not been here! This is located at the old sugar mill by Waialua Elementary School.
My bf took me here this week upon driving around Waialua after I told him I have not been there before. They sell coffee, chocolate, souvenirs, locally made snacks, condiments and shave ice. They also have free coffee samples and mini tour of the Waialua coffee and chocolate mill (upon request).
They sell two different types of shave ice — naturally flavored and artificially flavored (the ones with the bottled syrups). They have two sizes — small and large. We each got the large artificial shave ice, which is $ 3.50 each. The large natural shave ice is about $ 7.50. $ 0.50 additional with ice cream (vanilla). The bf choose the pineapple, mango and lychee syrups with ice cream and I had strawberry, guava and passion fruit. It was on point and dang, that thing is huge! I only ate ¾ of mine and the bf finished the rest for me.
It’s the perfect place to take visitors coming to Hawaii, away from the hustle and bustle of Waikiki.

Located in the area of the olé sugar mill. I had been her a over half a decade ago. I bought soap. Awesome smelling, absolutely fantastic soap. This time around, my brother and his wife highly recommended the shaved ice. WHAT?! Better then a certain other shaved ice which was located down the road? The affirmed this was the the best place on the North Shore to get a shaved ice.
IXH is located on the other side of the property furthest from the main entrance. The other place might put adzuki beans in the ice-​cream, but when you order all natural, you are guaranteed to get all natural coconut, pineapple, and other tasty juices to add to your shaved ice and… ice cream.
The also add coconut milk as the topper instead of condensed milk. It’s your option. I recommend the coconut.
Depending what day you are at IXH, you might be lucky enough to attend the local farmers market. On one particular day we were there, we picked up some tasty Oahu honey and peanut butter mixed with delicious honey.
Check it out!

I’ve come back home specifically for buy GREEN BEANS. After countless shops and cafés telling me they don’t sell it the people and Green World pointed me in the right direction. I couldn’t be happier!
This is for the coffee snob. They explain everything from different beans to how chocolates made and to the roasting techniques. The manger at this place has been here for over 20 years and he runs the day to day operations and even gave me a tour.
They have Maui coffee beans and Kona and other beans from different islands. I’m soooo glad that I discovered this place because now I can buy tons of green coffee beans.