Luis (who is from Venezuela) and his father in law, Juan (from Columbia) own the busines.  I met Luis’ wife (she’s due to have a baby any day now; they have 2 cute children).  They have 2 trucks (a van-sized thing and the “truckster” that they pull on a trailer).  

We bought some to try: Travis had blueberry, Austin had lime and I had the “Carribean Tour”: Coconut, Lulo, Parchita, and Tamarindo with a sweet cream on top (kind of like you’d put that marshmallow stuff on it up north).  He said they went to Hawaii and fell in love with the shave ice.  The machine came from Hawaii and the flavors come from the internet (at least that’s what I thought he said). They sell on Osprey Rd and at private parties, events that welcome vendors and in Key West.  The bigger truck is in Key West this Memorial Day weekend.  The little Hukilau Hut is a little vehicle decorated using PVC pipes (to look like bamboo) and carved styrofoam, painted and decorated with a bag or two of lizard toys, plastic pineapples etc.  Luis is a graphic artist and hand painted and decorated the thing.  Juan carved a tiki head of a palm tree trunk and it sits near the truck.  He should make make more and sell them, too.

The flavors are:lime, cherry, hawaiian, pineapple (two separate flavors NOT hawaiian pineapple), orange, grape, blueberry, bubblegum, strawberry, mora, coconut, guava, lulo, tamarindo, rarchita, mango and guanabana.   Luis and his wife told me that in Hawaii the real Hawaiian shave ice is layered with: beans (like a red bean or black bean that’s been sweetened and chilled) topped by vanilla ice cream, then shaved ice and flavoring.  You can have up to 4 different flavors.

 

Luis is cool to talk to.  Travis and he talked about cooking.  Juan was a chef and came up with the flavors on the list starting with Mora.

For more information about Juan and his shave ice business, check out this story which ran in the Herald Tribune (Sarasota) on August 30, 2010: www.heraldtribune.com/article/20100830/ARTICLE/8301050/2416/NEWS