Yes, the rains have been pouring down hard over  the past few weeks but the heat still continues…!!  Such is life on our little island however, there are ways to cool down with maybe some yummy iced tea or of course some sinfully delicious ice cream but how about some shaved ice desserts??

Not heard of this yummy and cooling treat in Sri Lanka? Well, that’s because it hasn’t quite been here, well, until now! Bean Frost Shaved Ice, which is situated at Liberty Arcade (within the Liberty Plaza premises) opened just last week, and serves up some excellent frozen wonders.

Max Kondasinghe, Head of Business Operations for Bean Frost explains the two varieties, Ice Kachang (shaved ice from frozen water) and Snowy Ice (shaved ice made with milk based flavours) and these are served with fruit, syrup and red kidney beans however they do not use red kidney beans here as yet.

“The lack of variety in terms of food outlets in the country is what made me think I needed to open up a shaved ice dessert outlet,” Max says. He goes on to explain that another outlet has already been up and running at K-Zone in Ja-Ela for nearly two weeks and that the response has been positive. While opening up outlets at K-Zone in Moratuwa and the Kandy City Centre are in the pipelines. 

Each dessert is served with fruit (canned and/or fresh) at the bottom and then topped with either form of shaved ice. If you choose Ice Kachang various syrups are poured over the shaved ice and then topped with fruit and served. 

While Snowy Ice is served topped with popping bobas and jelly chips – The jelly used is made from Agar Agar and is therefore vegetarian, while these popping boba or juice bubbles are something I’ve not tried before and what they are, are juice in little bubbles, when you bite into them, the juicy flavours burst in your mouth. It is such a fun experience.

I couldn’t quite decide which variant I liked more because they both had their merits but I liked the silky smoothness of the snowy ice along with the subtle strawberry flavouring.

They have a number of desserts to choose from including Irish Cream Snow Ice, Chocolate Snow Ice and Green Tea Snow Ice, to name a few. While Strawberry Bash, Soursop Wonders, Starfruit Fiesta and Jelly Squash are some of the few, among the Ice Kachang desserts to choose from. 

What I liked about the desserts at Bean Frost was that they were not sickly sweet and the servings were just right and didn’t leave you overly stuffed but refreshed, while the desserts are affordable. 

Ratings:

Cleanliness * * * * 

Friendliness of staff * * * * 

Variety of desserts * * * *

Parking * *

By Natasha Fernandopulle

Pics by Kanishke Ganewatte