{"id":1292,"date":"2025-09-04T12:56:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T12:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/1292\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T12:56:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T12:56:08","slug":"madness-over-fruit-ice-cream-freezers-cant-stay-full","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/1292\/","title":{"rendered":"Madness over fruit ice cream, freezers can\u2019t stay full"},"content":{"rendered":"

Patel caught wind of the popular treats made in China when he spotted them going viral on TikTok in July.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we need to bring that on here as well,\u201d he told RNZ. They took a while to source, but in early August he had the first delivery of 200 boxes of 12 ice creams made by Fruitae. Patel priced them at $7.99 each. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we got the first delivery we posted the video on TikTok and customers started coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said a local content creator who goes by @christchurchgal also made a video and the dairy went nuts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithin a couple of hours we had hundreds of people outside the shop and we sold out in the same day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AtAt John Patel’s Christchurch dairy, the viral ice creams have been sold out for 12 days. Photo \/ RNZ, Anna Sargent<\/p>\n

TikTok trend data shows interest in #icecream began climbing in late July, reaching a three-year high by the end of August.<\/p>\n

Fruitae Ice Cream is the most common brand of the viral treat sold in New Zealand. According to their website the brand\u2019s partners include Pakn\u2019Save, New World and Four Square. Dairies across the country stock other brands too.<\/p>\n

HongQi created the original Fruit Ice Cream, according to a Chinese patent database. It patented a peach-shaped creation in China in 2020. They were more expensive to buy wholesale and a supply lag in June allowed competitors to fill freezers.<\/p>\n

HonQi export manager Ke Gao looks after the New Zealand market from China. He says the company first exported their fruit-shaped ice creams to Aotearoa in September 2024, after finding success in North America two years earlier.<\/p>\n

Business owner Samir Gandhi has a shop in Te Atat\u016b and another on Dominion Rd and has been stocking the ice creams for three weeks. His Te Atat\u016b Discount Superette has already become a destination, with Aucklanders visiting from outside the area for a taste.<\/p>\n

\u201cWinter is usually quiet for us, but this viral ice cream has just put another level of foot traffic to keep us busy,\u201d he told RNZ\u2019s First Up.<\/p>\n

\"SamirSamir Gandhi says the trendy ice-creams have attracted customers from all over the city to his dairy. He’s holding the latest trendy chicken drumstick ice-cream, and two brandss of the peach ice creams. Photo \/ RNZ, Ke-Xin Li<\/p>\n

He stocks the Fruitae, Fruity Bitez and Hicey brands, selling them for $5.99 each.<\/p>\n

He explains it often takes at least a month for them to be shipped from China.<\/p>\n

Gandhi says his favourite is strawberry made by Fruitae, which has a creamy taste, but Kiwi customers are more focused on the ice cream and less fussed about who actually made it.<\/p>\n

HongQi uses New Zealand dairy Ke Gao says, a claim also made by the Fruitae brand. Fruitae did not respond to RNZ\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a new frozen treat is next on the TikTok hit list \u2013 a tub of mini fruit bites.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne tub they get four different flavours like two of each little fruits. They are exactly like the big one, but bite-sized.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Patel caught wind of the popular treats made in China when he spotted them going viral on TikTok…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[138,2068,2066,2067,2065,2070,2027,2071,2064,111,139,69,1523,2069],"class_list":["post-1292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-cant","tag-cream","tag-freezers","tag-fruit","tag-full","tag-ice","tag-kexin","tag-madness","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-over","tag-stay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}