Guri Guri: Maui’s Century-Old Frozen Treat and How to Try It
What Is Guri Guri?
If you ask a Maui local about the best frozen treat on the island, you will not hear about ice cream chains or trendy gelato shops. You will hear one word, repeated with unmistakable affection: guri guri. This frozen dessert sits somewhere between sherbet and ice cream, with a creamy, airy texture that fans describe as unlike anything else. It comes in just two flavors, strawberry and pineapple, and it has been made by the same family for more than a century.
Guri guri is not widely known outside of Hawaii. It has no national distribution, no flashy marketing, and no glossy website. What it has instead is a tiny shop in the Maui Mall in Kahului, a fiercely protected secret recipe, and generations of loyal customers who grew up with paper cups of the stuff and now bring their own children back for more. For many visitors, discovering guri guri becomes one of the unexpected highlights of a Maui trip.
The Tasaka Family Story: Over 100 Years in the Making
The story of guri guri begins not in Hawaii but in Japan in the early 1900s, when Jokichi Tasaka first created the frozen dessert. He called it “goodie-goodie,” simply meaning something good to eat. When his son Gunji Tasaka took over, he noticed that older Japanese speakers had trouble pronouncing the English name, and the way it came out, “guri-guri,” stuck. It has been called that ever since.
Gunji later brought the family business to Maui, where it started as a small confectionery store in Kahului selling sweets and snacks like mochi and senbei alongside the frozen dessert. Over time, guri guri proved so popular that the family dropped everything else and focused on it exclusively. The shop moved around over the decades, from its original Kahului storefront to Wailuku for a year, then back to Kahului at the old Kahului Shopping Center, before settling into its current home at the Maui Mall in 1973.
Today the business is run by the Tasaka family, with sisters Gail and Cindy Tasaka carrying on what their father Henry Tasaka and uncle Setsuo Tasaka built. In 2009, the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii honored Tasaka Guri-Guri as one of five local businesses that had stood the test of time. Few food businesses anywhere can claim a century of continuous operation by the same family.
What Does Guri Guri Taste Like?
Describing guri guri to someone who has never had it is a genuine challenge. Cindy Tasaka-Ing, who helps run the shop, has called it a cross between sherbet and ice cream, and that is the closest simple description. It is fruit-forward like a sherbet, with a bright, clean flavor, but it has a creaminess and a whipped, airy lightness that plain sherbet does not. It is not as rich or heavy as ice cream, which makes it dangerously easy to eat a lot of on a hot Maui afternoon.
One distinctive note that longtime fans detect is a faint fizziness or sparkle in the texture. The rumored ingredients include lemon-lime soda, which may explain that light, almost effervescent quality. Whatever the exact formula, the result is a frozen treat that tastes refreshing rather than indulgent, even though it clearly contains dairy. It is the kind of dessert that works at any time of day, which is part of why locals stop in so regularly.
The Two Flavors: Strawberry and Pineapple
Tasaka Guri-Guri sells exactly two flavors and has done so for as long as anyone can remember. There is strawberry, a cheerful pink, and pineapple, a sunny gold. That is the entire menu when it comes to the dessert itself. No rotating seasonal flavors, no limited editions, no toppings bar.
Of the two, strawberry tends to be the more popular pick among locals, though pineapple has its devoted fans who insist it is the better of the pair. The classic move, and the one most first-timers are encouraged to try, is to get one scoop of each in the same cup so you can compare. The flavors are distinct but complementary, and eating them side by side is part of the ritual.
The restraint of the menu is part of the charm. In an era when dessert shops compete on novelty, Tasaka has spent a century perfecting exactly two things. Regulars will tell you there is no need for a third flavor, and after tasting both, most visitors agree.
The Secret Recipe
The actual recipe for guri guri is one of Hawaii’s best-kept food secrets. The family has guarded it for over a hundred years. In the early 2000s, only three people reportedly knew the complete formula: Henry Tasaka, who had retired from the shop, and his daughters Gail and Cindy, who took over the business.
What is publicly known is that the dessert is built on fruit juice, likely including guava juice, combined with condensed milk for creaminess and lemon-lime soda for that signature lightness. The exact proportions, the technique, and whatever else goes into the mix remain in the family. Home cooks across Hawaii have spent decades trying to reverse-engineer it, and copycat recipes circulate online, but the Tasaka family has never confirmed any of them.
This secrecy is not a marketing gimmick. It is simply how a family business that predates statehood operates. The recipe is the business, and keeping it close is what has allowed a tiny shop to survive for a century.
Visiting Tasaka Guri-Guri in Kahului
Finding the shop is part of the fun. Tasaka Guri-Guri is located inside the Maui Mall at 70 East Kaahumanu Avenue, Suite C13, in Kahului. It is a small storefront, more of a takeout counter than a sit-down shop, with no seating area. You order your scoops in a paper cup and enjoy them as you stroll through the open-air mall.
The pricing is refreshingly old-fashioned. Two scoops cost just a little over a dollar, and you can order up to five scoops in a cup before the shop switches to selling by the pint. For visitors, the smart play is to buy a pint to take with you. The staff will pack it for travel, and many Maui visitors bring guri guri home on the plane as a edible souvenir, packed carefully in a cooler bag.
The shop’s location makes it a natural stop on travel days. Kahului is home to Maui’s main airport, so Tasaka Guri-Guri works perfectly as either a welcome treat right after landing or a final taste of Maui before departure. It is open Monday through Thursday from 9 AM to 6 PM, with extended hours on Friday and Saturday, and shorter hours on Sunday. Hours can shift, so it is worth confirming before making a special trip.
Guri Guri and Maui Food Culture
To understand guri guri’s place in Hawaii, it helps to understand the plantation era that shaped so much of local food culture. Workers from Japan, the Philippines, Portugal, China, and Korea brought their own food traditions to the islands, and over generations those traditions blended into the distinct local cuisine Hawaii is known for today. Guri guri is a product of that era, a Japanese confectioner’s creation that became a beloved local staple.
It belongs in the same conversation as other plantation-era treats that locals still cherish. Like malasadas, the Portuguese fried doughnuts that became a Hawaii bakery staple, guri guri is a food with immigrant roots that grew into something uniquely local. These are not dishes you find in tourist restaurants. They are the foods people actually grew up eating, and they carry a kind of cultural weight that goes beyond flavor.
For visitors interested in eating like a local, seeking out these plantation-era foods is one of the most rewarding things you can do on Maui. Guri guri, malasadas, shave ice, and plate lunch each tell a chapter of the island’s story. A trip that includes all of them is a trip that goes deeper than the resort restaurants.
Making Guri Guri at Home
If you cannot get to Maui, you can approximate guri guri in your own kitchen. Home cooks have been sharing copycat recipes for years, and while none of them match the original exactly, they capture the spirit of the dessert. The basic formula is simple: fruit flavor, dairy, and something to keep the texture light.
A reliable homemade version starts with two cups of water mixed with a quarter cup of strawberry or pineapple syrup. Whisk in half a cup of sweetened condensed milk and half a cup of heavy whipping cream until smooth. Pour the mixture into a container and freeze it, stirring every hour or so to break up ice crystals and keep the texture soft. After several hours in the freezer, you will have a fruity, creamy frozen dessert that echoes the original.
For a closer texture, an ice cream maker helps. Churn the mixed base for 15 to 20 minutes for a soft-serve consistency similar to the shop’s version. Some home cooks add a splash of lemon-lime soda to the mix, nodding to the rumored original ingredient, which adds a touch of that signature lightness. Others experiment with guava, lilikoi, or orange flavors, which the shop itself has never offered but which work beautifully in the same format.
Store your homemade guri guri in an airtight container in the freezer, where it keeps for several months. If it freezes too firm, let it soften on the counter for a few minutes before scooping, or blend a scoop with a splash of milk for an instant soft-serve effect.
Guri Guri vs. Shave Ice: Know the Difference
Visitors sometimes confuse guri guri with shave ice, Hawaii’s other famous frozen treat, but the two could not be more different. Shave ice is exactly what it sounds like: finely shaved ice topped with flavored syrups, sometimes with ice cream or condensed milk drizzled over the top. It is built in layers at the moment of serving, and its texture is all about the delicate ice crystals.
Guri guri, by contrast, is a single frozen mixture. The flavor and dairy are blended together before freezing, so every spoonful tastes the same. Its texture is denser and creamier than shave ice, closer to a sherbet, with none of the loose, snowy quality of shaved ice. Shave ice melts into flavored water at the bottom of the cup. Guri guri melts into something closer to a sweet cream.
Both are worth trying, and most visitors end up loving both. But they scratch different itches. Shave ice is the showy, colorful, endlessly customizable treat. Guri guri is the quiet classic, the one with a century of history in every cup. If shave ice is Hawaii’s most famous dessert, guri guri is its best-kept secret, at least outside of Maui.
The Ordering Ritual
There is a small ritual to ordering at Tasaka Guri-Guri that regulars know by heart. You walk up to the counter, and the choice is simple but consequential: strawberry, pineapple, or the mix. First-timers almost always go for the mix, and the staff seem to expect it. The scoops go into a small paper cup, the kind that feels like a throwback to another era, because it is.
Then comes the decision that separates the casual visitor from the true believer: how many scoops. Two is the standard order and costs barely more than a dollar. But once you have tasted it, two scoops can feel like a tease. The shop will happily stack up to five scoops in a cup, and regulars have their preferred number dialed in. Beyond five, you buy by the pint, which is the move if you are feeding a family or stocking up for the flight home.
Eating it is best done immediately, wandering the open-air Maui Mall with the cup in hand. On a warm afternoon, with the trade winds moving through, there are few simpler pleasures on the island. Locals will tell you that guri guri tastes better eaten this way, on the move, in the Maui air, than it ever could at a table. The setting is part of the recipe.
See It Made: Guri Guri on Video
Why Guri Guri Belongs on Your Maui Itinerary
Maui offers no shortage of remarkable experiences, from the sunrise at Haleakala to the Road to Hana. But some of the island’s most memorable moments are the small, local ones, and a paper cup of guri guri from a century-old family shop is exactly that kind of moment. It costs almost nothing, takes ten minutes, and connects you to a story that stretches back to early-1900s Japan.
For travelers building their island plans, guri guri fits naturally into a day around Kahului. Pair it with exploring the town, or make it your first or last stop on the island given its proximity to the airport. If you are mapping out reasons to visit Maui, add this to the list of experiences that no other island can offer. And if your travels take you to Maui in the cooler months, check our guide to the best places to visit in Maui this winter to round out the trip.
Guri guri is proof that the best food experiences are not always the most elaborate. Sometimes they are two scoops in a paper cup, served by a family that has been doing it for a hundred years. When you taste it, you are tasting Maui itself.
