Fluffy Snow

This Tawainese to HK to Southern California sweet treat has finally made its way to Northern California.  To date, I've only been able to locate a couple spots in San Francisco/Bay Area that serve this snow ice dessert.  Disclaimer: Snow ice/shaved snow/xue hua bing is not Hawaiian shaved ice. 

Fluffy Snow serves up slushy drinks, some savory stuff and other Asian dessert, but its most known for its snow ice.  The yellow machine in the corner shaves up this new fangled dessert.  Blocks of flavored frozen milk are put into the machine then carved to form ribbons of fluffy ice.

There are a handful of "signature" set snow ice combinations, but you can customize one as well.  After choosing a snow ice (green tea, lychee, mango, milk, peanut, or strawberry), then one drizzle and two toppings are selected.

Hawaiian shaved ice is made by grinding plain ice and then drizzling with syrups and adding toppings.  The taste mostly flavored ice.  The texture of snow ice is really light, like playing/eating a cloud.  I was fascinated by just scooping it up.  The taste of ice cream without the heaviness.  This is possibly my new favorite dessert obsession for the upcoming summer (will make it a goal to eat at all the dessert cafes this summer that serve it). 

Decided to try a custom creation with milk snow ice drizzled with condensed milk and topped with aloe vera and honeydew.  It was sweet, but not too sweet, like most Asian desserts.  The aloe vera and honeydew toppings made this dessert refreshing to eat.

 Fluffy snow offers a handful of combinations of snow ice called Signatures.  Strawberry seemed the safest choice with strawberry snow ice drizzled with strawberry syrup and topped with cheesecake squares and fresh strawberries.  It comes in the larger container, which I think is a more appropriate sharing size.  The strawberry snow ice is bursting with strawberry flavor.  I did note that compared to what I read about snow ice, this place seems to be a little more on the icey side than on the creamy side.  Will research more with other cafes.

Another dessert treat at this cafe that caught my eye was the red velvet cake pops.  Somewhat of a gimmick, but I can't resist red velvet.  These cake pops were made of alternating layers of red velvet cake and marshmallow and cream in a 80s revival of a push pop.  The flavors were just okay, but it definitely fun and creative.

Address:                           Fluffy Snow
                                                 1314 Noriega St.
                                                 San Francisco, CA
                   

Type:                           dessert/Asian

Popular chomps:       strawberry snow ice
                                                  milk snow ice
                                                  red velvet cake pop     
                                                  mango snow ice

Chomp worthy:            strawberry signature snow ice
                                                   milk snow ice