Ube, red velvet and cherry bourbon flavors await at Tuckerton's Kohr Soft Ice Cream
Vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, cookies and cream — flavors like these are easy to find at an ice cream shop.
But Kohr Soft Ice Cream, tucked along Route 9 in Tuckerton, is churning flavors you might not expect.
There is sweet green tea matcha, guava cheese, and cherry bourbon, for example, plus flavors inspired by owner Eva Kohr's Filipino heritage: bright purple ube made from a sweet yam with a slightly nutty taste, and buko pandan, based on a dessert of coconut and pandan leaves.
"We kept the traditional flavors and through the years we added more and more," said Kohr, who has owned the store for more than 20 years (her husband and co-owner, Paul, died in 2022).
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Kohr Soft Ice Cream is an independently owned mom-and-pop store with roots in the Kohr family's ice cream company, known for its boardwalk custard stands for more than a century. Kohr's father-in-law, Morgan Kohr, ran Kohr Bros. with two of his brothers, while another brother ran Kohr's Frozen Custard, The Original.
In her triangular-shaped shop, she makes 50 flavors of ice cream — churning around 5 gallons a day during the shop's March-to-November season.
Flavors rotate, and a new one is added each month. The newest is chocolate Hawaiian salted caramel ice cream made with Milo, a chocolate-flavored malt mix. The most popular flavors, Kohr said, are cookie dough, mint chocolate chip, espresso chocolate chip, and chocolate fudge brownie.
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The shop also serves soft ice cream (not the traditional Kohr's custard, which is made with eggs), sherbet, water ice, gourmet ice cream sandwiches, sundaes, milkshakes, and a small food menu of hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken sandwiches, chicken tenders and fries.
The shop is one of a dozen on the "I Licked My Way Through NJ" ice cream tour, which invites customers to visit through August and earn free scoops. Kohr is meeting folks from all over New Jersey, she said.
Fans also make the trip for the store's halo-halo celebrations, which feature a layered Filipino dessert made with shaved ice, flavored gels, flan, coconut, red mung beans and condensed milk (upcoming dates are Saturday, July 27; Saturday, Aug. 31; and Sunday, Sept. 1).
"People came from 30 miles away," Kohr said.
Go: 682 Route 9, Tuckerton; 609-294-1282, instagram.com/kohrsofticecream.
Sarah Griesemer joined the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey in 2003 and has been writing all things food since 2014. Send restaurant tips to [email protected], follow on Instagram at Jersey Shore Eats and subscribe to our Jersey Shore Eats newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Kohr Soft Ice Cream has ube, red velvet and more
