In Waikīkī, Asato's Flavor Lab Is a Primer on Local Sweets

I'm sitting at a wide, pearl-white counter when a woman in a baseball cap and apron slides a cube of rainbow-striped "jello" toward me. It rests on an oversized white plate — the kind a Michelin-starred chef might use for an amuse-bouche. A smaller plate sits to the right, holding a pinch of minced preserved lemon peel. I'm instructed to taste the peel first, then dip the "jello" into it.

This is Asato's Flavor Lab, an intimate peek into the culture of Hawaiʻi "small kid time."

Local scoop shop Asato's Waikiki launched Asato's Flavor Lab this year — an interactive, one-hour tasting menu featuring the shop's signature candies, sodas and shave ice. Located inside local retail store Kings & Queens at Hyatt Regency Waikiki Beach Resort and Spa, this reservation-only experience offers visitors an opportunity to taste flavors Hawaiʻi locals grew up eating and still crave as adults.

Lemon peel soda with optional flavor enhancements at Asato's Flavor Lab. Photo by Sarah Burchard.

The experience is presented in the style of a Japanese omakase, where the menu is decided by the chef. On my visit, I tried 15 different crack seed candies and a preserved lemon peel soda, in addition to the gummy bear rainbow "jello" starter that opened the meal. The tasting culminates with an elaborate shave ice prepared from a crystal-clear ice block on a Swan Cygne electric ice shaver — a Japanese model renowned for producing ultra-fine shave ice with minimal noise. Two options are available: strawberry li hing, made with melted Asato's sherbet and topped with whipped cream and toffee crunch, or crème brûlée, topped with caramelized custard and served with macadamia nuts and sea salt.

The experience is so novel and well-crafted that it earned owner Neale Asato a James Beard Award nomination this year for outstanding pastry chef. Winners will be announced at the James Beard Awards ceremony in Chicago on June 13.

A Brief History of Crack Seed

To understand Asato's Flavor Lab, you need to understand crack seed — the flavor tradition at the heart of it. During Hawaiʻi's plantation era, roughly 1835 to the 1950s, plantation camps had modest stores — often called camp stores or plantation stores — that served as the social and commercial hub of each community. These stores stocked everyday essentials alongside treats like sodas, shave ice and crack seed — seasoned and preserved dried fruit imported from China.

Crack seed is the local term for the Cantonese see mui, which arrived in Hawaiʻi with the Chinese immigrants who came to work the plantations. Locals began calling it crack seed because of how see mui is processed: fruits are split with their seeds cracked open and preserved with salt, sugar and anise.

Crack seed candies at Asato's Flavor Lab. Photo by Sarah Burchard.

Although workers came from different culinary traditions, they shared a taste for sour, salty and sweet. These intensely flavored snacks that could be carried in a pocket and eaten throughout a long day of physical labor became a staple in everyday life.

Because plantation workers were paid meager wages and crack seed imports from China slowed during World War II, people often made it at home using tropical fruit grown nearby, like mangoes and papaya. Today, crack seed comes in dozens of flavors. Li hing mui, or salted plum, is the most iconic variety in Hawaiʻi. It is eaten on its own or ground into a powder to flavor other crack seed candies, drinks, snacks and desserts. Preserved lemon peel, sliced into thin strips and seasoned the same way, is another staple.

One of the most celebrated crack seed shops in Honolulu is the Kaimuki Crack Seed Store, a neighborhood institution that has been selling traditional varieties alongside creative new flavors for decades. Asato's purchases its li hing mui and preserved lemon peel from this shop — a family favorite — then seasons candies such as gummy bears and sour belts with these flavors, repackaging them for retail sale and for use in the Flavor Lab tasting menu. In doing so, Asato's has taken one of Hawaiʻi's most beloved and least exported flavor traditions and built an entire culinary experience around it

How to Book

Reservations for Asato's Flavor Lab are available through OpenTable and release seven days in advance at noon HST. Seating is limited to a maximum of four guests.

Can't snag a reservation? You can also stop by Asato's Waikiki to pick up packages of crack seed candies and order scoops of house-made ice cream, non-dairy sherbet and sorbet seven days a week. Asato's is famous for its sherbert made with local flavors like li hing mui, green river (lemon-lime) and pickled mango.

Strawberry-li hing shave ice at Asato's Flavor Lab counter. Photo by Sarah Burchard.

Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily; 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Address: 2424 Kalākaua Ave., Suite 113, Waikīkī — across the street from the Duke Kahanamoku statue, inside Kings & Queens at Hyatt Regency Waikīkī Beach Resort and Spa.

Parking: Complimentary validated parking at the Hyatt with a $25 minimum purchase.

The author attended this tasting courtesy of Asato's Waikiki.