Summer desserts cant get more refreshingly sweeter than these

Refreshing summer desserts peak during the sweltering heat, when the sun is at its brightest and hottest, making one crave something sweet yet refreshing. In walks in a merry-go-round of ice cream desserts, shaved ice desserts, and more that makes summer pass by like a breeze.

Here’s a list of unique desserts that are colorful, refreshing, and sweet and sure to cool you down on a particularly hot day. Mark these for your next trip to their respective homes.

1. Baobing

This one’s a Chinese shaved ice dessert that is at least 1000 years old and famed for its striking visual appearance as well as refreshing taste. It’s made with a mound of thinly shaved ice with various fresh to preserved fruits, and topped with sweet colorful syrup, condensed milk, mung beans, and peanuts. It’s popular in Taiwan and Vietnam as well and is usually served heaped in big portions, meant to be shared among diners. Apart from restaurants, it's a popular staple in the summer months at night markets as well. You might find Baobing under chocolate and ice cream desserts, for as the West slurped it up, non-Asian ingredients like chocolate syrup, candy, cherries, and more were added, similar to the topping in sundaes.

2. Patbingsu

Named after the red beans used as a topping in this Korean shaved ice dessert, Patbingsu literally translates to red bean ice flakes, which is a local favorite during the hot summer months. The shaved ice forms the base which is topped with rice cakes, called tteok, fresh fruits, and red bean paste. This summer treat is creamy, crunchy, and chewy and to eat it, you’re supposed to mix all the ingredients to form a refreshing crunchy soup of sorts. Patbingsu originated in the 1950s as a street food, but you’ll find these treats during the summer months in local restaurants as well.

3. Eton Mess

Made with three ingredients – whipped cream, strawberries, and meringue, Eton Mess is one of the tastiest, messiest, and most unique desserts to originate in England. It was first served in the 1930s at a local school’s prize distribution ceremony and not in the same form as it’s eaten today. That version of Eton Mess was made with strawberries or bananas mixed with ice cream to make it a refreshing yet indulgent summer dessert. The name lives up to the reputation of the dessert, it is a messy cold dessert using summer’s produce of choicest and fresh strawberries, in a good way.

4. Cholado

Cholado is more like the Latin American version, Colombia to be exact, of shaved ice, but with lots of fresh fruits and sweet syrups added to it. It's also considered a beverage because once it starts melting it starts becoming a cold soup with loads of fruits in it, like a fruit cocktail of sorts. The sweet syrup is typically made with pureed blackberries with milk added separately to the dessert, while an assortment of fruits like kiwis, mango, papaya, bananas, pineapples are added to the saved ice. It's served like a sundae in a tall glass with shredded coconut and one lonesome cherry.

5. Kakigori

Once reserved for only the wealthy, this ancient Japanese shaved ice dessert has come quite far. It originated in the Heian period (794-1185) and wasn't accessible to the general public until the late 1800s. What makes this shaved ice different from the rest, is that the ice is made with natural spring water, rich in minerals. The ice used to be handcrafted, it still is in smaller stores and served with an assortment of fruit syrups. There are quite a few popular local varieties namely, shirokuma, ujikintoki, and yakigori which range from using mochi, fruits, matcha condensed milk, sweet bean paste, and also alcohol.

6. Granita

A staple at the breakfast table during summer in Italian homes, Granita had an uber-cool name once upon a time – Rattata, which means grated, referring to how the dessert is made. Granita has a grainy texture, hence the name, whose ancestor is the frozen dessert called Sherbet, which dates back to Sicily’s Arab rule, made and consumed by them. By learning freezing technology, Italy came up with numerous frozen and semi-frozen desserts, one of which is granita which is simply broken down ice doused in fruity syrup or any other kind of sweet syrup.

6. Halo Halo

Using the best of seasonal fruits, Halo Halo is a Filipino crushed ice dessert that might also include ice cream. Typically it is topped with fruits like bananas, jackfruit, and coconut, and includes in combination, sweet potatoes, red mung beans, chickpeas, sugar palm fruit, purple yam jam, leche flan, a local custard dessert. A recent addition is sweet corn and corn chips. The Japanese used local ingredients to craft Halo Halo back in the 1940s, fashioned after Anmitsu another Japanese cooling and refreshing summer dessert.