Devonport's 10-scoop monster icecream

Jack Tyler, 9, samples a 10-scoop ice cream from a dairy in Devonport, Auckland. Photo / Doug Sherring

Kiwis will tuck into millions of litres of ice cream over the silly season - but could you manage a 10-scoop monster?

Visitors to Nilesh Jogia's White's Dairy, near Devonport's Torpedo Bay, give his towering $12 creations big licks.

But the super cones have a drawback - they weigh in at 1840 calories.

"Word is getting out about our 10-scoopers," Jogia said. "People are coming from all over Auckland for the challenge of trying to finish one.

"Tourists from places like the United States and Europe love them too and post pictures on Facebook for their friends back home."

Jogia said his mission was to create the biggest cones in the city, but he had no idea they would prove so popular.

"I have seen some men finish the cones in about 10 minutes," he said. "But 10 scoops of ice cream is a bit extreme for most people, so we do an eight-scoop version [which costs $9.90] that is a bit more manageable."

On the eve of the official start of summer, New Zealand Ice Cream Manufacturers' Association figures show we are among the biggest eaters of ice cream in the world - ahead of Australia and the US.

We guzzle down 23 litres per head every year, and ice cream and edible ices account for about $1 of every $44 spent on food by Kiwi households.

Jogia says his 10-scooper has to be wolfed in under 20 minutes or the ice cream will melt and the structure collapse.

"I tried to go even bigger and do a 12-scoop cone, but at that height the whole thing starts to wobble and falls over."

Local ice cream fanatic Jack Tyler, 9, said his eyes were bigger than his belly when he was handed a dream cone to sample.

"I am only usually allowed one or two scoops of ice cream," Jack said.

"It would take me a few hours to finish even half of this.

"I would love to eat it all by myself but I think I will have to share it with some friends."

But Jogia's creations aren't to everyone's taste. Sarah Hanrahan, a dietitian at the New Zealand Nutrition Foundation, said scoffing such big cones was unwise.

"Ten scoops is the thick end of a two-litre container," she said. "Not many people would sit down with a spoon and a tub of ice cream that size and eat it all at one sitting."

At the other end of the scale, punters are shelling out $6.20 for one scoop of European ice cream at boutique Movenpick parlours in Auckland, Wellington and Queenstown.

The top-selling flavour for brand conscious ice cream lovers is Swiss chocolate, spokesman David Foreman said.

Cone wars
$2.50 Jelly Tips and Rocky Roads.
$3 Trumpets.
$6.20 one-tub scoop from Movenpick.
$7 2-litre tub of Tip-Tip at supermarkets.