Melbourne's love of ice-cream is undampened even in the depths of winter. Now newcomer Kori is providing 24 more reasons to brave the cold at an outrageously bright shop in Hawthorn.

Owners Joane Yeoh and Bernard Chu, both pastry chefs, met a decade ago working at South Yarra patisserie LuxBite. Kori is the friends' way of indulging their love of Japan, but for Yeoh (a finalist in the Good Food Guide 2022 Young Chef of the Year), it's even more personal.

She associates ice-cream with her dad and remembers daydreaming about the two of them running an ice-cream cart by the beach when she grew up.

With her mum being an avid baker, Yeoh jokes that after years working in pastry (including at Coda), it was time to explore her other parent's passion.

White sesame, nashi pear and tofu-vanilla are among the flavours Yeoh and Chu have created. Yeoh's favourite is hazelnut and hojicha (roasted green tea), made with a lightly roasted variety from Zen Wonders in North Melbourne.

Yeoh, who trained and worked in Japan for a year, also channels the country's desserts, including caramel purin (similar to creme caramel) and sweets such as Milky Peko-Chan. Kori's version is like a Japanese fior di latte, she says.

Eight plant-based scoops run from sorbets to soy or almond milk-based flavours. Meanwhile, the house-made cones are ultra-cheffy, with four choices ranging from green tea to dark cocoa, each with a dipped chocolate rim emblazoned with crunchy bits, such as freeze-dried raspberries.

The Glenferrie Road space features an eye-watering palette of orange, pink, white and red, combined with futuristic furniture and chrome.

Open Mon-Thu & Sun noon-10.30pm, Fri-Sat noon-11pm.

659 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn, kori-icecream.com.au