A Dunedin ice cream shop scrambling to source egg whites has scooped up an arrangement that looks set to sort their waffle problem.
Patti's and Cream uses up to 1500 egg whites a week to make the cones and ice cream tacos.
But business owner Olive Tabor told Checkpoint the supply of egg whites had dried up over the past few weeks, meaning they had to put a freeze on handmade waffle cones.
"We've been waiting for multiple weeks now for eggs whites to arrive and it's been three weeks since we last had a delivery of the pouches of egg whites we get."
The shop has only just been scraping by supply over summer too, as sourcing them has become tricky due to the egg shortage, including whole eggs for their other baked goods like cheesecakes, apple pies, and pastries.
"Every week, we managed to just pull through and clear out some supermarket's egg whites or even drive out of town to go get them," Tabor said.
"But we decided we were going to have to try and buy cones because people need a waffle cone."
So they opted for the smaller, shop-bought cones but the trouble is they cannot handle the same hefty volume.
"It is actually true Dunedin does have hot days, so it's melting really quickly and people are giving strange looks, like where's my normal beautiful handmade waffle cone?"
There was more to the business of handmaking waffle cones than just the product - Tabor had specifically installed a custom-made extraction hood just to let people walking past the store get a whiff.
"It's a critical part of the business and it's iconic."
After some advice from people, and the publication of an Otago Daily Times article over Easter weekend, Tabor reached out to Dunedin pavlova company Cowells.
"We don't know those guys personally at all so we actually went down there this morning and approached them.
"They're temporarily helping supply us with egg whites because they have the big tonnes of egg whites at a time, so we might be back into cone production next week."
