FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

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About the company

Who is Noona?

Noona [nu-na] is a Korean word meaning big sister. It is a term of endearment and most often used to refer to an older female that one admires and respects. Our founder and ice cream noona is Hannah Bae, a pastry chef who appreciates good taste and started the company in the summer of 2016 to offer ice cream and dairy-free frozen desserts in a truly delicious and surprising way. With care and playful charm, all our product offerings are based on the diverse voices of Asian-Americans and aim to bring comfort with both surprising and familiar flavor combinations.

Where is the company based?

We’re proud to be based in Brooklyn, NY and love to work with other WOC food producers and businesses as much as possible.

Our products

Do I need to keep your products frozen?

YES! — all our products are frozen and need to be kept frozen. Also, please do not microwave ice cream to soften the ice cream. Be patient! Leave on the counter for 10-15 minutes or check on it every 5 minutes if you just unpacked the ice cream with dry ice inside.

Where can I buy your products?
You can buy the full range of our products from our online shop. You can also find a selection of our products at retail grocery stores across the country.

If your store has stopped carrying one of your favorite items or if you’d like Noona’s to be carried at a store, please let the store's manager know that you'd like to see Noona’s products offered there. This goes a long way in getting them interested in carrying our items! We do our best to keep our items stocked, but your voice as a store customer is valuable.

What types of products do you make?

We make Asian-inspired ice cream and non-dairy frozen dessert products, which you can enjoy straight out of the pint or with other sweet treats. Perfect for snacking and dessert creations to share with friends and family (or treat yourself).

Are your products gluten-free?
Only ONE of our ice creams contain gluten.There is small percentage of barley in our Toasted Rice ice cream. All our other ice creams are gluten-free. Please note Our ice cream cakes are not gluten-free, but we can make them gluten-free upon request.

Are your product egg-less?

YES! Even our cakes!

Are you products nut-free?

YES, all our products are nut-free. Our facility is not certified nut-free, but we never use nuts in any of products. Please note that our dairy-free vegan frozen dessert products are made with coconut milk. Even though coconut isn’t a “nut”, it is considered a nut.

How do you source your ingredients?
Sourcing matters. All our dairy ice creams are made with dairy from humanely raised cows. Our dairy is local to us (from Upstate New York), and is hormone-free, antibiotic-free and super fresh due to the close proximity. All our seeds, spices and matcha are certified organic and sourced directly from farmers around the world. All of our ingredients are certified non-GMO and carefully selected and sampled during production to test the quality of each batch.

Are your products vegan-friendly?

We have a line of vegan dairy-free “ice cream” products. The line consists of 3 flavors. You can explore them here.

Tell me more about your vegan dairy-free products?
Our dairy-free ice cream flavors that are 100% vegan, nut-free, soy-free and dairy-free. Please note: all our dairy-free offerings are made with sustainably-sourced coconut milk.

How is your vegan dairy-free products different from your dairy ice cream products?

Our vegan flavors are made with sustainably-sourced coconut milk and have a texture that is between ice cream and sherbet. It is not as creamy as traditional dairy ice cream but is just as tasteful and satisfying. Even if you can have dairy, our vegan options are perfect for those times when you’re craving ice cream but wish for something not as icy as sorbet but refreshing and lighter than ice cream.

Where do you make your products?

All our products are made in NYC. We are based in Brooklyn, NY.

What’s so special about your ice creams?

We think they taste amazing and apparently others think the same! (Plus we use sustainably-sourced ingredients, and dairy which is local to us, from humanely raised cows and have no hormones or antibiotics.) The cherry on top is the way in which our flavors bring attention to the versatility of Asian ingredients and how the existence of Noona’s is just one of many that believe in the importance of representation in the marketplace.

Shelf life and storage

What is the shelf life of your products?

There is an expiration date on the bottom/base of the product. For our special/limited edition flavors (Taro, Thai Iced Tea, Toasty Mochi, Makgeolli Blues and Dalgona Coffee), there is a chance you will not see an expiration date. This is because these flavors are made in smaller batches and always made anywhere from 1-5 days before you receiving it. These products have a shelf life of 1 year. Please note the shelf life of all our products is 1 year.

Shipping & Delivery

Why are your shipping costs so high?

Shipping our HIGHLY PERISHABLE products requires extra materials such as dry ice and sustainable insulated coolers in order to keep the products at a frozen temperature while in transit. This makes the overall cost of shipping a bit higher than when purchasing shelf stable and even refrigerated products online.

Where do you deliver to?

We hand-deliver to select Brooklyn addresses. We ship via FedEx anywhere in the United States except Alaska. We also ship to select Canada addresses, but no other international country. We are currently unable to ship to PO Boxes.

How do you deliver your products?

We ship our products in a sustainably-sourced cotton-insulated cooler with dry ice so that they stay frozen until you are able to transfer them to your freezer. During transit the dry ice may evaporate completely (especially during hot summer days), but trust us, they were in the package! Even if you don’t see any dry ice, your products should be frozen and popped into your freezer immediately upon opening. In most cases, you will see a block of dry ice inside. Please do not touch dry ice with your bare hands. Use a tea towel, thick fabric cloth or oven mitten to remove the dry ice so you can safely transfer the products out and in your freezer. Place the dry ice back into the box and leave outside or by an open window, so the dry ice can evaporate. This may take anywhere from 1-12 hours or more depending on how big the block of dry ice is.

What if your products arrive melted?

For full transparency, only 1% of all our shipment orders arrive melted and the reason is always due to a delay in transit. It happens. We are super responsive and on it when this happens to you and your order. What can speed up the process is making sure to take photos of your opened package with the melted ice cream inside and contact us on the day you received the package. We always offer a 100% refund or free-of-charge reshipment.

If you receive your package with some products that were damaged in transit, or some that are frozen and some that have melted, we would offer you a refund for only those damaged/melted products or store credit. Please feel free to reach out and let us know what happened. We will always do our best to respond quickly and resolve the issue to your satisfaction.

When do you ship out orders?

Due to the perishable nature of our products, we fulfill orders on Mondays through Wednesdays. Orders placed before 10:59AM EST on Tuesdays will normally be fulfilled within the same week but please note that due to our small team your order maybe shipped out the following week if the order is placed on Tuesday.

If your order is a ground UPS or FedEX shipment, your order will be delivered within 1-2 days but please note that there can be delays by UPS or FedEx that are out of our control. If your order is an overnight or 2-day UPS or FedEx shipment, UPS and FedEx guarantees overnight and 2 day delivery but during high volume times like the holiday season there can be delays even with an overnight or 2 day guarantee.

I placed an order; how can I track my shipment?

When your order is shipped, you will receive an email with a UPS tracking number. Please use this tracking number for additional information regarding your shipment. Depending on the size of your order, there may be multiple shipments. If there are multiple shipments, you will receive an email for each shipment with tracking information for that shipment.

return & refund policy

What is your refund policy?

We are happy to offer credit or a refund for items that are damaged/melted during shipping. If your product arrived damaged, please email us with the following information: order number, damaged product item description, condition of damaged product upon arrival and photo, date and time package was received.

What is your return policy?

Please do not attempt to ship back melted or damaged products. Please discard. We unfortunately cannot accept returns for our perishable food products or offer refunds based on personal taste. We will offer a full refund or free reshipment if products were damaged or melted during transit.

Packaging

I bought your products at a grocery store. What is the expiration date?
Locate the expiration date on the bottom/base of the product.

It looks like your packaging has tamper-proof lids now?
We’ve updated our packaging with tamper-proof lids. We are going through a transition phase, so some of our products will not have the tamper-proof lids. Please note that this doesn’t need its an older product. You may find some newer products with our older lids.

Can your packaging be recycled?
Yes, all our products are recyclable.