When summer heat and humidity make you long for cooler climes, the Hernandez family, owners of Fernweh Ice Cream, can help you chill. Fernweh is German for “far-sick”—roughly the opposite of homesick. That wanderlust struck Isaiah Hernandez in high school after he won a competitive Rotary Club scholarship to travel abroad. He had to contribute $6,200 for the trip, though, which indirectly led to the family’s business.
When his mother, Jessica Hernandez, then the honors chemistry teacher at Golden Gate High School, and her students experimented with making ice cream using nitrogen, it sparked an entrepreneurial idea. “Isaiah said, ‘We should sell this to pay for my trip!’” she recalls. So that’s what they did, selling one $4 cup at a time at the school’s football games. Isaiah got his trip to Finland.
In May 2023 they opened a brick-and-mortar location off Bayshore Drive in Naples. Jessica, her husband, Job, and their three sons run the shop.
Fernweh offers multiple cleverly named flavors along with home-baked brownies and waffle cones. Flavors include Blueberry Vineyard (blueberry wine sorbet), Queen of Hearts (strawberry ice cream swirled with strawberries), and Taste of Cape Cod (vanilla ice cream with cranberries, white chocolate, and candied walnuts). There’s also an ice cream flight of six varieties served with cone chips—a cool cure for late-summer heat.
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