Best Ice Cream Spots in the U.S.

Must have: Stumptown Coffee

Molly Moon Neitzel uses mostly local fruit to flavor her ice creams—the farthest south she goes for fruit is Napa Valley for blood oranges. And it's not just the customers who are happy here: Employees get free health care, paid leave and living wages.

Must have: Strawberry

Ingredients come from the local farmers' market, one of the best in the country.

Must have: Churros con Leche

This parlor pasteurizes its own milk and cream to make a rich, thick custard base. They have a location in L.A., too!

Must have: Orchard Peach

Inventive flavors like the malty M2 (the owner won't reveal what's in it) fill the Lickwich, made with grilled doughnut halves.

Must have: Arbequina Olive Oil

Famous for its collaborations with chefs as well as sweet-savory combos like Fish Sauce Caramel with Palm Sugar.

Must have: Swiss Chocolate ice cream

A Bainbridge Island favorite owned and operated by two Argentinean expats; the superb ice cream, made in small batches, comes in flavors like Dulce de Leche and Gianduja.

Must have: Strawberry Je Ne Sais Quoi (strawberry ice cream with a splash of balsamic vinegar)

Owner and former Peace Corps volunteer Neal Gottlieb puts a big emphasis on sustainability: The ingredients for his ice cream are local; all bowls, spoons and napkins are compostable; and the shop's emissions are offset with renewable energy certificates.

Must have: English Toffee ice cream and a handmade waffle cone

“The ice cream has great flavor and mouthfeel, and a large flavor selection that changes with the season. It always reminds me of childhood trips to the ice cream shop,” says 2012 F&W Best New Pastry Chef Devin McDavid, of San Francisco’s Quince restaurant.

Must have: Wicked Chocolate ice cream

Among the local ingredients used at this Pearl District shop: Oregon bing cherries for its Bing Cherry Almond Chip and hazelnut butter and toasted hazelnuts from orchards 20 miles away for its Willamette Valley Hazelnut.

Must have: Green Tea mochi ice cream

One fan of Keith Robbins' bite-size mochi (ice cream wrapped in a sweetened rice confection) is superchef Nobu Matsuhisa. bubbiesicecream.com

Must have: Salted Caramel or Black Sesame with Sonoma Honey

Almost everything at this excellent ice cream shop is made from scratch, including the marshmallows for the Rocky Road. Marin County's Straus Family Creamery, the first certified-organic dairy in the West, supplies all of the milk and cream for Bi-Rite's ice creams.

Must have: Milk Chocolate Stout

Nearby Barry Farm provides figs, citrus and other ingredients.

Must have: Mexican Vanilla ice cream

As well known for its scoop-throwing employees as its ice cream. Amy's offers more than 300 flavors on a rotating basis, including the Shiner Bock, made with the iconic Texan beer of the same name.

Must have: Vietnamese Coffee

This shop has a retro vibe--check out the nostalgic ice cream cookie sandwiches.

Must have: Dewberry Corn Cobbler

Everything from the sauces to the marshmallow is made in house.

Must have: House-made ice cream cones

Mary Canales, a former pastry chef at Berkeley's illustrious Chez Panisse, is now famous in her own right for phenomenal ice creams in flavors like brandied cherry and rose.

Must have: Buckeye Chocolate Chip

Graeter's ice cream, made just two gallons at a time, is slowly swirled and folded into itself in a French Pot so no air gets whipped in. The technique makes for an extra-dense and creamy ice cream—each pint weighs almost a pound. This state icon also ships its rich, custard-style ice cream.

Must have: Baklava ice cream

The constantly changing, inspired flavors at this 100 percent wind-powered ice cream shop include Oatmeal Stout and Strawberry Balsamic.

Must have: Goat Cheese and Honey ice cream

Christopher Elbow is just as boundary-pushing with his ice creams, in flavors like Salted Pretzel and Persian Spice, as he is with his stellar artisan chocolates.

Must have: Salty Caramel ice cream

Jeni Britton Bauer creates some of the country's best ice creams, sorbets and frozen yogurts in imaginative flavor combinations like Ylang Ylang and fennel.

Must have: Door County Cherry

The locavore spot--even the waffle cones are made with Minnesota grains--also sells great dairy-free coconut milk ice cream. Barb Zapzalka's exceptional ice cream is made with organic milk and cream from a small dairy farm in Wisconsin.

Must have: The Signature "Izzy Scoop"

“It’s a tiny top hat-like scoop of ice cream that you can order on top of any cone, giving you the joy of two flavors in a much more manageable format than a classic double scoop,” says 2012 F&W Best New Pastry Chef Stella Parks, of Table Three Ten in Lexington, Kentucky. “Plus, it looks adorably jaunty.”

Must have: Huckleberry ice cream (made with local berries)

The inspired flavors range from El Salvador Coffee to Honey Porter.

Must have: Black Cherry ice cream

The hands-down favorite of locals. This family-run parlor is on a dairy farm--the deck offers views of grazing cows.

Must have: Sprecher Root Beer Float

Frozen custard, like Kopp's, has less air than most ice creams, so its smoother.

Must have: Banana Split

“I rather enjoy a butterscotch sundae with vanilla ice cream but they have much more than that,” says Bryce Caron, a 2012 F&W Best New Pastry Chef. “The sandwiches are delicious. Margie’s is the kind of place you visit to forget the fact that you live in a major urban environment. Just grab a club sandwich and a banana split and call it a day.”

Must have: Cheese Course Duo (blue cheese with Arizona Medjool dates)

This two-year-old shop prides itself on using exceptional ingredients, from milk and cream from local dairy farms to single-origin, fair-trade coffee beans for its espresso flavor.

Must have: Terramizzou

The "concretes" (frozen custard blended with mix-ins) inspired those at Shake Shack.

Must have: Butterscotch Miso

Ice cream artisan Linda Parker shows her local pride, as when she adds Maine sea salt to caramel ice cream.

Signature Item: Strawberry ice cream

Started by two best friends, it excels at old school favorites. All the ice creams here are certified organic from the milk to the fruit blended in.

Signature Item: Buttermilk Honey Blueberry

Known for over-the-top ice cream sandwiches called OddPockets, made with warm and buttery brioche bread.

Must have: Chocolate Matzo Crack

Victoria Lai, a former member of the Department of Homeland Security, gets creative with milk and cream from nearby South Mountain Creamery.

Must have: Marti's Marshmallow

This Syracuse parlor uses ingredients from central New York in its 30-plus daily options.

Must have: Berkey Brickle

This operation, which owns more than 200 cows, has been part of Penn State for 150 years.

Must have: Peanut Butter & Jelly ice cream

The ice cream at this 1796 farm is made with the super creamy milk from the resident Jersey cows.

Must have: Black Bear (red raspberry ice cream with chocolate chips and chocolate raspberry truffles)

The ice cream here is made in small batches from a 40-year-old recipe.

Must have: New Hampshire Pure Maple Walnut

This hugely popular shop right on the Portsmouth waterfront serves all-natural ice cream in more than 30 regular flavors, plus rotating seasonal ones.

Must have: Hydrox Cookie

Decadent varieties like B3 (brown butter, brown sugar and chunks of fudge brownie) share freezer space with decadent versions of the classics. The floor-to-ceiling windows are superb for people watching.

Must have: Fresh Peach and Coconut ice cream

This Cape Cod institution, housed in a tiny white cottage, has been serving supercreamy house-made ice cream every summer since 1934.

Must Have: Coffee Oreo ice cream

Shawn Gawle, a 2012 F&W Best New Pastry Chef from Saison restaurant in San Francisco, made pilgrimages to this spot as a child, when visiting his grandparents. “I’m a sucker for classic mint chocolate chip and Oreo, and they now do a coffee Oreo ice cream, which is great,” he says. “The ginger is nice, too!”

Must have: Homemade waffle cones

Laura Sawicki, the pastry chef of La Condesa in Austin, and a 2012 F&W Best New Pastry Chef, loves this beachy spot that makes incredible waffle cones. “You can smell them a mile away and the line wraps around the block,” she says. 12 Broad Street, (508) 228-5799.

Must have: Brown Butter Brownie Ice Cream

“I go there only for the brown butter brownie ice cream,” says Shawn Gawle, pastry chef at Saison restaurant in San Francisco, and a 2012 F&W Best New Pastry Chef.

Signature Item: Marsh Mud

The Conklin family has been making fantastic small-batch flavors and custom ice cream cakes for 40 years.

Must have: Crème Fraîche

Gabrielle Carbone and Matt Errico rotate through some 500 flavors at their Princeton shop, inclding intriguing options include sweet potato and cardamom ginger.

Must have: Creole Cream Cheese ice cream (made with a curdled cream cheese local to New Orleans)

This desserts shop has fountain-shop classics like banana splits and sundaes, along with rotating ice cream flavors.