San Francisco Hometown Creamery Corn ice cream: This ice cream shop in Inner Sunset claims to be the first to make small batch ice cream completely in house in San Francisco. It has a small town neighborhood vibe, with varnished wood beams and hand-painted murals that are more charming than artistic. Their seasonal corn ice cream had a pastel daisy-yellow color and tasted mostly of cream rather than sweet corn. Its texture was icy, with frozen hard bits or corn throughout (even those pieces did not have an identifiable corn flavor). Based... (read more) 2.5/5.0
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Secret Scoop Thai Gelato Thai Iced Tea and Roasted Coconut Gelato: Just a few paces away from the Trader Joe's in Berkeley is a small ice cream shop specializing in Thai-inspired flavors ("Thai Gelato" refers to the unique flavors rather than a specific style of making gelato). Their curated set of gelato and sorbets range from chocolate lemongrass to soursop, originals you're unlikely to find elsewhere, even in a diverse, food-minded community like Berkeley. The Thai iced tea gelato is easily the best I've had; it's very lightly sweetened and tastes stro... (read more) 4.5/5.0
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Seed + Mill Tahini Goats Milk Softserve: Mildly flavored nutty soft serve from Seed + Mill, a small stand in the middle of Chelsea Market. Goats milk gives it a slight tang. A unique offering. Just a tad icy. 4.0/5.0
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Shake Shack Hanukoncrete: This special edition custard from the Shake Shack is available until December 14th and consists of vanilla custard, pieces of donut from The Doughnut Project, and a strawberry syrup, all topped with powdered sugar. The powdered sugar felt like an unnecessary flourish as the dessert was sweet enough without it, but the combination of donut, rich vanilla custard, and sharp and tangy strawberry was surprisingly delicious. The best part was definitely the vanilla custard, which was very smooth. 3.5/5.0
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Smitten Salted Caramel Ice Cream: The two things I dislike about the Bay Area are 1) almost everything is overpriced, and 2) people see technology as the solution to everything. If there were any type of snack that represented these fundamental problems, it would be Smitten. At Smitten, ice cream is made to order using liquid nitrogen, which, in theory, freezes ice cream faster and produces smaller ice crystals and, as a result, a smoother texture. Because each flavor is produced on its own machine, Smitten can only carry... (read more) 2.5/5.0
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Snowdays Ube shaved ice: Taiwanese shaved ice in a classic ube flavor is true to the sweet, earthy flavor of the vegetable. Texture is close to snow - fluffy and light, yet a bit more dense and clumped together at the bottom of the large cup, even for the smallest possible size. Purchased from the East Village location of chain Snowdays. 3.0/5.0
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