Best Ice Cream Parlor in Every State, According to Yelp

At this artisan ice cream shop, all ice cream is made in small batches, and there are plenty of “adult” creative seasonal offerings to choose from, ranging from goat cheese raspberry thyme to almond peach cardomom. Their ice cream sandwiches are also worth checking out.

Wild Scoops crafts all their ice cream by hand, and they’ve created hundreds of flavors since opening in 2015; many are made with locally-sourced ingredients or in partnership with small local producers.

This super-creative ice cream shop is turning out some truly outrageous flavors including golden graham cheesecake, oatmeal creme pie, and banana bread pudding. It’s equally famous for its warm doughnut ice cream sandwiches.

This quaint scoop shop emphasizes making their ice cream in small batches, by hand, in order to make sure that every scoop is super-fresh. Popular flavors include campfire s’mores, little rock-y road, and strawberry buttermilk (made with local strawberries), and there are also plenty of vegan and gluten-free options.

Confetti wants everyone who visits to feel “like a kid in a candy store,” and they definitely pull it off thanks to their focus on combinations, or “parfaits:” bowls filled with sauce, shave ice, and frozen custard on top. Italian ice flavors include passion fruit and Jolly Rancher Apple, and popular ice cream flavors include white chocolate raspberry cheesecake and birthday cake.

They take their gelato very seriously here, importing ingredients from Italy and making every batch by hand. Popular flavors include chocolate, vanilla, Ferrero Rocher, wild berry sorbet, dulce de leche, and crème brulée, and they also serve gelato in bubble cones and atop fluffy waffles.

Using dairy sourced from their own farm in Litchfield County, Arethusa sells their handmade ice cream at shops in Bantam and New Haven. This old-fashioned ice cream is a whopping 16% butterfat so it’s super-creamy, and popular flavors include almond with toasted coconut and fresh cherry with dark chocolate chunks in the summertime.

Produced and sold on a working dairy farm, Hopkins Farm’s ice cream is destination-worthy. Don’t miss the apple ice cream made with fresh local apples as well as butter brickle, black raspberry, and brownie. Fresh pies and cakes are also offered.

This family-owned ice cream shop, with locations in Davie and Coral Springs, offers up to 60 flavors including red velvet, cheesecake, and Key lime. There are also several lactose-free options and custom-made ice cream cakes available.

Popular handcrafted flavors at this quaint Georgia ice cream shop include banana cream pudding, lemon custard, and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. Every flavor can be turned into a milkshake or served atop a cookie with a chocolate drizzle and toppings of your choice.

Shave ice is a Hawaiian specialty, made by shaving ice until it’s the consistency of snow and adding on flavored creams and syrups. At the famous shave ice place, the most popular flavor combos include Haleakala (lychee and coconut), Sunset Beach (passion fruit, orange, mango, and guava), and No Ka Oi (mango, coconut, and passion fruit).

At Blake and Cyndi Taylor’s quaint Lovejoy’s, they serve small-batch ice cream in cones, “flights” of different flavors, shakes; on banana splits or brownie sundaes; and on cookies. Flavors change seasonally, and there’s also a free party room for rental.

Yes, the best ice cream shop in Illinois is completely vegan. Their chocolate and vanilla soft-serve is made from oat milk, and it’s served doused with sauces and toppings, in milkshakes, or in specialty sundaes like the Candy Bar, with peanut butter caramel, a chocolate shell, and peanuts.

Locally-sourced ice cream is put to good and super-creative use at TeeJay’s: it’s served inside a warm glazed doughnut, between two Fruity Pebble treats (featuring “Rice Krisipie’s technicolor cousin”), atop a brownie sundae, or in a float or shake. When it comes to ice cream and topping combos, you’re encouraged to let your imagination run wild.

At Monarca, they’re turning handmade ice cream into paletas, or handheld pops, and they’re covering them with toppings and sauces. You can choose your paleta flavor, sauce dip, toppings, and drizzles, or choose from specials like the Oreo paleta dipped in dark chocolate, topped with sprinkles, and drizzled with more chocolate.

The Golden Scoop’s mission is to provide meaningful employment for people with developmental disabilities, and it also happens to be the state’s best ice cream shop. Popular flavors include strawberry jam and cookies & cream, and they also sell fresh-baked cookies.

Louisville Cream is a small batch ice cream shop sourcing milk from a local dairy called JD Country Milk. Not only is all ice cream made in-house, they also make all their own jams, sauces, and cones, and source mix-ins from local artisan bakeries.

Baton Rouge’s Sweet Society serves their soft serve ice cream taiyaki-style, inside a Japanese fish-shaped cone. The whimsical treat is available in flavors red bean, custard, and vanilla.

Mount Desert makes their ice cream in batches of no more than five gallons at a time, using only the highest-quality ingredients. As they put it, “If we make a vanilla bean ice cream, we scrape the beans, if we make a lemon sorbet, we squeeze the lemons, one at a time.”

Homemade frozen custard and Italian ice are made fresh daily at Carmen’s, and the flavor selection rotates seasonally. The list for both is extensive; Italian ice flavors include strawberry cream, spicy mango coconut, and salted caramel, and frozen custard flavors include honeydew, horchata, and maple bacon.

This charming, family-friendly cottage has no shortage of picnic tables and serves generous portions of super-premium ice cream. Ice cream cones are made to order, and crowds flock for their creative sundaes in flavors like Kid in a Candy Shop: cotton candy ice cream topped with fudge and marshmallow sauce, M&Ms, Reese’s Pieces, Skittles, whipped cream, sprinkles, and a cherry on top.

This quaint ice cream shop is located on a dairy farm, where the family-run operation sells milk by the gallon and crafts ice cream in flavors including apple crisp, banana bread, cherry pie à la mode, and eggnog.

It’s all about the cereal mix-ins at this St. Paul must-visit. Flavors include Crisp n’ Cream (Oreo cookies, Cookie Crisp, Snickers, and chocolate dust), Sweet Charms (Lucky Charms, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and Cocoa Puffs), and Frooty Flakes (Froot Loops, Frosted Flakes, and Cap’n Crunch). There are also lots of matcha and boba drinks on offer, as well as waffles.

New Orleans-based Creole Creamery has a location in Mississippi that’s the best ice cream shop in the state. Everyday flavors include café au lait, lavender honey, and NOLA-inspired Creole cream cheese, but don’t miss the seasonal favorites like king cake, golden summer fig, and strawberry jalapeño cheesecake.

Run by a member of the Cherokee Nation, Cookies and Creamery specializes in “Creamwiches” made with local ice cream and freshly-baked cookies. Be sure to also pick up some of their popular cotton candy, made with all-natural ingredients, while you’re there.

Since 2010, Sweet Peaks has been serving up ice creams and sorbets made using only local Montana dairy and other locally-sourced ingredients including mint from Creston, honey from an apiary outside Missoula, and fresh huckleberries from the Cabinet Mountains.

The ice cream served at this vintage-style scoop shop is all made in-house the old-fashioned way with ingredients provided by more than 40 local farms, chefs, bakers, and artisans. The shop has been going strong since 1984, and its “ultra-premium” ice cream is incredibly creamy owing to its 20% butterfat content.

Specializing in the Mexican pops known as paletas, the Paleta Bar makes them using only fresh fruits, sweet cream, and milk. Customers can order their paletas plain in flavors like mango, avocado, and hazelnut crunch, can dip them in sauces like chocolate and powdered chile and chamoy, and/or can top them with a variety of fruits and sweet toppings.

This Halloween-inspired ice cream shop combines ice cream with a whole lot of whimsy. Stock up on spooky novelties and cool down with a wide variety of ice creams with toppings mixed in and milkshakes.

This unconventional ice cream shop specializes in bubble tea and soft serve. Be sure to try the vibrant purple ube soft serve or sweet Earl Grey soft serve.

A New Mexico favorite since 1996, Caliche’s Frozen Custard specializes in the Midwestern frozen treat known as concretes, which are similar to super-thick milkshakes. Favorite flavors include Fudge Brownie Bliss (vanilla frozen custard blended with chewy brownie bits and hot fudge) and Strawberry Cheesecake (vanilla frozen custard blended with strawberries and cheesecake bits).

Founded by the same folks behind NYC’s beloved Ample Hills, The Social is churning all of their ice cream in-house as well as making all cakes, cookies, brownies, and brittles from scratch. The end result is wildly creative ice creams including Double the Dough (cookie dough infused ice cream with chunks of housemade chocolate-chocolate chip cookie dough), Ooeyer & Gooeyer (gooey butter cake infused ice cream loaded with chunks of housemade gooey butter cake and ribbons of milk caramel), and Puttin’ On the Ritz (Ritz cracker-infused ice cream with clusters of milk chocolate topped potato chips and loads of mini M&M’s). Their doughnuts are also worth seeking out.

The Outer Banks’ Surfin’ Spoon makes their frozen yogurt and gelato from scratch and serves it in a fun, surf-themed shop just steps from the beach. Don’t miss their housemade ice cream sandwiches, especially the Killa Key Lime in the spring.

All ice cream is handcrafted on-site at Fargo’s Silver Lining Creamery, which also has a location in Rapid City. It’s exceptionally creamy at 14% butterfat, and comes in a variety of creative rotating flavors.

Mitchell’s is a beloved Cleveland ice cream shop with nine locations in and around the area. Each batch is handmade in a stunning open kitchen (guests can watch it being made), and many of the ingredients are sourced locally, including milk and cream from Ohio family farms and eggs from Greenfield Farms in Fredericksburg.

As the name implies, Rose Rock Microcreamery makes their ice cream in very small batches, and it’s all-natural, hand-crafted, and super dense and creamy. As many local ingredients as possible go into their nine traditional and nine limited-run flavors, which run the gamut from blackberry-sage to banana pudding to their signature Rose Rock, made with strawberry, pecan, and chocolate.

Many of the small-batch ice creams dished up at Bontà are made with ingredients sourced from the Oregon countryside. Signature flavors include Tumalo lavender and honey and peanut butter-chocolate fudge, and rotating seasonal flavors include lemon curd, sweet potato pie, and rhubarb swirl.

This charming ice cream parlor serves up to 30 ice cream flavors at any given time, all made with local dairy. Be sure to also order a fresh Liège-style Belgian waffle, which is made with a thick batter that resembles bread dough and is studded with pearl sugar.

Founded as a roving three-wheeled cart in Providence in 2014, Tricycle Ice Cream is today a beloved ice cream shop that’s famous for its dipped ice cream cones, sandwiches, and tacos. Don’t miss the popular banana pudding ice cream sandwich or peanut butter & chocolate chip ice cream taco.

A Myrtle beach must-visit, Melt is located just steps from the water. They’re using only the best available ingredients to create unique and exciting ice cream flavors, like white chocolate ice cream with a ruby chocolate ganache swirl, brownie batter ice cream with caramel and Girl Scout cookie swirl, and red velvet cream cheese with an Oreo swirl.

At Lenoes’ Creamery in South Dakota’s Black Hills, all ice creams are handmade with high-quality ingredients. Popular flavors include Spearfish Valley rhubarb, blackberry lemon, and vegan coconut toasted almond with blueberry jam.

This Tennessee dairy farm serves homemade ice cream at five locations throughout the state, including one in downtown Knoxville. Their Jersey cows are on pasture 365 days per year and the milk, which is not homogenized, is turned into stunning ice cream in flavors including sweet cream, chocolate-strawberry, and brown butter.

An old-school walk-up window identified by its giant ice cream cone sign, Connie’s serves their super-creamy frozen custard in cones, sundaes, shakes, and banana splits, but do as the locals do and order a super-thick concrete, in flavors like Texas Tornado (vanilla custard blended with fresh strawberries and melted chocolate) and Choc-O-Rocko (chocolate custard blended with roasted almonds and marshmallow cream).

Famous for its hand-churned, small-batch ice creams, Blacksmith Ice Cream creates ice cream in creative seasonal flavors including coconut mango sticky rice, lemon poppy seed swirled with lemon bars, and sweet cream ice cream swirled with Lucky Charms marshmallows.

There’s no need to be shy when ordering at Shy Guy Gelato, which was founded by a local Vermonter who perfected his recipe while working at restaurants in Italy. They rotate through more than 200 gelato flavors, but favorites include stracciatella, Choco-Palooza, raspberry crème fraîche, and fior di latte.

This Asian café serves a variety of teas, coffee drinks, and pastries, but the main draw is the homemade soft serve. The matcha flavor is made with real matcha green tea, and it’s best enjoyed swirled with whatever the seasonal special is.

The welcoming Melon Seed is popular for its sandwiches and other lunch fare, but don’t miss the variety of soft-serve fro-yos, available either in a cup or cone, and with a wide array of fun toppings.

A Charleston destination for more than 20 years, Ellen’s makes all their ice creams, sherbets, gelatos, and sorbets on-premises. Lunchtime fare is also top-notch, but be sure to save room for banana splits, hot fudge sundaes made with homemade hot fudge, brownie sundaes made with homemade brownies, and other ice cream treats.

Going strong since 1950, Kopp’s is a beloved stop for great burgers and decadently creamy frozen custard. Enjoy flavors including strawberry, butterscotch, blueberry, and marshmallow, in a sundae, float, or shake.

A must-visit in historic downtown Jackson Hole, Moo’s uses only organic cream to make their all-natural ice cream. An absolutely massive array of flavors are available, including chocolate raspberry hazelnut and prickly pear, but don’t miss the ones made with wild local blueberries and huckleberries.