As summer approaches, the only thing that can save us from the scorching sun is ice cream.

Lucky for you, I’ve taken my precious time to go ice cream tasting, trying to find the best ice cream around. Being a professional ice cream taster can be exhausting, but someone has to do it, so I stepped up. Here are my top four favorite ice cream shops. 

Disclaimer: money was not taken into account with these reviews. But let’s be honest, good ice cream is worth it, whatever the price may be. My credit card might disagree with that, but getting a summer job can help with that. 

The shops will be listed from my least to most favorite ice cream. Just to be clear, all ice cream is amazing so any of these places would be a great choice for a summer treat. 

Loard’s

A lot of people don’t know about this shop in Dublin next to  Mountain Mike’s Pizza along San Ramon Road. It’s actually connected to the pizza shop, but there is a distinct change in surroundings letting you know you are in Loard’s. 

There is a variety of flavors from Mocha Chip to Matcha. My personal favorite is Rocky Road. The chocolate ice cream was the  perfect amount of richness with squishy marshmallows and crunchy pecans. This place definitely has an ice cream flavor for everyone’s liking. 

The service here is excellent, too. I found it impossible to decline the offer of getting a double scoop. But you know what they say; the more scoops the better. Or that might just be me. 

This is the perfect place to go when you want a quick ice cream cone to-go.

 Dairy Queen

This place is a favorite of many people for a good reason. Sometimes you just need a thick creamy blizzard. A large Cookie Jar Blizzard is capable of leaving three people full and satisfied. 

Dairy Queen has a perfect way of turning soft serve vanilla ice cream into a creation sent from heaven. But the only flavor of ice cream they have is vanilla. That was definitely a setback coming from a chocolate lover, but they do have fudge that can blend into the ice cream. 

There is nothing special about the inside of the Dublin shop along San Ramon Valley Boulevard, but it does have enough seating for a good amount of people. I’d personally  rather take my ice cream to-go from this place, but you don’t have to. 

Dairy Queen is a safe bet for ice cream. You can’t go wrong with your favorite treats like cookie dough and brownies blended into perfectly sweet vanilla ice cream. It’s not the fastest service, but if you have a little bit of time to spare, you won’t regret going here. 

Icicles

If you’re looking for something fun and new, Icicles is the place to go. It’s a little farther than the rest of the ice cream places since it’s in Pleasanton, but it’s well worth the trip. You won’t find old fashioned ice cream cones here. Instead, you’ll find handcrafted rolled ice cream. If you’ve never had rolled ice cream, it’s exactly what it sounds like. 

You go into the shop and you’re met with an assortment of cool flavors from Oreo Blast to Cereal Killer. 

Once you’ve made the hard decision of choosing which flavor you want, you wait until one of the workers calls your name, and that’s when the fun begins. 

You actually get to watch them make your ice cream! From pouring out the cream to crushing the ingredients into the cream. It was something I’ve never experienced at another ice cream shop. 

The ice cream itself was very tasty, but the experience is definitely a key factor to why this place is the second best ice cream place. 

Cold Stone Creamery

A variety of ice cream flavors? Check. Your favorite toppings you can add in? Check. Very local and easy to go to? Check. Cold Stone Creamery is the best ice cream place in the area by far. 

It doesn’t seem like much from the outside, but once you enter you never want to leave. You’re surrounded by the smell of sweet ice cream, which is the best scent in the middle of a hot summer day. There are so many flavors that it’s nearly impossible to choose for yourself, but it’s safe to say that any flavor will leave you with no regrets. 

Cold Stone is like Dairy Queen and Loard’s combined. With just as much variety as Loard’s, Cold Stone allows you to mix in any topping of your liking into any flavor you choose. 

Even the ice cream itself is the perfect amount of sweet and creaminess. If you really want a nice cold treat, you’ll find it Cold Stone, located in the Marketplace and Hacienda Crossing centers.

None of these places disappointed  me, and each one would satisfy a craving for a cold treat this summer. My recommendation is to go to all of the shops because you can never go wrong with ice cream.