Surprisingly Sweet: Our Top Summer Ice Cream Picks

Skip the meh froyo—we’ve found four cool summer treats that’ll keep your taste buds interested.

> Ice Cream Taco: The sideways head-tilt gesture of crunching into a taco meets the primal bliss-out of sundae indulgence in Rain or Shine‘s ice cream taco. Premium house-made scoops (like peanut butter, blackberry & craft wheat ale, or salted caramel) topped with cream and sauce and served in a crisp waffle cone shell—(taco) Tuesdays only! 102 1926 W. 4th Ave., Vancouver, 604-428-7246, http://rainorshineicecream.com

> Matcha Soft Serve: Robson Street’s Bon Crepe Cafe may just be a hole in the wall of the Pocky-emblazoned Konbiniya convenience store, but the Japanese treats served in this space are unparalleled. Frosty coils of matcha soft serve are vertiginous, lightly sweet and the prettiest green shade. Tea-scented joy in a cone. Bon Crepe Cafe, 1238 Robson St., Vancouver, 604-682-3634, www.bonboncrepe.com

> Egg Cream: Sit at Glenburn Soda Fountain‘s counter and watch a uniformed soda jerk (not rude) layer your hot fudge sundae in a fluted glass piled with whipped cream and nuts or hand-dip your thick, frosty milkshake. Decor is as sharp as a pang of nostalgia, and new experiences are available in the form of classics like the chocolate Egg Cream: milk, chocolate syrup and seltzer (no eggs). The result is greater than the sum of its parts. Glenburn Soda Fountain, 4090 Hastings St., Burnaby, 604-500-4548, www.glenburnsoda.com

> Juicetto: You know that virtuous, cold-pressed juice you’re sipping on? Over at Bella Gelateria, it’s whipped it into a sort-of sorbet—a Juicetto, experimented with at Italy’s Gelato University (we chose the wrong undergrad). So far flavours have been juice-bar mainstays like spinach, kale, cuke, celery, ginger and an ultra-red fusion of raspberry, pomegranate, strawberry and beet, but a variety of new tastes are in the works daily (and all have been selling out rapidly). Equal parts floaty West Coast juice habit and the dolce vita makes for one irresistible treat. Bella Gelataria, 1001 W. Cordova St., Vancouver, 604-569-1010, www.bellagelateria.com

Happy to bring you this scoop. —Adrienne Matei

Add to our list—comment on your favourite city ice cream creation below: