E-Mail This Article to a Friend Cream of the crop Cups and cones that are anything but plain vanilla BY GENEVIEVE RAJEWSKI

When it comes to indulging in summertime sweets, the choice is simple. Nothing compares to ice cream for lowering your core temperature while sating dessert cravings. However, just because ice cream remains a straightforward selection doesn’t mean you need to settle for an everyday flavor.

At Christina’s, you’ll find flower-powered flavors ($2.70/small; $3.54/medium; $4.19/large) that are anything but garden-variety, including rose-petal ice cream and lemon-hibiscus sorbet. Christina’s also uses herbs for an infusion of delicate flavor; try its new ice cream flavored with kaffir-lime leaves (featured in Thai and Vietnamese cuisine), and fennel-pollen ice cream, which has an anise-like taste. Meanwhile, Lizzy’s ($3.20/small; $3.85/medium; $4.70/large) Mad Dog mango sorbet spices things up with the fiery heat of habañero peppers.

Perhaps you’d rather savor another kind of dessert — if only it weren’t so muggy outside. If so, head to Emack & Bolio’s ($3.15/small; $3.90/medium; $4.25/large), where you’ll find grasshopper-pie ice cream flavored with crème de menthe and studded with chocolate chips and Oreo cookies. At Herrell’s ($3.50/small; $4/medium; $4.30/large), burnt-sugar-and-butter ice cream mimics the subtle decadence of crème brûlée. At Toscanini’s ($3.25/one scoop; $4.25/two scoops), you’ll find Vienna Finger ice cream chock full of cookie chunks, and The Business, which combines shortbread and chocolate chips in caramel ice cream. And although Charlestown’s Cold Stone Creamery ($3.29/small; $3.79/medium; $4.29/large) specializes in mixing cookies and candy into ice cream, an unadulterated cup of its cake-batter ice cream delivers a bowl-licking rush.

Since brain-freeze headaches ease faster than those of the hangover variety, consider frozen versions of your favorite libations. Christina’s offers piña-colada ice cream, while a cup of Cold Stone Creamery’s Irish cream goes down smoother than a shot of Bailey’s. Toscanini’s Guinness ice cream puts a very adult spin on the taste of a root-beer float, and JP Licks ($3.10/small; $3.65/medium; $4.10/large) delivers a convincing Kahlúa ice cream, as well as Myers’s-rum-raisin.

But if you’re really a kid at heart, you may wish to indulge your inner child with a trip to Rancatore’s ($2.25/micro; $3.25/small; $4/medium; $4.50/large). There, you’ll find Candyland ice cream swirled with rainbow sprinkles, and the Junkyard Dog — an ever-changing "everything but the kitchen sink" flavor that features 20 to 30 mix-ins. And the marshmallows and white chocolate of Emack & Bolio’s Heaven ice cream recall s’mores of campfires past.

Where to find it

• Christina’s Ice Cream, 1255 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, (617) 492-7021.

• Cold Stone Creamery, 100 City Square, Charlestown, (617) 242-0100; www.coldstonecreamery.com

• Emack & Bolio’s, 290 Newbury Street, Boston, (617) 536-7127; 1663 Beacon Street, Brookline, (617) 731-6256; 2 Belgrade Avenue, Roslindale, (617) 323-3323; www.emackandbolios.com

• Herrell’s Ice Cream, 15 Dunster Street, Cambridge, (617) 497-2179; 155 Brighton Avenue, Allston, (617) 782-9599; www.herrells.com

• JP Licks, 659 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain, (617) 524-6740; 311 Harvard Avenue, Brookline, (617) 737-8252; 352 Newbury Street, Boston, (617) 236-1666.

• Lizzy’s, 367 Moody Street, Waltham, (781) 893-6677; www.lizzysicecream.com

• Rancatore’s Ice Cream, 238 Belmont Street, Belmont, (617) 489-5090.

• Toscanini’s Ice Cream, 899 Main Street, Cambridge, (617) 491-5877.