Best ice cream
A good thing the shop doesn't specialize in popsicles; then we'd have to call it J.P. Sucks. And that would be an unfortunate misnomer, since J.P. Licks in fact rocks. Since the flagship location, in Jamaica Plain, makes daily deliveries of its homemade ice cream, frozen yogurt, and sorbet to its satellite stores, customers know they're always getting the freshest possible scoop of their fave flave, be it funky like cake batter or sweet cream, seasonally festive like eggnog or apple crisp, or plain-vanilla like - gotcha, like Oreo, actually the franchise's most popular seller. As for the name, let's just hope they don't build a store in Athol.

Consider Christina's the connoisseur's alternative to the people's choice that is J.P.L. After all, first you have to know what, say, cajeta or bergamot is, and then you have to like it, before you're liable to try the ice cream that bears its name. But those who do will follow this Inman Square creamery's flavor chart anywhere: through white chocolate and fig-pecan to lychee and apple-cider sorbet. They may even venture all the way into the parlor's adjoining spice emporium, where the possibilities for future flavors - fenugreek? epazote? smoked-salt sorbet? - abound.

J.P. Licks, multiple locations, www.jplicks.com; Christina's Homemade Ice Cream, 1255 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, (617) 492-7021.