4. Sundaes and Cones, East 10th Street

Sundaes and Cones has a prime East Village location for taking a beautiful walk with ice cream in hand. Untapped Cities was here over the summer when they had lavender and guava flavored ice cream. All the flavors are made in house, and they change with the season. Here’s what we tried:

Sesame. Yes, that’s right — sesame. Like the seed. They toast sesame seeds in house so the sesame ice cream is actually a charcoal color. It had a dense and gritty texture to it but it really did taste like sesame seeds!

Corn. The corn flavored ice cream actually tastes like corn. But sweeter. And colder. It is particularly delicious with a cinnamon topping. They also use real corn – there is skin in the ice cream!

Honey Dew. You would expect honey dew to be a sorbet flavor but it’s actually an ice cream! It had the fruity qualities of honey dew but was much sweeter and creamier (no surprises there).

When we were in Sundaes & Cones, the cheery employee implored us to taste the vanilla even though it wasn’t part of our “crazy flavor” search. The vanilla was hand scraped from vanilla beans. It was clean and crisp, with a distinctness that none of the other flashy flavors could match. While avocado and Jalapeño can try and compete, nothing can touch classic hand made vanilla.

Untapped Cities has been a huge fan of ice cream for a while – check out our guide to Chinatown’s Original Chinatown Ice Cream Factory, an interview with the founders of Big Gay Ice Cream, the ice cream shops left out of Foursquare’s Game of Cones, and the 2012 Ice Cream Takedown. Also, make your own Irish Coffee Ice Cream with this recipe!