I scream

John listed his top ten ice cream flavors, so how can I not do the same?

10. Cookie dough. This is a good, reliable favorite. I wish the major manufacturers would include larger dough chunks.

9. Peanut butter cup. I don't get it as much as I used to, but I loved the rock-hard peanut butter swirl in the chocolate ice cream.

8. Pumpkin. Just great. As John notes, it just tastes like autumn.

7. Cookies-and-cream. Oreos and ice cream? Damn straight.

6. New York Brownie Super Fudge Chunk, by B&J. Totally amazing.

5. Heath Bar Crunch. The bigger the Heath Bar chunks, the better.

4. French Vanilla. In the late summertime, I love a couple of scoops of this with a mess of blueberries on top. It's also nice with chocolate or butterscotch syrup, or for use in a root beer float, or served with cake. But really, vanilla tastes wonderful on its own. The flavor of vanilla is anything but bland, folks.

3. Peppermint stick. A wonderful treat that's mainly available at the Holidays, sadly enough.

2. Mint chocolate chip. There can be some really disappointing versions of this. The best, usually, are not tinted green.

1. Coffee. In recent years, it's become a lot easier to find wonderful coffee ice creams, but my favorite will always be Haagen-Dasz, which is just sublime. I only have it once or twice per year, lest it become commonplace; this miracle substance was once the object of a midnight college road trip for myself and a few friends.

Here in Buffalo, spring is always welcomed by the opening of the roadside ice cream joints. These places always have cones and such with regular old hard ice cream, but I tend to always get a soft-serve delight, usually whatever the local euphemism is for the Dairy Queen Blizzard. I like a variety of them, but my favorite flavors therein are usually Reese's Pieces, Butterfinger, or Heath Bars.

Ice cream: Yeah, you could live without it. But what would be the point?