J.P. Licks — Restaurant in Somerville

We're visiting grandchildren and venturing out to find the "best" ice cream in the commutable area. It's a tough job, but it's all performed with parental approval of course. (mostly, we're grandparents after all) J.P.Licks flavors and creaminess brings the ice cream near the top of the list. Only negative is the portion size is near the bottom.

For reference purposes and arguable comparisons J.P.Licks rates #3 out of 8 we have tried so far this week. The difference in the top 3 is slim, there is a large gap between these 3 and the lower 5. Our pseudo professional ratings categories include creaminess (how much the frozen deliciousness resembles heavy cream or at least half-and-half when melting in the mouth, along with whether there is any crunchiness due to a freezing process that gives ice crystals similar to a lot of store bought ice cream that has been open in the home freezer a bit too long), complexity and originality of flavor options, and finally the value proposition of portion size.

Now that you've read this far, here are our rankings: 1 - Cal's Creamery 2 - Westside Creamery 3 - J.P.Licks 4 - Kimball Farm 5 - Rancatore's 6 - C.B.Scoops 7 - Colleen's 8 - Capital Creamery

Our quest will continue with subsequent visits, it's...

Pretty good ice cream in a range of flavors, including, occasionally, cocktail favors like margarita. My favorite flavor ever is their brandied cherry chocolate this past fall. Taste bud bliss. They have a steady menu of flavors, plus a rotating monthly selection of special flavors. Scoopers are almost always friendly, and sometimes generously heavy-handed with portions. Their ice cream is certified kosher, if that matters to you. They even sell Cheryl Anne challah now and then. They also do coffee drinks, and ice cream sandwiches, cupcakes and can do ice cream cakes.You can earn cow points, their reward system, with the app or card which you can get from them, and if you eat ice cream often - it gets me through winter blues - you can rack up rewards pretty quickly. $5 for every $50 you spend, I believe. My only beef is sometimes it seems a full half of their flavors are variations of cookies and cream, which seems to be Boston's number one most loved ice cream flavor, but how many variations of it do we need? They have art by local artists on the walls, a different artist each month. This is a Boston chain, with a very local feel. All in all a fun...

I love this place and its ice cream. I make my own and have high standards that a lot of ice cream places don't meet. Way too much sugar which frozen treats don't need because cold tastes sweeter. Unfortunately they have someone obsessed with cookies and cream and cinnamon. The Spicy Pineapple ice cream would of been great if it wasn't ruined by cinnamon. I actually like cinnamon. I just think it should be used like scent. Sparingly. You can barely taste the pineapple because cinnamon is a strong flavor that covers other flavors. Pineapple can carry it self. And does there really need to be more than two cookies and cream flavors a month. That is so lazy and boring. And the items on GrubHub should have a full description of the flavor. I would not have wasted my money multiple times on ice creams ruined by cinnamon. And I get I can look it up on the website. Am I really suppose to do research before I...