“People can’t believe that a scoop of ice cream only costs a dollar.  I have to keep telling them ‘it’s not a limited-time offer; this is just how we roll,’” says John’s employee Patrick Owens.  “I had a guy ask me for two half-scoops.  I told him we can’t do that, so he offered to pay me double,” he tells. Oh, sweet incredulity; who could say ‘no’ to some depression delights this summer? Jon’s opened on May 23 and has one other location down south. The Clog expects it will stay around for a while.

Image Source: Alex Bigman
John’s Ice Cream [Yelp]

Today, the Chron released its “Mission Sugar Trail,” which we would like to lovingly dub the roadmap to diabetes. Please, for the love of all things sacred and sweet, do not attempt this journey in one day. You may go into seizures. As in multiple.

But if you want to get your BARTing in before the fares jump, above is a Clog-approved sample of tasty Meccas. How much ice cream can you eat in a day? The correct answer is “a lot.”

Starting at the top, from left to right: Bi-Rite Creamery, Dynamo Donuts and Coffee, Mitchell’s Ice Cream, Tartine Bakery and Humphry Slocombe Ice Cream. We’re just a little frozen-obsessed.

Image Source: See each individual picture. All under Creative Commons.
The Mission District Sugar Trail [Chron]

In the wake of some high times yesterday, Ben & Jerry’s will celebrate its free cone day today. Yeah, sure the portion’s a bit skimpy, but who’s going to say no to some ice cream on a day like this?

Oh, and P.S. The Berkeley store opens in less than 30 minutes, so get a move on already!

Where: 2128 Oxford Street
When: Today, 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. (but the Berkeley store is open from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.?)

Free Cone Day [Ben & Jerry's]
via SFist

Starting lining up early in front of the student store. The B&J’s crew will serve one scoop per customer from 2-5 p.m. Oh, there is still beauty in the world!

Image Source: Amy the Nurse under Creative Commons
FREE Ben & Jerry’s on Election Day at UC Berkeley! [Facebook]

Say hello to yet another Berkeley shop that’ll tickle your sweet tooth–Tara’s Organic Ice Cream on College and Alcatraz avenues. Just blocks from massively popular ice cream shop, Ici, Tara’s threatens to throw it down with our resident bougie dessert stop with four five-star reviews on Yelp following its Sunday opening. Visitors are raving about the crazy flavors concocted by the New Mexico-based Tara Esperanza, some of which include garam masala or green chile. Our resident foodie, Christine Borden, enjoyed her taste of Tara’s, but wasn’t as ecstatic as the eager yelpers. She also stated that the flavors “weren’t as rich” as Ici. But, hey, maybe she’s biased?

Speaking of dessert places, joining us pretty soon within a two-minute walk from campus will be that overpriced cream puff chain vendor from Japan, Beard Papa’s. Their Telegraph Avenue location should be open shortly–right next to Moolicious, which is a store that sells sugary cereal combos that you can top with brownies and other caloric items. Both stores are also, incidentally, in the center of Berkeley’s yogurt and tapioca district. Apparently, we college students can ever get enough sweets.

In 10 years we predict everyone in Berkeley will look like those blob people in “Wall-e.”

Image Source: ulterior epicure under Creative Commons
Tara’s Organic Ice Cream [Web Site]

Remember the days when you could walk into a cafe, find a stranger to talk to and say, “isn’t it great how Cal produces more Ph.D. hopefuls for U.S. doctoral programs than any other university … in the WORLD?” Neither do we. But the point is that those days are over.

It’s not that we lost our No. 1 spot to Stanford or Harvard, which might be forgivable, but to two foreign institutions—Beijing and Tsinghua Universities, says The Mercury News.

How did this happen? Well, according to the National Science Foundation, the majority of doctorates—over 60 percent by our calculations—awarded in 2006 were in science or engineering. And it’s no secret that Americans are losing interest in science. The result? Americans aren’t very interested in harnessing the awesome power of an advanced science education.

If the newcomers decide to stay in the U.S. and maybe give our ailing economy a little boost, then we don’t mind that much. But what if they’re stealing our secret science knowledge for more Chinese uses?

In that case, we hope the Lawrence Hall of Science’s new strategy for generating interest in science is up to the task of competing with 1.3 billion Chinese.

Until we learn more, we’ll spend our summer blissfully not studying for the summer classes we aren’t taking—for better or worse.

Image Source: FHKE under Creative Commons
Chinese take lead from UC-Berkeley in producing Ph.D. hopefuls [The Mercury News]

If after Ben and Jerry’s you’re still not satisfied with your frozen freebie, Cold Stone is another option. The mix-in creamery offers free servings on your birthday–if you subscribe to their list/club. Eight ounces of a Signature Creation in exchange for an inbox of promo e-mails? Oh, it’s such a joy to be a summer baby.

And not to be out done, there’s Ici. No, there’s no giveaway there, but we do hear that milkshakes will occasionally make appearances as daily specials. It’s like the world of ice cream wants us to eat it all up (or slurp it down).

Image Source: Amy the Nurse under Creative Commons
Ben&Jerry’s 30th annual FREE CONE DAY! [Facebook]
Cold Stone Creamery Birthday Club [Cold Stone]

OK, so we’re pretty sure people have eaten this shit before. But we sampled the craziest, weirdest and most exotic flavors we could find. And now we’re telling you how it is. Listen up, son.

Glide on …

First we drove down to 4th Street ’cause we’re lazy. We sat down at Sketch, which specializes in hand-crafted ice cream. It’s a little gourmet, if we do say so ourselves.

Earl Grey tea, $3.50

Skyler Reid: Sketch is not, in fact, sketch.
Gerald Nicdao: This isn’t Earl Grey tea. They lied.
Christine Borden: This would taste good with caramel.
SR: Sadly, they don’t have caramel here. They only have burnt caramel. It’s more expensive … Why are we eating with sticks?

Overall, a smooth, rich flavor, but with an odd and too-sweet aftertaste.
Quality of snooty dairy product: 7/10
Flavor with the most syllables: organic coffee granita
——

Next the Clog beetled over to Shattuck Avenue’s Gourmet Ghetto, where we found Ciao Bella Gelato. Oh God, that place smelled so good.

Carrot ginger, $3.95

GN: Doesn’t taste like anything.
SR: Spicy.
GN: I don’t taste that.
CB: I don’t taste the carrot. Oh. Now I taste the carrot. Tricky. Oh. It was like a ginger attack.
GN: I CAN’T TASTE THE CARROT!

Not as smooth as Sketch’s ice cream.
Quality of snooty dairy product: 6/10
Flavor with the most syllables: Straccitella chocolate chip gelato
——

We headed over to the Berkeley BART area on Shattuck to hit up Gelato Milano, which proved to be more exciting than its plain white exterior led us to believe.

Crem caramel, $3.00

CB: If baby flesh were to taste like anything, it would taste like this.
SR: It would be saltier.
GN: It’d taste like bacon … I still can’t taste the carrots.

Milano had the perfect gelato consistency, and the flavor wasn’t overpowering.
Quality of snooty dairy product: 8/10
Flavor with the most syllables: Mandorla tostata
——

Gelateria Naia was just a block away on Shattuck. We were suprised to find it, well, sucked. Then again, our flavor was tad ballsy.

Whole grains, $3.25

SR: Maybe it’s a good source of fiber
CB: Is that good for the anal stage?
SR: Are you coming on to me?
CB: OK, who wants to finish this one?
GN & SR: Not me.
SR: Fine, I’ll do it.

Accurate flavor, we’ll give them that. Too stiff and dry.
Quality of snooty dairy product: 4/10
Flavor with the most syllables: Madagascar vanilla, cantucci e vin santo and chocolate peanut butter
——

Our last stop was, like last time, on College Avenue. We said bonjour to Ici, a French ice cream parlor and bakery. Dude, they even had Baked Alaska.

Chicory, $2.75

SR: Definitely points for having real spoons. Bendable spoons. Oh my God, they are the perfect flicking spoon. Hey, Gerald, catch!
CB: These spoons are nice!
GN: Amazing! Can you break ‘em? … Kinda looks like sperm.
Skyler breaks his own spoon

Spoons aside, the ice cream had the perfect texture for its class. The flavor, however, was a bit too heavy on the spices and clung to our palates.
Quality of snooty dairy product: 7/10
Flavor with the most syllables: Lemon amarena cherry

Earlier: Crawling Berkeley: A Better Cuppa Joe