Ice cream is people's best summer friend. With the weather warming up, it is easy to find a huge variety of flavours and creative combinations of ice cream. Whether it's served in tarted up ice cream outlets or from the retailers' freezers, these frozen desserts can bring cool, sweet pleasure. The Shanghai Star takes a look at several of these chilly concoctions.

New York, New York (72 yuan, US$9) and Kyoto Kaiseki (88 yuan, US$11)

Both are from Hagen-Dazs' series of newly developed products representing 10 different countries.

"New York, New York" is visually splendid. A strawberry cheese cake ice cream was scooped into a crunchy Danish cone and served with plenty of bananas, strawberries, mangoes, red grapes, mulberries and mint leaves. The ice cream contains sliced strawberries and has the same rich, creamy taste one expects from Hagen-Dazs ice creams, although the portion was small. I enjoyed the rich variety of fruit more than the ice cream itself. Rather than New York, it reminded me of another place in the United State -- Hawaii.

"Kyoto Kaiseki" is Japanese style in its presentation, which very much resembles sushi. The ice cream is coated with chocolate and topped with melon slices, appearing quite lovely and delicate. Many assorted treats were served alongside, including a bowl of mashed red bean soup, a cake of green-tea flavour and fruit, including banana and mulberry. The "Kyoto Kaiseki" was quite a creative, Asian-inspired combination of desserts, with diverse flavours and a richness of cream and chocolate.

Mashed red bean ice with pudding (28 yuan, US$3.50)

What first impressed me about this ice cream was the mountainous portion it came in, then came the taste -- as wonderful as dreams. Covered by red beans and condensed milk, this is the perfect combination of sweetness and mystery.

Unlike other red bean ice creams I have sampled, the interior did not consist of bland ice but came with a creamy, sweet centre. The red beans tasted delectable and sweet while the inside was cool and thick. A bit of egg pudding hidden at the centre of the ice cream tasted refreshing. This ice cream is considered especially healthy as red beans help to remove waste and fat from the body and also relax the skin.

Yi Cha Yi Zuo
Address: 123 Xingye Road
Tel: 021-63851311

Classic tastes and creative shapes

Compared to the ice creams served in special outlets, those sold in shops are more readily accessible in the city and of course, much cheaper. Wall's has recently introduced a new series of ice creams featuring four classic tastes, among which the vanilla has become one of my favourite desserts. Its milky, buttery taste is stronger than any other vanilla ice cream I have tried and not too sweet. The strawberry and chocolate flavours are also pure, heavy and refreshingly cool. The chocolate-covered vanilla is not as good as the other three.

Another kind of take-away ice cream that is worth taking away is the Nestle's vanilla. The package contains eight cubes of ice cream which are coated with chocolate and sesame seeds. These frozen cubes look like candy and the sesame seeds are a good touch. This kind of ice cream is easy to share with your friends.

The classic vanilla costs only 2 yuan (US$0.25) while Nestle's ice cream cube combination is priced at 3.5 yuan (US$0.43)