O-R-E-O

It's a bit of a hike for those housed in the Yard, but if you live in the Quad, it's a five-minute walk.

Emack & Bolio's is the inventor of Oreo Cookie ice cream. And we could tell--it's arguably the best around.

We also tried Cosmic Crunch, vanilla ice cream with butterscotch, pecans and chocolate chips. It was pralines and cream--only better. The large chunks of pecan nicely balanced the creamy, sweet ice cream and butterscotch.

Serious Addiction could easily live up to its name. Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate: ice cream, fudge and chocolate chips. It was strong and rich, but the bittersweet chocolate made it possible to eat a whole serving without thinking twice. The chunks of chocolate were soft and easy to chew. It reminds us of Ben & Jerry's New York Chocolate Fudge Chunk. And the large chunks reveal that the ice cream is, indeed, homemade.

The atmosphere is simple and unpretentious. You come for the ice cream and nothing else. Emack & Bolio's is located at 1726 Mass Ave. At $1.85 a serving, it could easily be your best buy.

The Mother Lode

Herrell's is the mother of homemade ice creams in the Square.

Its lines are always long, and it's often difficult to find a place to sit--even with the expanded seating in the old bank vault.

Their best selling Chocolate Pudding ice cream, while excellent, is only for the true chocolate lover. It's soft, thick and rich and made of bittersweet chocolate. It could be difficult to eat an entire cup without a jug of water to go with it.

Herrell's Cookies & Cream ice cream is unique in the Square. As the manager told us, they don't blend the Oreos into the vanilla ice cream. As a result, the vanilla is pure and the large chunks of cookie are not as soft as at some other stores, like Emack & Bolio's. The ice cream is, nevertheless, very good.

Herrell's is located at 15 Dunster St. At $2.25 a relatively small serving, Herrell's is more expensive than some. But the ice cream is gourmet.

Ice Cream in Beantown

Tucked underground on JFK St. across from the Sony Janus movie theater, Scoops & Beans features Christina's homemade ice cream. You no longer have to trek to Inman Square to find this ice cream lover's delight.

Christina's offers a Cambridge original: Burnt Sugar ice cream, a flavor developed by a Lesley College professor who came here from Cambridge, England. Burnt Sugar tastes just like the top of a creme brulee. Its texture is firm, smooth and dense--just what an ice cream should be. Like some of the other flavors we tried, it would be just as tasty in the midst of a cold, icy Harvard winter. You do need to know, though, that Burnt Sugar is not overpoweringly sweet--in fact, it has a bitter edge.

Christina's Guava Pineapple sorbet is theperfect summer choice. Though we couldn't tastethe pineapple, we didn't mind. The icy confectiondoesn't contain any dairy products, and it meltsin your mouth.