Best ice cream in Washington? To find out, I visited 12 stores over 2 weeks.

10219 Old Georgetown Rd., Bethesda; 14929 Shady Grove Rd. Apartment I, Rockville; 5241 River Rd., Bethesda. Sarahshandmadeicecream.com.

Last in the handmade and homemade crowd, or rather last of all, was Sarah’s Handmade Ice Cream in Bethesda. This mother-daughter, mirror-decorated store is long and narrow, with limited seating outside and a four-seater bench inside. It also hands out sweets at the checkout and a whole range of creative and interesting flavors. These include locally inspired names like Rocky Rockville Road and Bethesda Brownie Brickle, as well as caffeine and alcohol-infused flavors like Bailey’s Irish Chip and the last special flavor of the day I tried, Earl Gray Speculoos. It was one of the most well-received unique flavors, and today’s tasting partner (who also accompanied me on trips to Dairy Godmother, Mount Desert Island, Dolcezza, and Thomas Sweet) rated it the highest of all the unique flavors. The ice cream, blue-gray and dotted with speculoos cookie crumbles, was fragrant and almost floral, and the speculoos crumble was reminiscent of the flavor of Creamery’s Nutella Biscoff. The chocolate here, as one of my co-workers warned me, quickly became the #1 chocolate ice cream we tried. Its creamy, almost brownie-like texture and flavor had us scraping the bottom of the cup. If, like us, you’re craving more, Sarah’s also sells select flavors by the pint that you can take home.

So what’s my takeaway, other than needing a month-long break from any frozen desserts? As expected, DMV dairies faced stiff competition, so there was a three-way tie for first place among Dairy Godmother, Everyday Sundae and Sarah’s Handmade: perhaps an ideal result since they represent “D”, “M” and “V”. ” In second place were Mount Desert Island and Larry’s, both in Northwest Washington.

Still, you can’t go wrong with any of these choices. I’ve visited the best ice cream shops around – every place on this list embodies what an ice cream shop should be: the perfect combination of delicious and delightful