Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat's all-too-brief summers hardly leave enough time to capitalize on the year's prime ice cream-eating months.

So now that the temperatures are on the right side of the freezing mark, there's little time to waste.

At Home helps you sort through the endless varieties of frozen treats - and what they'll mean to your midsection.

Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream

Where to get it: Ben & Jerry's, 690 Marketplace Plaza; 875-1400

Ingredients: Cream, skim milk, liquid sugar, water, unbleached wheat flour, sugar, brown sugar, egg yolks, butter, eggs, expeller pressed soybean oil, chocolate liquor, coconut oil, cocoa (processed with alkali), vanilla extract, natural flavors, cocoa, molasses, guar gum, salt, cocoa butter, vanilla powder, milkfat, carrageenan, soya lecithin

The scoop: The inventor of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, Ben & Jerry's does it better than anyone else. The chunks of cookie dough are massive and soft, and they melt into the rest of the ice cream - which has that grainy, homemade feel - with ease.

Cold Stone Creamery Chocolate Devotion ice cream

Where to get it: Cold Stone Creamery, 2032 Curve Plaza; 879-0707

Ingredients: Chocolate ice cream (cream, sugar, nonfat milk, milk, whey, cocoa processed with alkali, guar gum, carrageenan, mono and diglycerides, polysorbate 80), chocolate chips, brownie, fudge

The scoop: Cold Stone has made a national name out of concocting ridiculous combinations of treats. The Chocolate Devotion, one of the ice cream chain's "signature creations," is no exception to that business plan. In this variation, the textures don't go together very well, with overly rich ice cream clashing against chocolate chips.

Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream

Where to get it: Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory; 624 Lincoln Ave.; 870-3048 (also found at City Market)

Ingredients: Milk, cream, skim milk, sugar, chocolate chips (sugar, coconut oil, cocoa processed with alkali, partially hydrogenated coconut oil, cocoa, salt, soya lecithin, natural flavor), corn syrup, natural flavor, cellulose gum, mono and diglycerides, Yellow #5, Blue #1, guar gum, carrageenan, dextrose

The scoop: Summery green color, light mint flavor and big chunks of chocolate that melt away. Get it in a cone - that's the only proper way to enjoy mint chocolate chip ice cream. Delicious.

Boulder Ice Cream All Natural Caramel Pecan ice cream

Where to get it: The Bamboo Market, Yampa and 11th streets; 879-9992

Ingredients: Cream, milk, caramelized pecans (sugar, pecans, peanut oil, salt), sugar, eggs, caramel flavor, guar gum, carob bean gum

The scoop: Probably the store-bought option that comes closest to homemade ice cream. Anything all natural might feel a little less smooth at first - but that comes mostly from the absence, or at least a smaller quantity, of stabilizers. Boulder Ice Cream has a stovetop caramel flavor in every spoonful, helped along by chewy pecans covered in the same stuff. Extreme deliciousness.

It's Soy Delicious, Awesome Chocolate

Where to get it: The Bamboo Market, Yampa and 11th streets; 879-9992

Ingredients: Organic soy milk, tapioca syrup and/or brown rice syrup, chicory root extract, cocoa processed with alkali, safflower oil and/or soybean oil, mixed fruit concentrate (pineapple and apple syrups, pear and peach concentrates), potato sugar, natural flavors, carob bean gum, guar gum, carrageenan

The scoop: The texture isn't as creamy as a dairy-based ice cream, but fruit concentrates augment the chocolate flavor. Soy Delicious tastes a little like soy (which is expected) and has a springy feel to it (which also is expected, given most other soy products), but is a tasty, cholesterol-free substitute for custard-based frozen desserts.

Klondike Slim-a-Bear Sandwiches, chocolate

Where to get it: City Market, 1825 Central Park Drive; 879-3290

Ingredients: Nonfat milk, sugar, polydextrose, cocoa, lactitol, milkfat, fructose, other artificial ingredients and flavorings; bleached wheat flour, sugar, caramel color, dextrose, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, corn flour, cocoa, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, modified corn starch, baking soda, salt, mono and dyglycerides, soy lecithin

The scoop: Other than the filling being a little thin and icy, this one is as close as a low-calorie imitation can get to the traditional ice cream sandwich. It's surprisingly good for the calorie count and surprisingly large for its lack of bad-for-you content.

The Skinny Cow Low-Fat Fudge Bar

Where to get it: City Market, 1825 Central Park Drive; 879-3290

Ingredients: Skim milk, sugar, corn syrup, water, polydextrose, cocoa processed with alkali, cream, stabilizer

The scoop: Aside from the thin coating of ice around the bar, Skinny Cow does a fine job of preserving the richness of full-fat ice cream while cutting out the things that will stick to you.