Exotic Ice Cream Flavor Quest, in "Just Desserts"

In the end, we get what's coming to us. Let's hope it's sweet.

​The latest issue of Sunset magazine says a $4,000 dresser is "worth the splurge" and the rooms at a former sanitarium turned bed-and-breakfast are calming. One article that doesn't incite a high-pitched "ha!" is the one predicting that the cupcake craze is giving way to exotic ice cream flavors. What would Phoenix frozen dessert institution Mary Coyle have to say about that?

While hosting mainly a solid mix of ice cream classics, Mary Coyle did have a few freakish flavors to offer: including black licorice, cotton candy, and jalapeño vanilla. Forget the cotton candy. The crazy colors and barely-there taste make it strictly kids' stuff. The black licorice is unique but the anise taste could have been even stronger. The winner? The special-but-soon-to-be-on-the-permanent-menu jalapeño vanilla. Creamy vanilla ice cream with a clear kick of jalapeño pepper after every bite made this flavor as sassy as Mary Coyle's unmentionables drying in the hot Phoenix sun. Yowza.