I’m a plain Jane when it comes to ice cream. A couple of scoops of vanilla and I am good to go. When I want to liven things up, I may add some chocolate, strawberry or marshmallow sauce. I’m not the only one: A 2023 poll of 1,000 U.S. adults by YouGov found that 59% of people also favor the tried-and-true flavor.

But go to any ice cream shop and you’ll be met with an unusual selection of creative and weird flavors. Bacon, cereal, coffee, potato chips, pretzels, hot sauce. Just about everything is getting mixed into ice cream these days.

Seeing all these options made me realize I need to broaden my horizons. I have branched out in the past — like the summer I was hooked on Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia — so I knew I was up to the challenge. I tried a couple of new flavors and enlisted some Banner reporters to try out some weird ones as well. Funny, it didn’t take too much arm-twisting to get volunteers.

Here is what we found. — Andrea K. McDaniels

Cookie Monster at Bmore Licks

• 2437 Eastern Ave., Canton
• 901 Light St., Federal Hill

Bmore Licks has more than 100 flavors of handmade soft serve ice cream and milkshakes, as well as over 30 flavors of hard ice cream — and more. But in a dizzying array of good options, Cookie Monster stands apart.

The flavor melds blue vanilla ice cream with baked chocolate chip cookies, Oreos and cookie dough. The second-generation ice cream shop in 2022 reported that Cookie Monster is its best-selling flavor. I recently enjoyed two scoops in a premium waffle cone (because I’m worth it) that featured rainbow sprinkles. Make sure to bring your debit or credit card: Bmore Licks is a cashless business. — Dylan Segelbaum

Downey Ocean at Baltimore in a Box

• 1004 W. 36th St., Baltimore

I’ve always been a vanilla with sprinkles kind of person, so when I walked into Baltimore in a Box and saw flavors featuring ingredients like Old Bay hot sauce, I was admittedly nervous. As I scanned the menu for the least-intimidating choice, Downey Ocean stood out: Fisher’s caramel popcorn ice cream topped with real popcorn pieces. Being a huge fan of caramel popcorn, I decided this would be for me.

My ice cream came in a cute little box reminiscent of a Chinese takeout container — my favorite part of the experience. I made sure I got the perfect spoonful for my first bite, with a big kernel of popcorn on top. I knew immediately I had made the right choice. Although I found it a bit sweet, I enjoyed the creamy caramel flavor and sugary crunch of the popcorn way more than I thought. I just wish there was a smaller option, as I had a hard time finishing two scoops. It was so good that I am even a little inspired to stop playing it vanilla safe. — Ronica Edwards

You Gotta Be Puddin’ Me, The Crazy Mason Milkshake Bar & Ice Cream Shop

• 8225 Main St., Old Ellicott City

At The Crazy Mason, it’s more about crazy concoctions than unusual flavors. We’re talking about ice cream creations piled high into a jar with toppings galore. If the ice cream wasn’t enough to satisfy a sweet tooth, Crazy Mason’s recipes include every other sweet imaginable to add to the sugar rush: candy, cake, cookies, frosting, marshmallow sauce — you name it.

There’s Build Me Up Butter Cup: vanilla ice cream blended with Reese’s peanut butter sauce in a chocolate and peanut butter swirled jar with a peanut butter rim rolled in mini Reese’s Pieces. It’s topped with two Reese’s peanut butter cups and mini Reese’s Pieces, finished with peanut sauce, chocolate sauce and whipped icing.

Or Dashing Thru The Dough: “Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream, chocolate frosting, Cookie Crisp® cereal, whipped topping, chocolate chips, chocolate sauce, Edible Cookie Dough Cookie Sandwich.”

I tried the You Gotta Be Puddin’ Me and simply put, there was a lot going on. It was hard to wrap my taste buds around all the flavors in the concoction of banana pudding ice cream in a caramel-swirled jar with a vanilla buttercream rim and Nilla wafers. It was topped with banana pudding, vanilla pound cake and fresh bananas, finished with caramel and whipped topping.

I couldn’t finish even a quarter of it. That said, it was tasty, but probably better to share with a friend. — Andrea K. McDaniels

The Block is Hot! and I’m So Crabby at Baltimore in a Box

• 1004 W. 36th St., Baltimore

These two flavors are a great reminder that mixing two separately good things does not always create a third good thing.

The Block is Hot! combines vanilla ice cream with chocolate chips and Old Bay hot sauce (yes, the hot sauce). The first bite was a cool, refreshing reminder why ice cream on a hot summer day is truly a pinnacle of human existence — the vanilla melted in my mouth and the small chips gave it that perfect little sweet kick.

But then, the second kick came. As I readied myself for another bite, that hot sauce tingle crawled up my tongue and left none of the Old Bay taste. I vacillated between liking and disliking this flavor with each bite.

I’m So Crabby, a mix of vanilla ice cream and Utz crab chips, is like a La Croix April Fool’s Day flavor. It was like eating vanilla ice cream while someone yelled “CRAB CHIPS!” at me. I was spared my worst fears when there didn’t appear to be any actual Old Bay-covered potato chips in the ice cream box. My friend said that he liked it, but he’s not from here, so I’ll chalk it up to unrefined taste buds.

We finished the trifecta off with a more traditional palate cleanser that still had a fun Baltimore name: Mr. Trash Wheel’s Junk Food. The mixture of cookies and cream, cookie dough, pretzel sticks and marshmallows was way more up my trash-ridden water alley — it’s a salty/sweet dream. But now I’m realizing … if I’m eating the ice cream, does that make me the trash wheel? Are you calling me a trash wheel? Should I be offended? — Daniel Zawodny

Goober at Sydney’s Ice Cream’s

• 3432 Belair Road, Belair-Edison

Owner and creator Sydney Newton tapped into her childhood when creating this combo — consider it an elevated peanut butter and sweet/tart jelly.

She has fond memories of purchasing peanut butter with jelly stripes from the grocery store for her favorite snack, a PB&J, while she played “The Sims” video game.

“I would scoop it out of the jar in the perfect ratio of peanut butter to jelly,” she recalled. “The jelly was always a little too sweet, so in my ice cream version the strawberry stripe is a little more tangy.”

Not only is it tasty, but the ribbons of strawberry red cutting through the tan-ish cream-colored ice cream make for a visually stunning treat. — John-John Williams IV

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake at Sydney’s Ice Cream’s

• 3432 Belair Road, Belair-Edison

This flavor absolutely slaps!

This concoction is vanilla ice cream peppered with citrusy-sweet chunks of pineapple, pineapple sauce, butter lumps of cake (soaked in brown sugar), and sprinkled with maraschino cherry pieces for a nostalgic treat.

Newton said she came up with the flavor by tapping into her ADHD.

“The idea that I can break a dessert down into parts, perfect those parts, and then churn it into ice cream really excites my brain,” she said. “The best part of this is then sharing my creation with my guests that come in the shop.” — John-John Williams IV

Blueberry cheesecake with salted caramel cone at Cajou Creamery

• 411 N. Howard St., Baltimore

The plant-based, dairy-free shop is known for its its array of creative flavors, such as a smoked peaches and cream collaboration with restaurant Blacksauce Kitchen called The Cookout. There’s also Afrodisiac (chocolate ganache, caramel, toasted coconut and pecans), raspberry mezcalita, and Jamaican carrot punch.

During my most recent visit I bought the blueberry cheesecake with a salted caramel cone.

The first thing that stood out was the hulking amount of whole blueberries and blueberry sauce throughout the ice cream. And while I didn’t get the tanginess of the cheesecake flavor, I was still very satisfied. The cone, which also comes in red velvet and cocoa, completed the dessert effect I was seeking with the perfect balance of sweet, fruit and creaminess. — John-John Williams IV

Golden at The Charmery

• Multiple locations in Hampden, Towson and Columbia

I love The Charmery, and not just because it’s close to home. They have classic flavors, like a delicious, smooth vanilla or a rich, roasted strawberry. But the shop also has inventive, even nostalgic, options and is well-known for collaborations with other local businesses.

My personal favorite right now is called Golden, an ice cream made with caramelized honey (YUM) and a “puffed wheat cereal.” While The Charmery doesn’t say what cereal it is, I’m pretty certain it’s Golden Crisp, a classic that I remember from childhood.

While the pieces of the cereal in the ice cream can get a liiiiittle bit mushy, that doesn’t take away from the overall experience — an ice cream that tastes like drinking the leftover bowl of milk after eating a sugary cereal on Saturday mornings. — Cody Boteler

Ice Cream Sando at The Charmery

My wife’s go-to right now is “Ice Cream Sando,” a classic flavor at The Charmery that tastes almost exactly like taking a satisfying bite into an ice cream sandwich. It’s got a sweet cream base mixed with bits of ice cream sandwich cookie.

Served in a cup — with one of those fun, color-changing plastic spoons — you can get all the creamy, chocolatey goodness of an ice cream sandwich without the mess. — Cody Boteler

Fruity Pebbles at Always Ice Cream Company

• 8 Village Square, Cross Keys, Baltimore

Always Ice Cream Company is new to the Baltimore scene, opening earlier this summer, and it’s another place where you will find much more than run-of-the-mill flavors. It boasts more than 250 flavors on rotation. Stretching outside my comfort zone was a little challenging, mainly because I am so indecisive about just about everything. I tried a small sample of Strawberry Uncrustables, which was heavy on the peanut butter flavor, but not bad. I then ordered a full scoop of Fruity Pebbles; I guess I was tapping into my inner child. The flavor did indeed take me back to my childhood, except Fruity Pebbles in ice cream is better than in milk because it doesn’t get soggy. The bits of cereal were a bit too small and bigger chunks would have been better, but the flavor was good and I would order it again. — Andrea K. McDaniels