Homemade ice cream in a handmade waffle cone is a summer favorite.

THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL / BOB THAYER

All ice creams are good, but certain ice creams are better.

The difference has to do with the quality of the ingredients, the butterfat content of the cream, the amount of air incorporated into the mix as it’s frozen, the temperature of the freezer, and the talent of the ice cream maker in combining all of these factors into one cold, creamy confection. Some ice cream places that you might assume make their own ice cream actually don’t anymore, even if they once did. Sunshine Creamery in East Providence, Dear Hearts in the Warwick area, Lickety Splits in Hope Valley, and Vanilla Bean in Matunuck are all very popular, but they don’t make their own ice creams. In fact, it’s safe to say that if you don’t see the word “Homemade” prominently displayed, the ice cream comes from a factory. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing, because some factories make very good ice cream — ice cream that actually tastes better than some that are “homemade.”

Here are our choices for the Top 10 ice cream places around here:

1. Somerset Creamery, Route 6, Somerset, Mass. www.somersetcreamery.com. Though its location is nothing special (on busy Route 6 between Swansea and Somerset), the ice cream here is the very best we found –– creamy smooth, dense but not too dense, and tasting of the top quality ingredients that go into it. Special favorite flavors: Grape-Nut, Cranberry Bog, Mocha Chip.

2. Daily Scoop, Barrington and Bristol. www.dailyscoopicecream.com. This is a close –– very close –– runner-up to Somerset. Very smooth, very creamy ice cream, made with top quality ingredients you can taste. The Bristol location (on Thames Street overlooking a harbor-front park) is lovely; the Barrington one (on busy Route 114) is right off the East Bay Bike Path across from the Shaw’s plaza. Special flavors: Lemon, black raspberry chip.

3. Gray’s, Tiverton and Bristol. www.graysicecream.com. At its original location in Four Corners, Tiverton, Gray’s has atmosphere to spare: People love to lick their cones while sitting on the old stone walls watching the cows in the field. The newer location in Thames Street Landing is also primo real estate –– on a deck overlooking Bristol Harbor. For a time a few years back, Gray’s quality seemed to suffer while the management changed, but now it’s as good as it ever was. Special flavor: Pumpkin in the fall.

4. Sweet Spot, Galilee, Narragansett. This little spot is a surprise to find outside Champlin’s Seafood on the breachway in Galilee. You can sit on the patio outside and watch the boats and ferries going by just a few feet away while you enjoy excellent homemade ice cream. The coffee heath bar is as intensely coffee-flavored as any you’ll find.

5. Krueger’s, 7510 Post Rd., North Kingstown. Krueger’s makes a denser ice cream than others, which means there is less air in the mix. It’s so dense and so creamy, it’s almost gelato-like. If that’s what you like, you’ll like Krueger’s, especially the chocolates: Belgian and espresso.

6. Cold Fusion, Thames St., Newport. www.coldfusiongelato.com. While we’re speaking of gelatos, this one is the best –– homemade and fabulously rich in a changing gallery of artisanal flavors that range from chocolate or vanilla all the way to avocado.

7. Uncle Ed’s Front Porch, Route 44, Rehoboth, Mass. This homey little place is a find –– and the fact that for more than 20 years people have continued to find it, tucked away in the woods just east of the intersection of Routes 118 and 44, is a testament to the quality of its ice creams. (“Uncle Ed” was the name of the owner’s uncle.) The ice cream is classic –– no bean specks in the vanilla, plenty of chocolate in the chocolate –– and you’ll find some inventive combinations of flavors, too . . . some more successful than others, but all interesting.

8. Aldo’s, Weldon’s Way, Old Harbor, Block Island. Aldo’s is an institution on the island: a family enterprise that includes a bakery, the Ice Cream Place, moped and bike rentals, a boat-side muffin delivery service. Aldo’s has the only homemade ice cream on Block Island: All the rest is Ben & Jerry’s.

9. Haagen-Dazs, Emerald Square and Swansea Malls, Mass. Speaking of factory ice creams, there is none in the world to touch Haagen-Dazs, which makes a rich, natural ice cream that is far superior to many homemade ice creams. Just look at the ingredient list for HD’s vanilla: Cream, milk, sugar, egg yolks and natural vanilla. Now, compare that with the ingredients in Cold Stone Creamery’s “French Vanilla,” which contains no egg yolks but does contain guar and cellulose gum, carrageenan, mono and diglycerides, Polysorbate 80, annatto extract, and Vanillin, which is an artificial vanilla flavoring. You can get Haagen-Dazs by the pint or quart in supermarkets, but when you want just a cone of super-fresh stuff, isn’t it nice to know you can go to these two malls to find it? A new flavor this summer is a vanilla made with honey. Haagen-Dazs pistachio ice cream is made with real pistachios, so it’s not that awful shade of unnatural green that so many ice cream places artificially color their pistachio with. And HD’s Dulce de Leche — does it get any better than that?

10. Dairy Queen, 3rd floor, Providence Place mall. www.dairyqueen.com. What Haagen-Dazs is to hard ice cream, Dairy Queen is to soft ice cream, which is to say that there simply is no better. So why is it that there is only one DQ in the Ocean State when there are dozens in nearby Massachusetts and on the Cape? The corporate mystery is not likely to be solved here, but the fact remains: You can get it in Rhode Island only on the third floor of the Providence Place mall. The next closest is in North Attleboro.

—Katherine Imbrie