Featured Image Credit: Glazed Gourmet Doughnuts/ Facebook

Dessert. It makes us all warm and fuzzy inside just thinking about our favorite meal ever. Oh, you don’t consider dessert a meal? Well, you’re wrong, because anything that makes us as happy as dessert does deserves to be labeled a meal.

A few words that come to mind when we think about dessert: warm, gooey, sugary, flakey, decadent, luscious, rich, crispy….we could go on and on but we’re already drooling all over our keyboards.

So it’s a good thing Charleston has no shortage of great dessert joints, but how many would you call essential? What are the sweets you need to know to see how we do dessert in this town?

1. Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams

If you’re ever strolling along upper King at any given time of day and come across a line of folks waiting, it’s most likely for Jeni’s. This Ohio-based scoop shop builds every recipe from the ground up with luscious, grass-grazed Ohio milk. Their flavors are constantly changing, it just depends on what kind of mood the staff is in. Jeni Britton Bauer’s ice creams have been praised by Time (“America’s best”), Cooking Light (“deadly delicious”), and Saveur(“revolutionary”), while Food & Wine stated, “No one makes ice cream like Jeni Britton Bauer.”

2. Kaminksy’s

Get to Kaminsky’s early in the night, or else you’ll find yourself among a long line of dessert-craving patrons. The good part, though, is the line moves fast, the desserts come out quick, and you can even just get something to-go if you’re not in the mood to sit. On the menu, you can find a rotating selection of delectable desserts made in-house daily, heaping milkshakes, specialty coffees and cold beverage creations.

3. Carmella’s

Nestled on the corner of East Bay and Cumberland Rd., Carmella’s is a perfect mash-up of Italian sweets and Charleston charm. They are best known for their gourmet pastries, gourmet gelato, and dessert cocktails. Stop by for a late-night dessert, you WILL NOT be sorry you did.

4. ICE BING Cafe

Recently opened ICE BING Cafe is making quite a name for itself on Spring Street. The cafe prides itself on not serving MSG or GMO products. Their menu includes unique offerings such as bubble tea, fruit-puree enhanced matcha iced teas and bings — homemade syrup and frozen condensed milk.

5. Park Circle Creamery

Park Circle Creamery is without a doubt a neighborhood favorite in North Charleston. The friendly ice cream shop offers 16 hand-crafted flavors, including maple bacon!

6. Ye Old Fashioned Ice Cream & Sandwich Cafe

Sure, Ye Old Fashioned serves up some delicious sandwiches and burgers at a great price, but it’s the ice cream that keeps customers coming back. Sometimes, just a couple scoops of vanilla or chocolate ice cream in a cone dusted with sprinkles is all you need. But sometimes, an outrageous ice cream sundae big enough to feed the whole family will suffice too.

7. Sugar Bakeshop

According to one reviewer on Yelp, Sugar Bakeshop is “dangerously delicious.” This little artisanal cupcake shop located on Spring Street has a lot more to offer other than cupcakes, like tarts, cookies, cakes, and pies. They also serve up “specialty items” which include banana pudding, brownies, pralines, sandies, blueberry coffeecake, and homemade pop-tarts (pictured above).

8. Glazed Gourmet Doughnuts

It’s true, there are few things better in life than biting into a warm, fluffy, airy donut. Glazed truly focuses on the “gourmet” aspect of the donut. All the ingredients they use are completely natural with no preservatives, random additives food coloring and artificial flavoring. Their glaze, fillings, and pastries are homemade (or grown in our herb garden). The dough is made in-house. None of that frozen or pre-made dough nonsense!

9. King Street Cookies

Arguably the best cookies in Charleston. King Street Cookies has one of the best locations being walking distance from the College, right beside Marion square, and on King St! They have two giant chairs out front which are popular for enjoying cookies and milk (or taking pictures!) They serve anywhere from chocolate chip cookies to MexiCoCo spice cookies. They are always changing their flavors and offer milk with your cookies too! Another great option they provide is gluten-free cookies!

10. WildFlour Pastry

It would be a sin to go to Wildflour Pastry and not try one of their sticky buns. But you would be forgiven if you tried any of their other sweets- because they are all pretty drool-worthy. Wildflour also creates some pretty amazing wedding cakes, so it’s no surprise that Head chef Lauren Mitterer has earned a reputation for being one of the city’s top pastry chefs.

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This listicle was provided by Taste, the app that’s changing the game for foodies all over. Rather than spending hours researching where to eat or pestering your friends who have lived here longer than you, Taste makes it super easy to pick a spot.

It isn’t your typical food app because it actually allows you to choose favorites based on nine categories including coffee, burgers, drinks, pizza, sushi, and more. You know you’re getting a solid opinion because Taste actually holds their reviewers accountable. You can only pick one favorite for each category, once you have picked, that favorite gets 100 points towards its ranking. The more you visit a certain category, the more your opinion is worth.

Take the hassle out of searching for where to go and click here to download the FREE app for iOS devices.