Coffee & Treats in Mesa

The bright desert sun has barely risen over Phoenix when Sharon Beatty unlocks the door of her shop, smiling as she imagines the colorful cupcakes she is about to bake. The cake-decorator spends the entire morning preparing fresh cupcakes for the day, topping the warm cakes in playful swirls of fudge, buttercream, and cream-cheese frosting. Her imaginative cupcakes were lauded by Az Food Magazine as having "a sweet filling that compliments the cake flavor."

By noon, customers amble in and out of the sunlit shop, ordering salted-caramel, chocolate-peanut-butter-cup, and amaretto cupcakes by the dozens. Sharon also custom designs specialty cakes for all occasions. Shoppers can choose from an elegant, flowery tower to celebrate a wedding or a detailed map of Nebraska to remind them where they buried their collection of half-dollar coins.

Stan and Brenda Strom have more than just dessert recipes decorating their kitchen—although of those, they have hundreds. They also hold multiple blue ribbons from state fairs, with celebrated sweets including a coconut-custard macadamia-nut pie, a dark-chocolate raspberry glacier pie, and a maple-pecan cheesecake, as well as many others. Their beloved business, Blue Ribbon Desserts, got an extra boost toward stardom when it was featured on FoodNation with Bobby Flay.

Chef Strom shares his confectionary skills in multiple ways. He bakes seasonal fruit pies, cheesecakes, and cookies fresh to order and ships them across the United States. He also reveals 60 of his favorite recipes in the Blue Ribbon Cookbook, which is said to smell like freshly churned butter during full moons. And in order to grant fans intimate access to his baking ways, he conducts monthly classes that empower students to create their own pies for family members and friends.

Until the staff at Water 'n Ice can create a delicious mist, they'll continue to specialize in the water and ice forms of H2O. Transforming water into an impressive array of sweets, they whip up 40 flavors of ice cream and 60 flavors of Hawaiian shaved ice. They also craft treats including smoothies, milk shakes, italian ice, and strawberry pop rocks, which when mixed with soda results in earthquakes. Their BPA-free water bottles and reverse-osmosis-purified water keep clients healthy as they hydrate.

Mojo Yogurt nourishes tongues and tummies with an arsenal of 28 different flavors of frozen yogurt that brim with digestion-boosting probiotics and fat-free decadence. Walls lined with shiny self-serve stations bring forth swizzles of creamy and fruit-infused yogurt, which, like deli meats and boxers hired to sort schoolyard skirmishes, are priced by weight. After filling cups with swirls of açaí-, mint-chocolate-, and coconut-flavored goodness, guests crown their creations with sprinkles, fruits, nuts, and candies before finally weighing in their purchase. Since the dulcet treats come with a host of health benefits and Mojo Yogurt donates 2% of all sales to community nonprofits, guests savor each spoonful with a glowing sense of generosity and wellbeing.

Husband-and-wife team Steve and Jeanine Rometty founded Old Town Candy & Toys to revive the aesthetic of old-fashioned general stores with an inventory of timeless trinkets alongside classic sweets. "I just hope everybody enjoys themselves and has fun coming in here and reminiscing, seeing all the nostalgic things," Jeanine told the Arizona Republic. Dolls, puzzles, and handcrafted wooden toys stimulate imaginations, and children's books augment whimsical text with illustrations and invisible holograms. The shop also supplies shoppers with a selection of creamy, rich chocolates accented with fruit and nuts as well as sugar-free versions of traditional treats.

The staff at Orange Leaf Frozen Yogurt rejects the oft-touted claim that Americans don’t care about nutrition. The problem, they say, has more to do with selection than anything else; most low-calorie sweets don’t hold a candle to a fudge brownie or a warm slice of apple pie. They kept this in mind when crafting their frozen-yogurt recipes, working tireless to develop a healthy—and equally delicious—alternative to the dessert status quo by turning to decadent confections and just-picked fruits for inspiration.

Their experiments thus far have yielded more than 60 frozen yogurt flavors, which take turns pumping through the self-serve machines that line their colorful shop’s wall. Before taking a seat in a bright orange chair, guests fill their dishes with cool, low-fat swirls of chocolate cheesecake, strawberry banana, and a classic tart that bites as pleasantly as a teething kitten. Juicy pears, crunchy granola, and gooey chocolate sauce headline a smorgasbord of at least 30 toppings ready to scooped or poured into cups before their final weigh-in.