An ice-cream parlor is like a choose-your-own-adventure novel, only instead of the inevitable nuclear whitewater dinosaur catastrophe, you get delicious ice cream topped according to your whim. Today's Groupon takes you on a journey into the heart of flavor: for $5, you get $10 worth of custom-crafted and generously topped Cold Stone Creamery ice cream. This deal is good at one of 6 convenient locations in Ann Arbor, Brighton, Roseville, Fenton, Grand Blanc, and Holland.

Cold Stone's ice cream, made fresh in stores every day, inhabits a quantum flux between soft-serve and traditional ice cream, with a rich, creamy texture that whispers tales of its super-premium quality as it glides over taste buds. The ice cream generously welcomes dozens of toppings, as traditional as crumbled cookies and chopped nuts or as quirky as granola and black licorice. Choose your favorite ice cream from among dozens of silky flavors, such as Irish cream and butter pecan. Then make certain no one will try and steal a taste by topping it protectively with brownies, gumballs, and cherry pie filling. Whatever Frankencream you create, it'll be scooped cold off the grill into a freshly made waffle cone or bowl. Cold Stone's ice cream and toppings vary between seasons and location, and they also offer sorbet and an array of lighter toppings such as fruit and honey. Ice-cream creations run between $4 and $6, depending on size.

Cold Stone counts more than 11.5 million combinations of their ice cream, and they've employed one lucky man for the past 20 years to confirm that count lick by lick. If you're suffering from premature brain freeze and can't invent your own creamy concoction, try a Cold Stone Signature Creation such as the almond-studded and caramel-slathered Coffee Lovers Only, or the Peanut Butter Cup Perfection with Reese's peanut butter cups and fudge.

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More than a million Facebookers are fans of Cold Stone Creamery.