Best summer jobs

Best summer jobs

"No other place in the world are you going to be paid to talk about ice cream all day long," she said. "It is a job, and we do make sure that things are running, but when it comes down to it, we're pretty much all kids at heart."

Tour guide jobs at Ben & Jerry's start at $8.50 an hour.

Oh, yeah, and you also get three free pints of ice cream every day.

"Most people do end up taking home the three pints, but we don't eat them ourselves," Yanus said. "We actually find that we become very popular during the summertime when people find out we work for an ice cream company."

Halfway across the country in Denver, Chris Rippe spends his summer talking about and tasting beer.

The recent college graduate landed a summer job giving tours at the Flying Dog Brewery.

"As far as summer jobs, this is the best gig I've ever had," Rippe said. "I was a [parking] valet once. You don't get to drink any beer doing that job."

His duties include giving tours, helping to run the tasting room and, in the off hours, labeling bottles.

Rippe is expected to have extensive knowledge of each of the brewery's beers.

"It's kind of a Catch-22. You're allowed to sample on the tours," he said. "But at the same time, nobody has any sympathy if you come in hung over or are drunk and can't do your job."