Contents
Brand
Flavor
Rating
9 of 10
Review
Pint Description: Piedmontese hazelnut ice cream, hazelnut chocolate ganache swirl, nutty shortbread crunch made with @BestDamnCookies hazelnut linzers.
Piedontese Hazelnut Ice Cream: A rich, creamy, thick, ultra-premium base with a distinct hazelnut flavor. It’s so rare to get a hazelnut-flavored ice cream—and I’m really enjoying it. The base is not overly sweet and the hazelnut flavor is sufficiently pronounced such that the base does provide an effective contrast against the much sweeter chocolate mix-in.
Hazelnut Chocolate Ganache Swirl: Often when an ice cream has a chocolate ganache, it’s more of a brittle magic-shell-type chocolate. But that’s not the case here. This ganache has a softer texture. It’s easy to scoop along with some base.
There is an inch thick layer of ganache on the bottom of this pint. Yes, there’s also some mixed in throughout and some on the sides of the pint as well, but it’s not as generous an amount as at the bottom of the pint. In any event, it’s enough chocolate to get some on every spoon. There’s so much chocolate, in fact, that isolating the base alone without the chocolate requires great effort.
In taste, it’s more of a milk chocolate, but the hazelnut flavor, if there is any, seems fairly subtle. Perhaps it’s being overwhelmed by the chocolate or my palate isn’t sufficiently developed to taste the hazelnut. Regardless, the chocolate is very sweet and flavorful.
Nutty Shortbread Crunch: Shortbread, crunchy as promised, no sogginess evident—a solid mix-in, although somewhat unevenly distributed. Some parts of my half pint have thick swirls of shortbread cookie, larger chunks, smaller bits. Other parts just have an occasional medium-sized piece. If you average it out, though, the amount of shortbread cookie is generous. Being shortbread, the pieces don’t have strong flavor—just sugary crunchiness. I’m not tasting any “nutty” from the cookie, despite the pint description that suggests otherwise. But the distinct crunchy texture of this mix-in is a welcome addition to this pint.
Overall: Caffe Panna Best Damn Hazelnut is a correctly named pint. It is the best hazelnut flavored ice cream I’ve ever tasted. This pint is totally decadent. The base is rich, luxurious—a boldly flavored hazelnut that stands strong against the chocolate mix-ins. The sweetness and extreme amount of milk chocolate ganache put this pint over the top—into a legendary category against which there are no competitors.
The shortbread cookie pieces are good quality too—crunchy, sugary, if not especially “nutty” flavored—and a generous amount of them are somewhat haphazardly distributed throughout the pint. The flavors—hazelnut base, chocolate ganache, shortbread cookies—play well together. Yes, for some, it may be too much, too rich. But I frankly couldn’t get enough. Recommended for when you are in the mood for extreme decadence, probably this Saturday. 9/10.
Home Delivery
Nationwide Shipping of Caffe Panna via Goldbelly
Front blurb
None.
Back blurb
None.
Calories
- Unknown servings per container
- Serving size: 2/3 cup
- Calories per serving: Unknown
- Calories per container: Unknown
Ingredients
Specifics unknown.
Described on their website as: Piedmontese hazelnut ice cream, hazelnut chocolate ganache swirl, nutty shortbread crunch made with @BestDamnCookies hazelnut linzers.
Purchase Location
Goldbelly
Price
$18.16
Books
Need to know how Caffe Panna makes their ice cream? Who knows!? Caffe Panna hasn’t put out a recipe book yet! Come on, Caffe Panna! What’s the deal? We love you and want to get to know you better—to know all your little ice cream quirks and secrets. Publish that ice cream cookbook already!
Related
Psst! You can make ice cream like Ben & Jerry’s, Jeni’s, and Haagen-Dazs at home. Here’s their secret ice cream base recipes!
Read all our Caffe Panna pint reviews.
Read all our other pint reviews.
Last Updated on September 3, 2022 by Ice Cream Admin
