Talenti Toasted Almond
Being somewhat of a completionist, it is my goal to try every Talenti flavor ever. And every Ben and Jerry's flavor. And every Haagen-Dazs flavor. And every Graeter's flavor. And ever flavor of ice cream in the world ever. I have a spreadsheet and I check off flavors after I try them. The thought that I won't be able to try every flavor ever keeps me up at night.
Because of this compulsion, I keep a mental list of what I like to call 'Unicorn flavors.' Specifically, these are flavors in the permanent line-up of a decently well-known and widely available brand that I just never, ever, ever see in stores. Some of them, like Talenti Simply Strawberry, make no sense. I mean, strawberry is a pretty standard flavor, it should be available everywhere Talenti is sold. Others like Haagen-Dazs Green Tea (although this seems to be making a surge lately), make a little more sense. Green Tea is not a super popular or well-known flavor among the general American populace.
On a recent trip to Tim and Tom's Speedy Market, I was able to slay one of my unicorns, Talent Toasted Almond. (Ok, maybe I should not call them unicorns if I'm going to slay them. That's pretty sad. I would never slay a real unicorn, I'M NOT HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED GUYS!) Toasted Almond is not a super weird flavor, but there are not a ton of almond-only flavors on the market, so I'm not surprised when I don't see this one in stores.
Toasted Almond is described as
We toast almonds, of course. But then we caramelize them and blend them with our homemade almond butter and a hint of pure maple syrup. Almond lovers, this is the time to rejoice.
This gelato was The. Bomb. I don't know why I see this flavor so rarely, it should be one of Talenti's top sellers.
First, the texture was literally perfect, and everything I imagine when I image my ideal gelato. I think it's the best texture of any gelato I've ever had, prepackaged or from a scoop shop. It was super smooth and soft. My spoon cut right through it. It was not, however, watery and runny. It was the thick, buttery smoothness that comes from a high fat content, not the slick, brittle, icky smoothness that usually results from too much water.
Also, the base was a simple, light sweet cream base. The flavor was, again, perfect. This is how you know a company is serious about what they do. When they clearly care about making even the simplest, most basic component of their product phenomenal.
The almonds were great. They had that great roasted almond taste. The almond taste didn't bleed into the base, which was great, because it allowed the base to stand out; however, there were enough almonds that this was definitely an almond flavor, not a sweet cream flavor with almond mix-ins. The maple syrup taste was present, but super subtle. Rather than adding a maple element to the flavor it served to enhance and highlight the flavor of the roasted almonds.
The caramelization was also amazing. The sugar coating on the almonds was grainy and syrupy and amazing. I thought I tasted brown sugar, and when I checked the ingredient list, I saw I was right!
The almond chunks ranged from tiny to the half the size of a dime. It seems like when the almonds got swirled in, some of the sugary coating trailed off so, while most bites had actual almonds, the bites that didn't still had some of that amazing sugary goodness. I liked this because almost every bite had a different flavor. Some bites just had the sweet cream base. Some bites tasted of roasted almonds. Some tasted of the brown sugar. Some tasted almost like amaretto.
Now Talenti just needs to universally distribute this flavor, and I think we could achieve the dreams of every pageant contestant ever, world peace.
Because of this compulsion, I keep a mental list of what I like to call 'Unicorn flavors.' Specifically, these are flavors in the permanent line-up of a decently well-known and widely available brand that I just never, ever, ever see in stores. Some of them, like Talenti Simply Strawberry, make no sense. I mean, strawberry is a pretty standard flavor, it should be available everywhere Talenti is sold. Others like Haagen-Dazs Green Tea (although this seems to be making a surge lately), make a little more sense. Green Tea is not a super popular or well-known flavor among the general American populace.
On a recent trip to Tim and Tom's Speedy Market, I was able to slay one of my unicorns, Talent Toasted Almond. (Ok, maybe I should not call them unicorns if I'm going to slay them. That's pretty sad. I would never slay a real unicorn, I'M NOT HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED GUYS!) Toasted Almond is not a super weird flavor, but there are not a ton of almond-only flavors on the market, so I'm not surprised when I don't see this one in stores.
Toasted Almond is described as
We toast almonds, of course. But then we caramelize them and blend them with our homemade almond butter and a hint of pure maple syrup. Almond lovers, this is the time to rejoice.
This gelato was The. Bomb. I don't know why I see this flavor so rarely, it should be one of Talenti's top sellers.
First, the texture was literally perfect, and everything I imagine when I image my ideal gelato. I think it's the best texture of any gelato I've ever had, prepackaged or from a scoop shop. It was super smooth and soft. My spoon cut right through it. It was not, however, watery and runny. It was the thick, buttery smoothness that comes from a high fat content, not the slick, brittle, icky smoothness that usually results from too much water.
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| This. This is what gelato is supposed to look like as you scoop. Those spoon tracks are just perfection. |
The almonds were great. They had that great roasted almond taste. The almond taste didn't bleed into the base, which was great, because it allowed the base to stand out; however, there were enough almonds that this was definitely an almond flavor, not a sweet cream flavor with almond mix-ins. The maple syrup taste was present, but super subtle. Rather than adding a maple element to the flavor it served to enhance and highlight the flavor of the roasted almonds.
The caramelization was also amazing. The sugar coating on the almonds was grainy and syrupy and amazing. I thought I tasted brown sugar, and when I checked the ingredient list, I saw I was right!
The almond chunks ranged from tiny to the half the size of a dime. It seems like when the almonds got swirled in, some of the sugary coating trailed off so, while most bites had actual almonds, the bites that didn't still had some of that amazing sugary goodness. I liked this because almost every bite had a different flavor. Some bites just had the sweet cream base. Some bites tasted of roasted almonds. Some tasted of the brown sugar. Some tasted almost like amaretto.
Now Talenti just needs to universally distribute this flavor, and I think we could achieve the dreams of every pageant contestant ever, world peace.
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