Talenti Raspberries and Cream

Whew, I've been reviewing a lot of Talenti flavors recently! I discovered that Kowalski's, a pretty hoity-toity grocery store, carries a bunch of Talenti flavors that my grocery store doesn't have.  Raspberries and Cream is the last of three pints I bought there. Talenti says:

We did it! We made tart and creamy happen at the same time by blending our sweet cream gelato with fresh raspberries, vanilla, balsamic vinaigrette and a delicious raspberry swirl.

I have a ~complicated~ history with milk.  Growing up, we always had skim milk, and my parents made my sister and I drink a glass of milk every night with dinner.  I hated it. I hated drinking that stupid glass of skim milk.  Looking back, this was probably 50% because I didn't like the taste of milk and 50% because I was stubborn about everything and didn't want to do something just because my parents wanted me to.

Today I like milk a little better. I actually prefer whole milk, and will sometimes drink a small glass, but the taste and smell of skim milk still grosses me out.

Why the hell am I talking about milk? Sometimes sweet cream ice cream or sweet cream gelato has an overwhelming 'milky' smell that makes me want to vomit.  Unfortunately, this was the case with Talenti Raspberries and Cream.  Once I actually ate some of the gelato it was ok, but oh my god, that smell.  Talenti's sweet cream base is very sweet and very milky.  In fact, I think it borders on being too sweet and milky.

Fortunately, the tartness of the raspberries helped to balance the sweet base.  The raspberries were whole and somewhere between dried and fresh.  Just dry enough to enhance the tartness, but not so dry all of the flavor was gone.  I couldn't specifically taste the balsamic vinaigrette, but I think it contributed to the bright, vivid flavor of the raspberries.

I'm a little mad at Talenti for how good these berries taste.  About a month ago, I tried Talenti's Wild Blackberry which claimed to have a 'crushed blackberry swirl.' It didn't, and I just wrote it off as Talenti completely sucking at mix-ins, but the berry mix-ins in Raspberries and Cream were actually good! Why couldn't they do that for Wild Blackberry?!

Sorry that this blog post has turned into more of a ramble on random topics and less of an actual review.  The moral of the story is that I'm giving Raspberries and Cream 🍦🍦/4 stars.  Worth a try if you find some, but probably not worth hunting down unless you're a Talenti completionist.