auchan gelati
Ice-cream must be my favourite sweet thing. Anything new and having a flavour that I find acceptable is a must try. As soon as possible, of course! So, less than two weeks ago, when I first saw in Auchan two new flavours in their ice-cream range, I knew it wouldn't be long before I tried them. I was right.
What I find interesting about the Auchan ice-cream range that we get here is that part of it is produced in Italy, for the Italian hypermarkets. Those have the text in Italian (some of them also in French) and have a hexagonal shape. The others have the text in Romanian and have a rounded rectangle shape (like this one).
The first one of the two that I bought was called Ice-Cream with Chocolate Streaks (Italian original: Gelato variegato al cioccolato). Chocolate and ice-cream in the same sentence is something that gets me drooling every time, so I didn't hesitate before taking this (I did pay it on my way out, don't worry). The second one... well, it had a chocolate square on the label, but it also had hazelnuts - a whole hazelnut and hazelnut pieces. Hazelnuts are not among the nuts I like. I'm fine with hazelnut paste as long as the taste is not too intense, I can tolerate them in chocolate, but I don't like them as I like walnuts or pecan nuts or almonds. And I really don't like most of the ice-creams with pieces of hazelnuts. This second ice-cream was called Truffle Ice-Cream (Italian original: Gelato Tartufo) and I assumed it would be hazelnut ice-cream on the edge and chocolate ice-cream in the middle. So I hesitated a little before deciding I was going to try this as well.
I was going to have a surprise at home. That's what usually happens when I don't read the label carefully. Obviously, I first opened the Truffle box. The stuff on the edge was actually yellow. Yellow - that's not hazelnut to me. So I looked at the labels on the back. The complete Italian name of this ice-cream left me in the dark - truffle ice-cream streaked with cream, decorated with flakes of dark chocolate and hazelnut pieces (Italian original: gelato tartufo variegato alla crema decorato con scagliette di cioccolato fondente e granella di nocciole). Well, it was obviously ice-cream, it was obviously decorated with dark chocolate flakes and hazelnut pieces, but what was the yellow thing? Was it "the cream" and, if so, what was that cream? Fortunately, there was also a sticker which was in Romanian and which brought me one small step closer to the truth: truffle ice-cream with egg cream, decorated with dark chocolate and small hazelnut pieces (Romanian original: inghetata tartufo cu crema de oua, decorata cu ciocolata neagra si bucati mici de alune de padure). Oh, so the yellow thing is egg? That makes more sense. Well, tasting it would reveal the truth...
The truth is... I don't know who the guy who creates their flavours is... but he must be an alcoholic! I'm only joking, but this was the third alcoholic ice-cream flavour from the Auchan range that I've tried within the space of five weeks. The egg cream part was egg-liqueur ice-cream and if you look at the ingredients, you'll find that this ice-cream actually contains alcohol. I don't want anyone to think that I'm complaining because I am not, even though they also have a Romanian Chocolate Cherry & Egg Liqueur with Chocolate Topping ice-cream. I love alcoholic ice-creams, I'm always "hunting" them, especially since they are not something common here. Four years ago, I did not even know of any such ice-cream flavours except for the classic rum & raisin. Then I discovered Haagen-Dazs Baileys, Top Gel Bambino Pina Colada (I cannot even find a picture on this one on the internet, on topgel.ro they only have a picture of two other varieties in the Bambino range, Truffee and Vanilla... and I've just realized that the Truffee one is actually chocolate with rum and the very first alcoholic ice-cream other than rum & raisin that I've tried... I remember eating those three years ago together with a friend that was helping me paint my bathroom in blue, because it was yellow and green when I bought this place), Carte d'Or Crema Fiorentina Affogato all'Amaretto (picture 1, picture 2), La Cremeria Cherry Liqueur (I cannot even find a picture on the internet for this one either). The first and the third have vanished since, while the second and the fourth are harder to find these days. Coming back to this truffle ice-cream - I liked it. I've had better chocolate ice-creams so, while there was nothing wrong with the chocolate part in the middle, there wasn't anything amazing about it either. But the egg liqueur part... oh, I loved it. I usually follow the "save the best for last" principle, but here, I just couldn't help it - the yellow part on the edge disappeared completely from the box before the box with what was left of its content disappeared into my freezer for the first time. There weren't many hazelnut pieces, they were only on top and they almost didn't influence the taste at all. I doesn't respect the promise that the image seems to make, but my taste buds like that. I would even get rid of the hazelnuts completely.
The second one was also different from what I had expected. If you look at the box, the label is brown, it says chocolate on top, everything about it screams chocolate. Except for the content, which may be decorated with chocolate, but it is actually vanilla ice-cream. I like chocolate ice-cream better than vanilla one, so I was obviously a little disappointed, even though I do appreciate more a good quality vanilla ice-cream (like the G7 Gelati Madagascar Vanilla) than a half decent chocolate ice-cream (like that in Antarctica Millenium Vanilla & Chocolate). Combined with the chocolate syrup, this one was quite pleasant, though I personally liked the first one better.
Ingredients:
» Truffle Ice-cream: rehydrated skimmed milk, sugar, dextrose, glucose syrup, skimmed cocoa powder, coconut oil, cream, egg yolk (5% in the cream), cocoa paste, chocolate flakes 2% (sugar, cocoa paste, cocoa butter, emulsifier: soya lecithin, flavouring: vanillin), hazelnut pieces 1%, butter, lactose and milk proteins, thickeners: sodium alginate & carube seed flour, hazelnut paste, emulsifier: mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids, ethyl alcohol, dyes: annatto.
» Ice-cream with Chocolate Streaks: rehydrated skimmed milk, sugar, glucose syrup, coconut oil, chocolate flakes 2% (sugar,cocoa butter, powdered whole milk, cocoa paste, powdered skimmed milk, emulsifier: soya lecithin, flavouring: vanillin), lactose and milk proteins, skimmed cocoa powder 9.5% in the streaks, butter, thickeners: sodium alginate & carube seed flour, emulsifier: mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids, flavouring.
Storage: keep at temperatures not exceeding -18°C; after defrosting, ice-cream may not be frozen again and consumed.
Nutritional info per 100g of product:
» Truffle Ice-cream: energy 196kcal, protein 3.2g, fat 8.4g, carbohydrates 26.8g.
» Ice-cream with Chocolate Streaks: energy 211kcal, protein 3.7g, fat 7.5g (saturated 6.5g), carbohydrates 32.2g (sugars 31.9g), fibre 0.7g, sodium 0.07g.
Price: 11.89 lei each 500g box; that's the equivalent of €2.79/ ₤2.44/ $3.87.
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