Talenti - Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake

Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake - Layers of Cheesecake Gelato, Chocolate Chunks, Black Cherry Sauce, Cheesecake Gelato (again) and Graham Cookies

Today I try the next flavor in Talenti's Gelato Layers flavors released this year.  This one is called Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake.  Here layers of black cherry sauce and chocolate chunks are sandwiched between two layers of cheesecake gelato with a layer of graham cookies on the bottom of it all.  It looks like an interesting combination.

Opening the pint, all I see is the top layer -- cheesecake gelato.  It looks pretty white.  Then as with the previous pints in the collection, I dig myself out a vertical slice.  I realize that most people won't be eating the pint this way, but it is worth it for the pictures.  The cheesecake gelato is quite thick.  It always expect gelato to be softer than ice cream, so it's interesting when a thick ingredient like cream cheese is added.  After some effort, I got my vertical slice out (see photo below).  As with the previous layered pints, the gelato layers are thicker than the mix-in layers.  How does it taste?  Digging in, the cheesecake gelato is thick.  I can tell there is cream cheese in there but it does not have the distinctive cream-cheese aftertaste than some cheesecakes have.  I sample the cherry/chocolate layer.  The cherry flavor is a good black cherry flavor (a bit 'darker' in tone -- not a sweet cherry).  The chocolate chip layer is quite thin and has mixed in with the cherry sauce.  I do taste the chocolate, but there is definitely more cherry than chocolate when these layers are taken together.  The two cheesecake layers serve to balance the mix-ins.  It is indeed a lot like a flavored cheesecake.  Usually the swirl or toppings are not that thick, but a little bit of cherry goes a long way.  The graham cookies on the bottom are soft and chewy like in the previous layered pints.  They simulate the 'crust' of a piece of cheesecake.

This is a pretty good cheesecake-themed layered pint from Talenti.  It is a "cherry chocolate chip" flavored cheesecake -- with black cherry being the predominant flavor and the chocolate chips playing a more supporting role.  Because the cheesecake gelato is so thick, this pint did not 'self-mix' as well as the other layered pints.  That wasn't a huge issue for me because after I extracted a vertical slice out for the photos, it was easy for my spoon to sample from any depth of the pint at any time.  But, if I had eaten the pint like a normal person, I think it might be hard digging through all the thick cheesecake gelato to get to the mix-ins.