Milkjam Creamery - XOXO

XOXO - Dark Chocolate Ice Cream w/ Hazelnut Praline, White & Milk Chocolate Flecks

The two Valentine's Day flavors that I found this year are both from the Minneapolis-based Milkjam Creamery.  So I will have one the day before Valentine's Day and one the day after.  The first flavor is called 'XOXO" -- which we all know means "hugs and kisses".  It is a dark chocolate ice cream with hazelnut praline and flecks of both white and milk chocolate.  Sounds very chocolatey.  I am very curious about the hazelnut as well.  Let's check it out.

Removing the lid, I see a deep brown color.  It looks chocolatey.  Not anywhere near as dark as their famous Black flavor but darker than the average chocolate ice cream.  If I look closely, I can see a fleck or two of white chocolate right away on top.  Digging in, the chocolate ice cream is quite good.  It's always interesting when a dairy flavor bills itself as 'dark chocolate' -- there's gotta be milk and cream in there after all, right? -- but this is a very rich and chocolatey base.  I note the two fleck mix-ins -- both white and milk chocolate -- as I eat my way down the pint.  Adds a little crunch from time to time.  I looked but I could not find the 'hazelnut praline'.  The word 'praline' is something that I see used mainly candy-coated pecans, so I sort of expected candy-coated hazelnuts, but I did not see those.  Perhaps what happened is that a Nutella-like goo of hazelnut chocolate is in the mix and it got blended into the chocolate base.  That would help make the chocolate extra rich without adding any crunch.

This is a decent flavor from  Milkjam.  As far as chocolate-chocolate chip implementations go, this is excellent, but the 'hazelnut praline' on the flavor description page had me thinking there was more.  So, expect chocolatey goodness which is probably enhanced with a hazelnut spread with chocolate chips and don't expect a chocolate pralines & cream.