Dolcezza - Tramontana

Tramontana - Sweet Cream Gelato with Ribbons of Dulce de Leche folded with Dark Chocolate-covered Rice Crisp Pearls

 

Today, I am trying a new brand.  New to me, anyways.  This is Dolcezza Gelato of Washington, DC.  It was founded in 2004 in Georgetown by Robb Duncan.  I found some writeups on the company and its founder here and here.  Duncan was inspired by the local gelatos that he and his wife enjoyed when they lived in Buenos Aires.  The name Dolcezza is Italian for "sweetness".  Interestingly, I remember Talenti Gelato had a similar origin story.  See an early Talenti review where that brand was founded in Dallas by someone who had returned from Buenos Aires and had loved the ice cream there.  So, if you ever find yourself in Argentina, don't forget to check out their local gelato scene.

Today's flavor is called Tramontana (instagram link here).  I bought it at Whole Foods on Selby in Saint Paul.  I have also seen it at other co-op-style shops (such as Mississippi Market).  I was curious about the flavor name.   A tramontana (or tramontane) means a 'cold mountain wind' in Italian (or Spanish).  I checked to see if there is a gelato connection and found this note from the tourism board of Buenos Aires saying that it is one of the five ice creams to try when you are in town.  This implemention features a sweet cream base, ribbons of dulce de leche (caramelized milk) and dark-chocolate-covered pieces of rice crisp.  Let's check it out.

Removing the lid, everything is visible right away.  The sweet cream gelato has a white color.  The large globs of dulce de leche are quite impressive and there are lots of dark brown dots in the mix which I assume are the chocolate-covered rice crisps.  Digging in, I taste the dulce de leche right away.  It is thick, gooey and has an excellent caramel flavor.  This is how I like my caramel and dulce de leche swirls!  Sometimes swirls like these end up half-blending into the base, but they did a good job of keeping them thick and distinct here.  It tastes like a regular caramel and not an overly salty caramel.  The rice crisp pieces have an airy crunchiness which I did not fully expect.  I guess rice crisps have this type of crunchiness so I should have expected it, but they look like little chocolate balls so part of me expected the texture of solid chocolate.  The sweet cream was pretty good, but it's purpose here is simply to serve as a vehicle for the mix-ins.

This is a fun and interesting pint from Dolcezza.  The thick globs of dulce de leche were some of the best I have seen in caramel or dulce de leche type of pint.  The rice crisps provided good chocolate flavor but part of me wanted them to be chocolatey-er and not the airy rice crisps that they are.  But if you expect that, then it won't be a problem.  I look forward to trying more flavors from this brand.

Tillamook - Dark Chocolate & Red Raspberry

Dark Chocolate & Red Raspberry - Dark Chocolate and Red Raspberry Frozen Custard with Red Raspberry Swirls

 

We return to the Oregon-based Tillamook Creamery for this Dark Chocolate & Red Raspberry flavor.  I bought this at Kowalski's on Grand in Saint Paul, but I have noticed that they have started selling Tillamook pints at Target!  So, if you frequent the Target freezer cases, keep an eye out for this quality brand.  Today's flavor features a dark chocolate raspberry base with raspberry swirls.  Raspberry and chocolate is a very common combination, but it's usually a raspberry base with chocolate mix-ins and not the other way around.  Checking my archives, this is the first chocolate-base-with-raspberry-mix-ins that I have tried.  I did find a couple of cherry flavors with chocolate bases:  the limited-batch Chocolate Cherry Garcia from Ben & Jerry's and Dark Chocolate Cherry (Layers) from Talenti.  Let's see how this raspberry flavor turns out.

Removing the lid, I see one of my favorite emoji jokes on the seal.  Peeling back the seal, the chocolate-raspberry base has a deep brown color -- it looks like chocolate.  Digging in, I taste primarily chocolate but there are some raspberry notes and some raspberry flavor in the 'finish'.  This is good.  Closely examining some spoonfuls, I can see dark pink streaks in the base where the 'swirl' is but it is hard to isolate this flavor because there is so much chocolate.

This is a good raspberry-tinged chocolate flavor from Tillamook.  Raspberry lovers should note that this is for the most part a chocolate pint.  But you do get interesting raspberry accents in each spoonful.  It tastes a bit like one of those 'flavored chocolates' that you may find at a fancy chocolate store.  A good pint for chocolate-lovers to try for a twist on their favorite flavor.

 

 

Milkjam Creamery - Zoë François

Zoë François - Espresso & Dark Chocolate Chips with Salted Fudge & Toasted Marshmallows

 

Milkjam Creamery of south Minneapolis has released their March flavors.  March is always an interesting at Milkjam because they rename all of their flavors for Women's History month.  That's a fun tradition, but it also means that I need to keep track of which flavors are which.  They've added 'aka' markers to their flavor page and the people at the scoop shop are also super helpful.  Of the four features flavors for March, two of them are flavors that I have reviewed before: Who Run the World (now called Abby Richardson for March) and Pink Lady (now called Megan Rapinoe).  The two flavors which are new to me are a Hibiscus Lemonade sorbet (review coming soon) and today's flavor "Zoë François".  Today's flavor (instragram link here) is a new flavor this year and will keep it's name going forward (perhaps shortened as "Zoë").  It is named for a local pastry chef and the flavor itself is modeled after the Devil's Food Cake with Toasted Marshmallows recipe on the cover of her latest cookbook "Zoe Bakes Cakes".  That explains why her name will stay on the flavor for good.  It has espresso and dark chocolate with fudge and toasted marshmallows.  Let's check it out!

Removing the lid, I see a few of the marshmallows right away on top of the pint.  Down because I see a complex brown base with some of the darker brown chips mixed into it.  Digging in, I taste both coffee and chocolate in the base.  The base itself is slightly soft in texture, similar to many other Milkjam bases.  Milkjam seldom produces a 'hard' ice cream.  The dark chocolate chips are very thin and have a flaky texture -- they break into little pieces when I bite into them.  It tastes like there is some espresso in these chips as well.  I am not sure if I am getting the details of which parts contain espresso/coffee and which parts contain chocolate quite right because it all blends so well in my mouth when I eat it.  It is really quite delicious.  The toasted marshmallow pieces provide an occasional variation in texture as I eat it, but they do not distract too much from all the coffee and chocolate.

This is an interesting and excellent espresso and chocolate blend from Milkjam Creamery.  Coffee and chocolate are a standard pairing in the ice cream world so it is fun to see flavors which both leverage that winning combination and provide little twists on it as well.  This is one of those flavors.  If you like coffee-and-chocolate flavors, check this one out.

 

 

Jeni's - Dark Chocolate Truffle

Dark Chocolate Truffle - Non-dairy Dark Chocolate Frozen Dessert with a hint of Coconut Cream

 

Today's flavor is from the Columbus-based Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream.  This is from their non-dairy line -- not a 'sorbet' but made with dairy substitutes to simulate the feel of ice cream.   I don't always review the non-dairy flavors of the major brands but I have made a couple of on-line purchases recently from Jeni's to get limited batch flavors (like White House Chocolate Chip) and I needed pints to fill out the shipment.  Into the non-dairy line I go!  As I said before, I bought this online and not from a local grocery store.  It is possible that local Whole Foods stores carry this (it is a fairly basic non-dairy flavor) but I have not checked.  Today's flavor is called Dark Chocolate Truffle.  It looks like a relatively simple implementation of chocolate ice cream but made with coconut cream instead of dairy cream.  Let's check it out!

Removing the lid, I am greeted with a nice Lord of the Rings reference on the extra seal for the top of the pint.  Nice.  Peeling back the seal, the base is a medium to light brown color.  Although 'dark' is in the flavor name, this is not that dark.  Digging in, this has a good cocoa flavor to it.  I have written before about how some chocolate ice creams taste like frozen hot cocoa while others taste like chocolate bars.  This flavor is on the cocoa side.  The texture is smooth and creamy, like an ice cream.  I do not notice specific coconut flavor but it does taste slightly different from dairy chocolates. It is quite good, though.

This is a solid non-dairy implementation of chocolate from Jeni's.  It does not taste like a copy of one of their dairy chocolates.  The level of chocolatey-ness is about halfway in between their Darkest Chocolate and Milkiest Chocolate and the texture was too smooth and creamy to qualify as a sorbet.  That helps it be its own flavor and I was not fixated on whether or not I noticed that it was not dairy.  They did a good job in that regard though.  If I did a blind taste test I might not have noticed that it was dairy free.  Personally, I prefer Jeni's Darkest Chocolate flavor to this.  And for dairy free, I recommend local readers try Milkjam Creamery's unique and amazing Black flavor.  But this is still quite good.  Check this out if you are at Jeni's and need a dairy-free option.

 

 

Milkjam Creamery - F 2020

F 2020 - Rich Dark Chocolate with Boozy Cherries

 

The third December flavor from the Minneapolis-based Milkjam Creamery is called "F 2020" (instagram link is here).  The flavor name is a reference to what we should say to the past year as we ring in 2021.  The flavor features a dark chocolate base with "boozy cherries".  Cherry and chocolate are a common flavor combination, but it's rare that a chocolate base is used.  The only examples in my archives are Talenti's Dark Chocolate Cherry layers flavor and a special limited batch twist on a Ben & Jerry's classic called Chocolate Cherry Garcia.  Also, today's flavor features "boozy" cherries.  Sounds fun.  Let's check it out.

Cracking open the pint, the dark chocolate base is indeed quite dark.  I do not see any mix-ins yet.  Digging in, it is a rich thick base with a rich and delicious dark chocolate flavor.  Milkjam is actually famous for their non-dairy chocolate flavor called Black -- which is a unique and amazing flavor.  I am not saying that today's base could replace Black, but it does show that Milkjam can do a pretty good dairy version of a dark chocolate base as well.  It is quite delicious.  As I continue eating my way I encounter the occasional cherry.  They are not bad, but they are not at all boozy and the flavor does tends to get lost in the chocolate.

This dark chocolate base for this flavor is quite delicious, but the cherries were not as common or as boozy as I expected, so I can't really give this a great review.  Maybe I got a weak batch?  Or maybe it is another case of 2020 getting the better of me (F 2020!).

Talenti - Dark Chocolate

Dark Chocolate - Dark Chocolate Sorbet with Dark Chocolate Sauce

Today's flavor is a relatively new flavor released earlier in 2020 from Talenti Gelato.  It is a sorbetto called Dark Chocolate.  I am surprised that they had not released a dark chocolate sorbet before this year.  Often sorbets are associated with fruit flavors, but a few flavors like peanut butter, coconut and dark chocolate make for very good sorbets because their flavors supply their own 'butter' or oils which help add a creaminess to the texture with the use of dairy.  Here, Talenti adds a swirl of dark chocolate into the mix as well.  I bought this at a local grocery store (probably Target or Lund's).  Keep in mind that this pint is different than their Double Dark Chocolate flavor.  Double Dark Chocolate is a gelato that uses dairy also has chocolate chip mix-ins.  Today's flavor is a non-dairy sorbet with a swirl of chocolate sauce swirl.

Unscrewing the lid, I see the deep brown color of the chocolate sorbet with a couple of the dark brown swirls of chocolate sauce visible on the top.  I have seen darker colored chocolate bases, but it is still fairly dark.  Digging in, the sorbet does have a creamy texture and not at all icy or slushy -- Talenti does texture well.  The dark chocolate flavor is quite good and tasty.  The swirl of sauce is half blended into the sorbet base.  Instead of creating sections of different texture, it creates darker colored sections in the base which have a more biting chocolate flavor.  This biting flavor reminded me a bit of chocolate syrup that I used to use when I was a kid.  

This is an excellent chocolate sorbet from Talenti.  It has a good chocolate flavor with a good bite to it and it has a creamy texture.  The sauce creates sections which have a more biting flavor to it than the rest of the base, but it's half blended in, so it does not create a different texture.  So, you like to use ice cream as an ingredient in other things (shakes, as a coffee additive, etc), don't worry about the sauce.  I really liked this flavor.  For the mid-premium price, it's hard to beat this implementation.

 

 

Sweet Science - Peanut Butter Pretzel

Peanut Butter Pretzel - Salted Peanut Butter Ice Cream with Chocolate-Covered Pretzels and Chewy Dark Chocolate Ganache Squares

Today we cover the fourth and final of the "State Fair" flavors from the Saint-Paul-based Sweet Science Ice Cream.  This flavor is called Peanut Butter Pretzel (instagram link here).  It's a peanut butter base which chocolate-covered pretzels and dark chocolate ganache.  Whenever I think of this flavor combination, I immediately think of Ben & Jerry's famous Chubby Hubby flavor.  That's actually a vanilla-malt base with peanut butter swirls.  Here, the base is peanut butter.  Checking my archive for similar flavors I see pints from Talenti and the Museum of Ice Cream.  Let's check it out.

Removing the lid shows a lot going on.  I see quite a few mix-ins right away in the light-colored peanut butter base.  I see sizable chunks of chocolate ganache and some smaller chunks of what are probably chocolate-covered pretzels.  I also see a few small strip-like chunks of peanut butter.  That's an unexpected bonus!  I figured the peanut butter would only be in the base, but it appears there are also some small swirls of peanut butter in the mix as well.  Digging in, I like the peanut butter flavor of the a little mild, but extra flavor is delivered by the peanut butter swirls.  The chocolate-covered pretzels are not as crunchy or as numerous as I expected, but they are tasty and insert a bit of salt into the mix as well.  I've seen the chocolate ganache squares in other Sweet Science flavors (here and here).  These are soft, but chewy squares of chocolate rather than a thick sauce.  It is quite tasty and it goes very well wit the peanut butter.

I enjoyed this Peanut Butter Pretzel flavor from Sweet Science quite a bit.  It was not as pretzel-ly as I was expecting, but the excellent peanut butter base/swirls and chocolate ganache more than makes up for that.  For a more pretzel-heavy implementation, I'd go with Talenti, but otherwise, you can't go wrong here.

This completes the State Fair from Sweet Science.  This was problem the one that could slide into the main menu the easiest -- the other three had a bit of a fair-food novelty slant to it.  My favorite of the four flavors was Tipsy Cherry Pie, the mini-pie pieces with tangy wine-cherry filling and excellent crust worked really well as a mix-in.  Today's flavor was my second favorite.  I enjoyed the other two (Caramel Caramel Corn and Animal Circus) but I think they'd work better at the fair where you are more inclined to embrace quirky fair-food ingredients.

Talenti - Double Dark Chocolate

Double Dark Chocolate - Dark Chocolate Gelato with Chocolate Chips and a Hint of Vermouth

Today's flavor is from Talenti Gelato and it is one of the basic flavors from their standard menu:  Double Dark Chocolate.  It is one of their very first flavors.  They assigned it "recipe #3" which means it is only preceded by their vanilla flavor and a retired caramel flavor (now they have Sea Salt Caramel which includes chocolate truffle mix-ins).  This base has made an appearance in a couple of the "gelato layers" pints that I have reviewed from Talenti in the past couple of years.  Specifically, it forms one or more layers of Vanilla Fudge Cookie and Dark Chocolate Cherry.  I expected this to be just the base, but as I examine the ingredient list more closely, there are chocolate chips in here!  So that's an unexpected surprise.  Also, they say there is a hint of vermouth in the mix.  Vermouth is a fortified wine which is used in mixed drinks like martinis and manhattans.  I have had wine-infused chocolate before in Izzy's Umeshu Chocolate and it works quite well.  I suspect the "hint" means that this pint will be a lot more subtle than that, but I'll the "vermouth" tag to the flavor anyways just to be fun.

OK, on to the pint!  Unscrewing the lid, the gelato has a deep brown flavor expected of chocolate.  It's not super dark like some "dark chocolate" implementations.  I often wonder about the use of the work 'dark' in ice creams.  In a sorbet, you can have a very dark-colored chocolate which has no dairy, but ice creams contain milk and cream by definition.  I imagine that they are just trying to say that it will be chocolatey-er than the usual chocolate ice cream.  I see some tiny ice crystals on top, but that is only because talenti pints have a gap of air on the top.  Don't worry, these are small and only on the surface (none whatsoever underneath).  Digging in, the gelato has a good chocolate flavor.  It does have a slightly different flavor than most chocolates.  Most chocolate bases either taste like hot cocoa or a chocolate bar.  The finish (aftertaste) here is different.  I don't know the flavor of vermouth well enough to know if that is what it is but that could be it.  Then there are chocolate chips in the mix here as well.  It is not overly dense with chips as some of the "chip" flavors are, but there are usually one or two in every spoonful.

This is a solid chocolate chocolate chip pint from Talenti.  If you are a Talenti fan and just want chocolate, then this will satisfy you.  There are chocolate chips in here, so if you need a clean pint with no mix-ins -- my niece says plain chocolate is the best for making shakes -- then you need to look for a different implementation, but personally I like the presence of chips.

Sweet Science - Rocky Road

Rocky Road - Chocolate Ice Cream with Marshmallows and Dark-Chocolate-Coated Toasted Almonds

Today we return to the Saint-Paul-based Sweet Science Ice Cream for their implementation of Rocky Road.  I bought this pint as part of a choose-your-own four-pack curbside pickup order outside of the Keg & Case Market in Saint Paul, but since then the market has re-opened and you can go inside and grab individual pints from the scoop shop.  Rocky Road is one of the oldest "complex" ice cream flavors, dating back to before World War II.  I wrote about the history of it in an earlier review.  It is chocolate ice cream with marshmallow and almond mix-ins.  I have had Rocky Road implementations from several brands, Häagen-Dazs, McConnell's, Jeni's, Baskin Robbins and Lapperts.   Here, it looks like they're coating the almonds with dark chocolate.  Let's see how that works out.

Removing the lid, I see the chocolate base, a few of the marshmallow mix-ins on one side and hints at a couple of the chocolate-covered almonds.  Digging in, the chocolate base is good -- I have had their milk chocolate base before.  I try the marshmallows and they are pretty good.  They are about the same size as the mini-marshmallows that you can buy at the grocery store, but these are step above those in quality.  Looking at the side of the container, it says they get their marshmallows from North Mallow -- looks like they got the vanilla flavored ones.  The other mix-ins are the dark-chocolate-coated almonds.  These are amazing.  They remind me of the almonds in one of the most famous Häagen-Dazs flavors -- Vanilla Swiss Almond.  It's a simple change and even in a base which is already chocolate, it super-charges the impact of the almonds.

This is an excellent implementation of a Rocky Road ice cream from Sweet Science.  Good chocolate and good marshmallows, but it the chocolate-coating on the almonds which lifts this into one of the better Rocky Road implementations that I have had.  Fans of this classic flavor should check it out if they are at Keg & Case and see it available.

Sweet Science - Strawberry Stracciatella

Strawberry Stracciatella - Vanilla Ice Cream with Organic Strawberry Sauce with Dark and Milk Chocolate

Sweet Science of Saint Paul has still more flavors!  I was able to find three new flavors on their order menu, so I ordered another four-pack for curbside pick-up.  (My fourth pint was Berry Crumble which I gave to my uncle).  I am now reading that the Keg & Case scoop shop is re-opening on June 19th.  That should make it easier for me to grab the latest pints.  Today's flavor is called Strawberry Stracciatella.  I have discussed what stracciatella means in previous reviews (here and here).  It is a way of making shred-like chocolate chips.  The base ice cream here is actually vanilla and the strawberry is delivered with a sauce.  Checking my review archive, I was surprised to find that I have only had simple strawberry-and-chocolate combinations a few times.  From Ample Hills, their Be Mine flavor had chocolate flakes in strawberry ice cream.  For pints more similar to this one where the base was neutral and strawberries and chocolate were included as mix-ins, I found McConnell's Chocolate Covered Strawberries (sweet cream base and strawberry pieces) and Tillamook's Chocolate Covered Strawberry (mascarpone base and layered mix-ins including strawberry sauce).  Let's see how this compares!

Removing the lid, I see a light colored vanilla base with lots of small mix-ins.  There are a lot of dark-brown chocolate pieces as well as some wine-colored marbling of the strawberry sauce.  Digging my spoon in reveals more distinct swirls of the strawberry sauce.  The strawberry swirl has variable density throughout the pint.  I took an extra picture below to show different views.  Digging my spoon in, the strawberry sauce is noticeably tart, yet still quite delicious.  The chocolate stracciatella shows up as variable-sized flakes.  I have to double check to see if there are two different chocolates here.  There are some dark chocolate pieces which have a little bit sharper flavor and I guess they decided that they did not what all of the pieces to be that sharp.  It works.

This is a delicious mixture of chocolate and strawberry mix-ins from Sweet Science.  It is a tart-strawberry and not a sweet-strawberry so you should be prepared for that, but given that expectation, it is quite delicious.  I liked this pint better than both the McConnell's and Tillamook implementations linked above.  McConnell's has sweeter strawberries but as they are pieces they can be frozen so it creates an odd texture while the main issue with Tillamook is the way they do their layered flavors.  The layers are too tough and it is hard to mix up with the spoon as you eat it.  Sweet Science seems like the best combination -- a good swirling of strawberry sauce and chocolate flakes.  Just be aware of the tartness.

Talenti - Coffee Cookie Crumble

Coffee Cookie Crumble - Layers of Cold Brew Gelato, Dark Chocolate Chunks, Chocolate Coffee Sauce, Vanilla Bean Gelato and Amaretti Cookie Pieces

Talenti has new Gelato Layers pints for 2020!  The new ones are the ones which include coffee, lemon, banana and coconut.  Today's flavor is the coffee one:  Coffee Cookie Crumble.  I got this pint at Lund's in Highland Park, but I have also seen it at Cub in the Midway.  To refresh everyone's memory, a Gelato Layers pint involves stacking several (usually five) layers of ingredients in the same pint container.  The five years here are cold brew coffee gelato, dark chocolate chunks, a chocolate coffee sauce, vanilla bean gelato and amaretti cookie pieces.  I've written many times before about how coffee and chocolate always makes for a great combination possibly because their active ingredients (caffeine and theobromine) are so similar.  I was unfamiliar with "amaretti" cookies but like amaretto liqueur, it appears to be almond based.  I found some recipes online.

Let's check it out!  Unscrewing the distinctive lids of the Talenti jar, I only see the top layer.  That's true of all Talenti pints.  For these special flavors, I like to cut out a slice for the pictures below.  I can see the two gelato bases (coffee & vanilla) separated by two mix-in layers (chocolate chunks and coffee chocolate sauce) which are both thin enough to effectively blend together.  The bottom layer is the cookies.  Digging in, the coffee gelato has a smooth coffee flavor.  They bill it as a 'cold brew'.  I am not enough of a coffee expert to recognize that immediately, but it does have good coffee flavor without any hint of bitterness.  The chocolate chunk/sauce combo in the middle is quite delicious.  The chunks are fairly small -- they are almost chip-sized -- and the sauce has a bite to it.  My first impression was that it had a similar bite to it than canned syrup has, but I also note that it is billed as a coffee-and-chocolate syrup so I imagine some of the bite comes from the coffee.  It's delicious.  Quite a lot of chocolate in these two layers and it goes well with the coffee base.  The vanilla base it a refreshing compliment to it all -- to keep the coffee and chocolate from being too intense.  The cookie at the bottom are OK but not too memorable.  They are not bad, but they provide a bit of soft chewy crunch and not a lot of flavor.

This another successful layers pint from Talenti.  The coffee gelato goes really well with the chocolate chunks and sauce and the vanilla and cookies keeps it from being too much.  My method of extracting out a slice for the photos leaves the pint in such a state that it makes it easy for me to sample most of the layers with almost every spoonful.  If you find it tricky to do the same, you could try scooping it all out into a bowl first.

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.