Talenti Oak Aged Vanilla & Chocolate Mousse Gelato

[New for 2019] One thing that has been on my to do list is to finish trying all of the organic flavors from Talenti. I only snuck one in last year but I'm not sure that I got the greatest of pints (aka bit o' freezerburn). Well, fast forward to now when I stumbled upon...

Talenti Oak Aged Vanilla Gelato #55 -- Talenti Chocolate Mousse Gelato #56
Madagascan vanilla gelato with notes of oak -- dark chocolate gelato swirled with fudge

Going for the vanilla first because it's the one I have been thinking about all day (and by all day, I mean I've been thinking about it since about 10am and it's now after 5pm). 

I dig in and it's nice. I did have a small concern that it might lean heavily towards some kind of bourbon vanilla flavoring, but I'm not picking that up at all. There is some mild additional flavoring here from the "oakwood extract" but it's mild. It's definitely not a vanilla bean or homemade vanilla vibe. I don't think I can be more specific on this first scooping, so for now we'll just say it's enjoyable.

As for the chocolate mousse.. yeah, it tastes like frozen chocolate mousse. It's kind of funny really. It seems like they've tweaked the texture. That said...

So I was sitting there just scooping from the top and thought "you know what? this is a little boring." I was promised swirls but they seem to have disappeared.

I decided to start scooping from the softer sides that still had a bit of sauce lingering about and it made for a much funner treat. It's not that it's a bad pint, it's just a much more complete flavor when the softening gelato mixes with the tasty sauce (disclaimer, I haven't tasted the sauce by itself since it's pretty thin, but I will try on the next scooping).

On Second Scoop: The vanilla is all gone and there is just a few bites left of the chocolate. My main followup is that the flavoring stayed pretty mild for both. I also didn't get that same watery vibe that I got last year (at least not to the point that I was concerned about freezer burn). I definitely think more highly of this lineup now that I've had better samples... so I guess that means it's time for them to cancel it (that's a joke, I'm not being literal.... yet)

Verdict?  not bad
Buy Again?  sure