Wall's Cornetto: Vanilla chocolate cone

Product name: Wall's Cornetto: Vanilla chocolate cone
Purchase details: Tesco Superstore
Calories: 110 per cone
Country of origin: UK 

I tried this unique Cornetto chocolate product as soon as it was released in the Summer but, until now, I’ve not had another. However, I was fortunate enough to obtain this Wall's Cornetto: Vanilla chocolate cone for free, as a result of a voucher giveaway on Facebook. If this hadn’t been the case, a 20g chocolate would have cost me £0.50. 

As soon as I caught sight of this product, I thought it was a really cool idea – essentially a miniature Cornetto that mimicked the real ice cream version. I hadn’t known quite what to expect but found the reality to be surprisingly enjoyable and a great snack for so few calories.

This cone was made ‘with love’ by KCL and consisted of a little wafer cone filled with ‘vanilla flavoured white chocolate truffle’ that represented the usual vanilla ice cream. Excitingly, the cone was lined with the standard ‘chocolate flavoured coating’ and accounted for 22% of the product (ok, it’s not real chocolate, but I still love this part of ice cream cones!), whilst the truffle was topped with ‘caramelised hazelnut pieces’ which made up a further 4.5%.

I loved how closely this chocolate copied its ice cream counterpart. It came presented in exactly the same style of packaging which included a metallic blue wrapper that further fitted the ice cream theme. I did find the warnings quite amusing though – ‘No ice cream included!’ and instructions about not freezing – surely the fact that these cones are found in confectionery aisles rather than freezer sections is enough?!

On unwrapping my mini Cornetto, I found a lot of the chocolate coating and nut topping came away on the cardboard lid and this, unfortunately, didn’t help the appearance of the finished product – it certainly didn’t look as appealing as a real Cornetto. The truffle filling looked fluffy, rather than smooth and creamy, and was also a beige colour rather than white. However, I thought the cone itself looked great and it was still a cute concept.

When taking into consideration the ones left on the wrapper, there were quite a lot of nuts included, and these did produce a very weak hazelnut smell. This wasn’t praline-like but it did remind me of the whole hazelnuts we have in the house at Christmas. The nuts were very crispy and offered a natural flavour with a hint of caramelisation. They provided a nice, sugary sweetness but without being too much. If I’m honest, I preferred these to the ones that are found on top of ice cream Cornettos, and I think the fact that they hadn’t been softened from contact with a moist surface was a factor in this. I also loved the different flavour whilst enjoying how, when combined with the chocolate coating, it was still reminiscent of a Cornetto proper.

As for the truffle, this was hard to touch but soft under pressure. The difference in texture to ice cream meant that, initially, it wasn’t possible to lick it in the same way, although it actually wasn’t bad once the roughness had been smoothed out. That said, it was a thick centre and, as such, it wasn’t totally smooth, even then. I think it’s fair to say, though, that this Cone was designed for biting  and, when eaten in this way, the filling provided a very sweet and milky flavour. I don’t think I would have recognised it as white chocolate in a blind taste test, but there were hints of this. 

The great thing about the wafer cone was that the whole thing was really crispy as it avoided the sogginess linked to the frozen version. Taste-wise, it went really well with the white chocolate truffle, and it was the perfect flavour for ice cream wafers in that it had been slightly sweetened.

Then, of course, there was the solid bit of ‘chocolate flavoured coating’ at the bottom of the cone. This had the right flavour as well as a slightly soft, truffly texture rather than a chunky chocolate one – just right for the product.

Through this snack, I think the Cornetto has successfully been transformed into chocolate form. Not all of the flavours and textures were identical to those present in the ice cream version but, in some cases, I think improvements have actually been made. What’s even better is I’ve seen that these have now started to be sold in multipacks – yippee! 

Appearance: 7/10
Aroma: 5.5/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 7.5/10
Overall score: 6.75/10