Caffe Panna Tripla

Headed into the city and walked a couple miles to build an appetite for my first impression of Caffe Panna's Manhattan location. Caffe Panna is a scoop shop with daily rotating flavors in both pint and scoop forms, with other offerings.

I went at 2:00 even though there was a line around the corner, it was still only a 10-minute wait. However, the guy tried to give me someone else's order so they're a little scrambled back there.

Today the rotation of flavors were aligned with my palette so I was determined to visit after months of having it saved. For pint, there was Min Thint, a double mint girl scout cookies and cream with Oreo brittle. For scoops, the Espresso con Scorza, Nutella Crunch, and Rainbow Cookie flavors. I decided on the triple threat and if hunger allows, ill go for the thmintpint. Toppings such as whipped cream, fudge drizzle, and Oreo crumbles are complementary, so obviously I loaded up.

The structure of the triple scoop is one bottom layer with two flavors balancing on top, then the toppings. This matters due to melting flow, and especially the flavor pairings. You can't reach the bottom flavor until you clear a significant chunk of the top layers.

So, in my Tripla, the Espresso Scorza and Nutella crunch were on top of the rainbow cookie. The flavor cohesion that revealed itself across the cup showed that this was suboptimal. The ECS clashed with the NC, and would have meshed better next to rainbow cookie, both are fruity flavors.

As far as the ice cream goes: excellent. Not too cold, not too soft, heavy with the cream. It is definitely a creamy full fat dense smothering ice cream, surpassed in full fat flavor by the whipped cream the give on top. Great texture, not too sugary, signified by how not that sticky my hands were from dripping. "Perfect" to "plenty" ratios of mixins, they're they're but not overwhelming. The Nutella crunch was packed with buncha crunch bars that crisped and cooled with copious chocolate. The Espresso Scorza had these tiny candied lemon bits that splashed acidity in random bites. The rainbow cookie when I got to it started out with bottom of the bag crumb sizes, but by the end and melted the bigger chunks with chocolate coating showed up.

The Nutella Crunch Bar was the first bite and it was a blast of nostalgia. I don't think I need to explain how a runch bar tastes and feels and if I do, then that's your problem and you're missing out. Occasionally you'll get some crunches of hazelnut, and the flavor ties together as this alternating Crunch bar Ferrero Rocher choco wombo combo.

Moving to the Espresso con Scorza, the coffee flavor comes through a good amount, coffee flecks imitating vanilla beans, but the issue with this flavor is that sweet lemon does not go with it. Coffee Brewers and roasters try to avoid acidity and sourness so strange choice to combine it with lemon. However, the candied lemon peels are sweet and tangy so I do see the vision in quality at least.

For me, the Rainbow Cookie unfortunately had everything going against it. Small starting pieces, 90% of them were pink, it reminded me of fruity pebbles instantly, it was half melted when I started and fully melted when I cleared the top layers, not enough chocolate covered pieces. But it was satisfying overall.

I guess the move is to not at the tripla, just get the double scoop and then if you have room in your stomach get another scoop.

The Tripla filled me up so I decided to save getting a pint for another day. I also decided I needed to burn it off as it was coming in, so it gave a nice tank of fuel for the walk back to wtc. It is a very dense and heavy ice cream, it fills and satisfies your stomach. Most people I saw ordering were getting one flavor one scoop.

Epilogue: the ice cream messed with my internal map calibration, so I walked down an adjacent street. To my pleasant surprise, a Van Leeuwen storefront faded into view after a few blocks. Felt like the good old days discovering things instead of pinning on Google maps.