This year we picked up four Great Taste awards in total — Hazelnut gelato took the big one, a 3-star, with Pistachio gelato, Hot Cross Bun gelato and our Baboos Raspberry bonbon picking up stars of their own. Here's what the judges said about all four.
In short: Baboo Gelato won four Great Taste 2026 awards, totalling seven stars — a 3-star for Hazelnut gelato, a 2-star for Pistachio gelato, and 1-stars for Hot Cross Bun gelato and Raspberry Baboo bonbon.
Hazelnut gelato — 3-star
"There were enticing nutty notes on the nose and this followed through to hit the palate and deliver a nutty punch. The creamy richness melted away, allowing the toasted nuts to shine, with a gentle bitter finish from the nut skin. The intensity of the hazelnuts packed a huge punch and melded with the creaminess perfectly.
A beautiful rich creamy colour, and a fine glossy sheen. The texture is velvety smooth with an incredible elasticity. The nose is unmistakably of toasted hazelnuts. The flavour is luxurious, rich, authentic and perfectly balanced. A wonderful gelato."
A 3-star is Great Taste's highest rating, earned by only around 2% of everything entered each year. It's also our fourth 3-star since 2024, and part of a three-year run we believe makes us the only ice cream or gelato producer to win one three years running. Read the full story here.
Pistachio gelato — 2-star
"The colour of this ice cream is authentic and not overly bright, as some are. The gelato is smooth and creamy, while the pistachio is well to the fore. The taste is of toasted nuts, a little salt and dairy. Beautifully balanced.
Wow, the initial burst of nuttiness that coated the palate released deep roasted nuts that worked in harmony with the creaminess to produce a fantastic gelato. We loved the hint of salt at the end of the melt that enhanced the nutty bitterness. Perfection."
We tested a lot of pistachio pastes to get to this one, and "not overly bright" is exactly the point — ours doesn't get any help from artificial colouring, so it looks like pistachio actually looks.
Hot Cross Bun gelato — 1-star
"The gelato certainly smells of hot cross buns with a cinnamon and fruity aroma. It tastes of hot cross buns too... Overall, a good idea and a great-tasting gelato.
A creamy-looking gelato with visible pieces of the hot cross buns. The creamy texture is thick and unctuous giving an excellent mouthfeel, releasing an excellent flavour rich with the dairy notes and everything you would expect from a hot cross bun; both the bready bun and spice."
A seasonal one that we weren't entirely sure would work until it did — cinnamon and dried fruit aren't the most obvious gelato flavours, but apparently the judges agreed with us that they should be.
Baboos Raspberry bonbon — 1-star
"Domed in shape, these dark chocolate bonbons are topped with a smear of raspberry red. The chocolate couverture is thin and crisp with a sustained bitterness from the cacao. The raspberry sorbet is very natural and packs a punch. A very decadent mix of fine raspberry fruit and acidity paired with good chocolate. A classic combo reinvented successfully."
This one's part of our Baboos range — a box of chocolate-covered gelato and sorbet bonbons we've been making for a while now, so it's nice to see it picking up its first Great Taste star. Raspberry sorbet inside a dark chocolate shell is a genuinely fiddly thing to get right at small-batch scale, so this one means a lot.
Four awards, seven stars, one very small team
We say this every year and we'll say it again: none of this happens without proper ingredients and quite a lot of stubbornness about not cutting corners. Four Great Taste awards, seven stars between them, from one entry list — a good reminder that it's working.
Frequently asked questions
How many Great Taste awards did Baboo Gelato win in 2026? Four — Hazelnut gelato (3-star), Pistachio gelato (2-star), Hot Cross Bun gelato (1-star) and Raspberry Baboo bonbon (1-star), totalling seven stars across the four products.
What's the difference between a 1-star, 2-star and 3-star Great Taste award? All three ratings mean a product impressed Great Taste's blind-tasting judges, with 3-star being the highest and rarest, awarded to only around 2% of entries each year. 2-star and 1-star are still genuine achievements, reflecting products the judges rated highly on flavour, balance and quality.
Is Raspberry Baboo bonbon a new product? No — it's part of our existing Baboos range, a box of gelato and sorbet bonbons covered in dark Belgian chocolate.
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Read more: Hazelnut gelato Gives Us Our Third Consecutive Great Taste 3-Star Year