Baboo Gelato, the family-run gelato company handmade at its lab in Rampisham, Dorset, has won a Great Taste 3-star award for its Hazelnut gelato – the highest rating given by the Guild of Fine Food, and one earned by a genuinely small fraction of everything entered each year.
The win makes Hazelnut gelato the fourth Baboo flavour to receive a Great Taste 3-star, following Double chocolate gelato (2024), Mint choc chip gelato (2025) and Crystallised ginger gelato (2025). More significantly, it means Baboo has won at least one Great Taste 3-star in each of the last three consecutive years: 2024, 2025 and 2026. Winning a Great Taste 3-star even once is rare; winning one in three consecutive years is understood to be almost unheard of. Only three companies across the whole of Great Taste, spanning every category of food and drink, have managed a 3-star win in all of the last three years, and Baboo believes it is the only ice cream or gelato producer among them.
“It’s really nice to know that it’s not just me that loves this flavour – it’s the young and old, and now apparently the judges of the Great Taste awards,” said Annie Hanbury, co-founder of Baboo Gelato.
About the award
Great Taste is run by the Guild of Fine Food and is widely regarded as the leading blind-tasted accreditation scheme for speciality food and drink in the UK. Products are judged by over 500 food & drink experts, from chefs and food writers, to producers and critics. They are not shown the packaging, brand or price – they taste on ingredients, production method and flavour alone. Across the scheme as a whole, only around 2% of entries receive the top 3-star rating each year. Annie Hanbury judges for Great Taste herself (not her own products of course). This year she took part on three separate days, where over 450 products were judged, and only three 3-star awards were given, which only goes to show how rare the award is.
The judges’ verdict on Hazelnut gelato:
“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.”
About the flavour
Baboo’s hazelnut paste comes from a small producer in the heart of Langhe, in Italy’s Piedmont region – a PDO area for hazelnuts thanks to its altitude and climate. Annie and Sam tasted more than twenty pastes before settling on their current supplier, and the paste is delivered to the lab in Rampisham as fresh as possible.
Hazelnut gelato’s 3-star was one of four Great Taste awards Baboo picked up this year, with Pistachio gelato taking a 2-star and both Hot Cross Bun gelato and Raspberry Baboo bonbon – from Baboo’s range of chocolate-covered gelato and sorbet bonbons – awarded 1-star.
About Baboo Gelato
Baboo Gelato was founded in 2015 by Annie and Sam Hanbury in Bridport, Dorset, making gelato and sorbet by hand at the lab in Rampisham using real, seasonal ingredients. Baboo supplies over 500 trade customers – cafés, restaurants, farm shops and delis — from Cornwall to London, alongside UK-wide home delivery and kiosks across Dorset. Find out more at baboogelato.com.
