How Much Hazelnut is Too Much for National Hazelnut Day

Spread after 4 minutes of Stirring

Hazelnut Day won't be until January 4th which falls mid-week in 2023, so today we're looking at a hazelnut spread I was sent to review via the Amazon Vine program. The brand, Ghia, looks like it is more focused on non-alcoholic drinks than food products. Their Ghianduja Vegan Hazelnut Spread has cocoa beans, cocoa butter, and cocoa powder so it qualifies to be reviewed here on The Chocolate Cult. The focus for us must be on those ingredients and how well they blend with the other organic ingredients that are higher up on the list. Before We get to the tasting, just check out the lids on these jars. Doesn't that long tongued dude make you smile? I was sent two jars of this product for free to test and write an honest review about on Amazon; this article is a bonus and I receive no other form of compensation for sharing my experiences with this product.

This product required a lot of stirring, four minutes worth, to get to the form you saw in the first photo. Below you will see what I saw -- a layer of oil, probably olive oil and cocoa butter -- then underneath that a firm block of the spread. I could stir it, but what if my elbow injury was acting up? What if I wasn't this strong? People want a product they can use right out of the jar. This isn't it.

Unstirred Ghianduja Vegan Hazelnut Spread

Even after stirring, the product was more pourable than spreadable, might be great for crepes or pancakes (two of the foods recommended to eat with this) but the jar itself isn't designed for that so it made a mess that I had to clean up and was a loss of the spread. The good part about pouring it was that you could use far less than a full serving, which is 34 grams for 210 calories.

The fragrance of this spread is entirely oil and hazelnut, no hint of cocoa powder or chocolate. The texture, once stirred, is thin but it soaked into bread fine. The flavor, like the scent, was primarily hazelnut with only the cocoa coming out at the end of a bite and then with an intense bitterness I wasn't expecting. I'm fine with bitter because I love darker chocolate, but if you are used to most hazelnut spreads with chocolate or cocoa powder, that intensity may surprise you.

Ultimately this really is a hazelnut spread, not a hazelnut and chocolate spread so it lives up to the name, just not what many of us might be expecting. I was expecting something more along the lines of other hazelnut and chocolate spreads we've written about in the past. This is not a product I'd buy because I need that chocolate to come through, but if you like hazelnuts and want to give it a try, follow our links directly to the product knowing that we get a tiny fee as an Amazon Associate when you do so.