I adore going abroad, as it give you the chance to stroll around local supermarkets who always seem to sell lots of products just a little bit different from what you are used to home. Does it surprise you that I always check out the chocolate displays? On my latest trip to France, I found two bars in the “low-cost but better than average chocolate” section.
Lindt makes my favorite everyday chocolate bar, their 70% dark in the Excellence range. Whenever I see their name, I check out the variations available. This dark bar combined with fleur de sel (sea salt) caught my eye.
Lindt gets high point for presentation. Their packaging looks luxurious and sharp. Love it.
Inside, a sliver aluminum foil protects the large 100 g bar. The bar itself doesn’t shine when it comes to shape or imprint, but taste is more important after all. When looking at the ingredients, I’m surprised Lindt has used dairy butter in the mix, probably to create a very smooth and creamy texture.
Bean: not mentioned
Origin: not mentioned
Production: Lindt & Sprüngli SAS – Oloron-Sainte-Marie/France
Price paid: € 2,10/100 g – Cora Dreux, France
Colour: Light brown, milk chocolaty in nature.
Aroma: Milk chocolate, sweet, a touch of vanilla and a very delicate smokyness.
Taste: A softer snap as one can expect from such type of chocolate, quickly opening up with lots and lots of chocolate and smooth cream. While melting it feels a bit thick on the palate and suddenly frees little grains of salt that melt with a sudden pop on the palate. The salt mingles in nicely without overpowering the chocolate itself and bringing vanilla to the front. It brings a great twist to what would otherwise be a more average chocolate experience. Towards the end of the melt, some smoke tones become more obvious. What surprised me is the fact that the chocolate doesn’t prove to be over sweet. The aftertaste follows the chocolate taste minus the salt pops and is rather short and mellow. It shows a milk chocolate profile due to the low cacao percentage of 47%, while real butter was added to the mix. Yet still it brings enough cacao notes to make it a nice bar. Comfort food. It makes you happy without trying to bring a zillion taste changes. One could easily eat a whole bar, as my wife noted during our little tasting session.
I love a lot of the Lindt stuff, another one of my staple food providers