Lindt Chocolates

Lindt is a Swiss chocolate company that has been making chocolates since 1845. Lindt is one of the more common imported chocolates in the United States (sorry for the ethnocentrism, but I haven't been all over the world so I can't say how common it is elsewhere. If you know, please e-mail me and let me know.) Lindt chocolate is available in most grocery stores and candy stores.

Lindt's packaging shows a care for the product that you don't find in many other chocolates. The foil wrapper underneath the label is sealed around the chocolate bar, not merely folded around it like you usually see. Further, the wrapper is not just a paper strip that wraps around the bar but leaves the ends exposed; it folds around all sides of the bar to protect the foil wrapper. This is an excellent packaging job, and ensures that the chocolate will arrive to you undamaged by moisture or other contaminants (unless it has been truly mishandled during shipping).

Chocolat Lindt Excellence

This is Lindt's dark chocolate. It gets a 3.5 rating because of its flavor and packaging. The flavor is a very rich chocolate flavor. Like the Esmeralda, I believe this chocolate to have been processed with alkali. They have also done a good job with the vanilla; there's just enough to give this chocolate a bit of a bite like you get from chocolate truffles that have some alcohol in them.

This chocolate really tastes quite good, and makes a fine eating chocolate. It's not so expensive that I feel compelled to hoarde it or make it last as long as possible, so it's good for those occasions when I want to indulge in a lot of chocolate.

This chocolate misses getting a 4 rating because it isn't very smooth. It's about as smooth as Hershey's Special Dark. Also, I think it's just a bit too sweet. The ingredient list on the label shows chocolate second after sugar, but I suspect that it's just barely second. A touch more chocolate and a touch less sugar would make this a much better bar.

Chocolat Suisse Au Lait

This is a very interesting milk chocolate, in that it is malted. Chocolate, in the ingredients list, is in the usual fourth place after sugar, cocoa butter, and milk. After it, however, is skimmed milk, soy lecithin, dried malt extract, and vanillin. It is also unusual for having both regular and skimmed milk in it. This shows up in the extremely light brown color of the chocolate.

This is a very sweet chocolate. Right away when you put some in your mouth, you taste the sugar. After that you taste the chocolate, and you notice the malt flavor as well. I happen to like malted chocolate, so this scores points with me, and is why this chocolate gets a 2.5 rating. Without the malt I'd have had to give it a 2 because it's such a lightly chocolate flavored chocolate. In fact, if I were to eat one bite of the Lindt dark chocolate while blindfolded, followed by a bite of the Lindt milk chocolate, I would probably not be sure whether the second bite was milk chocolate or white chocolate. Overall, I'd say this is a more interesting, if less chocolaty, milk chocolate than Hershey's.