Lindt Essence Assorted Selection
I’ve been itching to try these since seeing them appear on our Supermarket shelves some time ago – a new (?) Lindt offering! Or at least – one I’d not come across before.
The small bag contains filled chocolates; to quote from the label: Dark with Raspberry filling, Milk with Caramel filling, and Dark with a white mint filling.
Each is individually wrapped – a good idea with stronger flavours because it stops them infusing into each other.
Then things get interesting. The pack says “Manufactured under license for Lindt & Sprungli (Australia)”, but not by whom. So it’s a Lindt chocolate but its not a Lindt chocolate? Strange.
The small packs inside give the game away: “Imported by Lindt & Sprungli (Australia)” and “Manufactured by Ghiradelli Chocolate Company, San Leandro, CA, USA”.
So, these are not a Lindt Chocolate at all. Curious. But now it’s tasting time.
Dark with Raspberry
I’ve taken a photo of this after I’ve taken a fair size bite – just to show the generous amount of filling, which is not quite the same vibrant colour as the picture on the packet would have us believe. This is always the way, and when you do find an atomic-red, you know it’s chock-full of the goodness of artificial colour. At least this one looks real.
The filling has quite a pleasant raspberry flavour, and I even found a few seeds – it does contain real fruit. The disappointment is that the filling is dominated by sweetness. The dark chocolate melts and releases its flavour quite slowly, a consequence is a whack of fruit and sweet followed quite a lot later by the richness of the chocolate. It you just scoff the thing down, you get pretty much no flavour from the chocolate at all.
The cocoa percentage is not stated, I’m taking a wild guess at around the 50% mark based on colour and “snap”.
Dark with Mint
I did not photograph this one. It’s a darkish chocolate filled with the kind of white minty stuff that is fairly commonly available from many manufacturers. On opening the small pack there is quite pleasant minty aroma. The mint is a very strong flavour, and like the dark with raspberry, the chocolate takes quite a while to warm, melt, and release its flavour. The mint tends to overwhelm.
I can’t regard this as a happy marriage, more a domineering mint shouting at a cowering chocolate. The chocolate seems to be the same as the raspberry – dark but not hugely so.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had worse, but I’ve also had better.
Milk with Caramel
This is another that I didn’t photograph, the contents being a fairly predictable gooey caramel filling.
I also left this to last, mainly because I’m a very fussy fan of caramel – in general I don’t like it. I also prefer a dark chocolate to a milk. I was very ready to dislike this one.
I have to confess to being quite pleasantly surprised. The caramel is good. It’s very sweet, but also has quite a mellow flavour with none of the horrible chemical overtones you can sometimes find. The milk chocolate is also sweet, but there is a nice chocolate flavour coming through. High praise indeed from one who’s not a big milk chocolate fan.
From being prepared to hate it, I’ve surprised myself by finding this is probably the one I like the most. It is very sweet, though. One will be enough at a sitting.
Summary: I’m a little disappointed with the two dark chocolates. I ate these at room temperature on a pleasant day, when the flavour should have been able to spring through easily – and it took quite a long time to come through. They are both dominated by sweetness. The raspberry would be improved by toning back the sugar a little. The mint is very minty, and again, toning it down would improve it and allow the chocolate to speak as well. The caramel is a stand-out for flavour, but still a heck of a sugar bomb.
A little web searching leaves my thinking these are probably from the Ghiradelli “Squares” range. It also turns out that Ghiradelli is owned by Lindt & Sprungli.
Information
- Contains dark chocolate, milk chocolate.
- Filed under assortment, australia, caramel, dark chocolate, lindt, milk chocolate, mint, raspberry.
Interesting…when I first saw the photo I thought it looked a lot like the Ghiradelli squares and it seems that’s exactly what they are.
Where is your Headquarters in Egypt
Now don’t get me wrong, I like Lindt… I mean Chocolate is my life. However if you want chocolate that is simply going to blow your mind, then you need to visit the “Chocolate and Love” Website. This is TRUE quality chocolate! I have my fix delivered to me every month 😀
This is this my favourite one:
http://www.chocolateandlove.com/categories-products/nougat-c-299_307.html
Hi Ashleigh, I reviewed these late last year and *love love loved* them…. I didn’t make the Ghiradelli connection though:
http://gonechocco.com/?p=346
I’m pretty sure these are the Ghiradelli Squares, but with the mold changed to put the Lindt name in.
The ingredients list “high fructose corn syrup”, as well as “corn syrup” (both?! in a single product?!) and this is no doubt where all that sweetness comes from.
I do wonder if these are made more for a US palate, which by reputation favours sweetness. I must confess that eating the second one of each led me to like them a lot more than the first time around. The sweetness… thats the bit that put me off. Then again, I do munch away on Lindt 85% so perhaps I’m a little biased.
They do sound like Ghirardelli. Your descriptions of the Raspberry and Caramel could be describing the very same ones, right down to the seeds and the mellow/sweet of the caramel.
I’ve never thought the Mint too strong before, though . . . maybe the problem is more with the chocolate than the mint? I don’t know that, at whatever lower percentage they use in the squares, it has very much flavor to go with the mint to begin with.
I haven’t tried eating chocolates with raspberries..Do they really taste good?.Just wondering..
The raspberry flavour is not too bad – especially considering that most raspberries have a fairly subtle flavour in the first place.
I find that chocolates that use a freeze-dried raspberry are usually disappointing because it just turns into a small hard lump with little taste.
These use a liquidy sticky raspberry filling which makes a better job of the flavour. However, less sugar would be good!
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where can i buy it at malaysia ?