Lindt Excellence Cuba 55%

Posted by in Chocolate Reviews on June 12 2007 | Leave A Comment

Lindt Excellence CubaWell I’m back in my usual territory here, sampling the more unusual dark chocolate products I love so well.

This is my third review of a Lindt product, and once again it’s remarkably different from the previous bars I have tasted (Creme Brulee and Caramel).

This bar is made from cocoa grown in the tropical forests of Baracoa, Cuba – not somewhere you’d automatically associate with chocolate production.

A glance at the back of the packet tells me that this is one of three regional bars (the other two being from Madagascar and Ecuador) and that it is the ‘mildest’ of the three at 55% cocoa, but what intrigued me about this bar was the promise of a ‘very pleasant note of tropical fruits’. I double checked the ingredients, and there is no additional flavouring, so what’s the ‘tropical fruits’ bit about I wondered?

Having had a rather unpleasant experience with a Feodora Passion fruit bar, I was somewhat wary of being assailed by a perfumy, sickly sweet aroma and taste, but being the fearless, dedicated type, I proceeded anyway.

The smell test was very promising – no nastiness, but a distinct sweet/sharp tang above the usual cocoa aroma. Very interesting indeed.

The taste is unlike anything I have tried before – you get the initial hit of dark cocoa, but it is almost immediately joined by a very definite citrus note. Hard to define as being like a certain type of fruit, but most certainly there. I can only describe it as being rather like that mixed tropical juice you can buy, but very subtle and certainly not at odds with the cocoa taste. The chocolate itself is as smooth as you (or I) would expect, not too ‘dark’ tasting and ever so slightly bittersweet.

I would definitely recommend this bar. Its unique flavour puts it on the ‘must try’ list for any serious choc-head and I can see it going well with coffee and cake or being used to coat fruit. Once again, the chocolatiers at Lindt have come through with another top notch product.

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Comments On This Post

  1. Where can we find a package of this bar? Sounds great. I’ve actually eaten chocolate from Cuba, but had to go there to do that. Now I run a news service about Cuba on the internet, though chocolate isn’t the reason for the news service.

    Actually, my dad and his parents used to live there.

    Lindt makes great chocolate anyway.

    Thanks for the note!

    Walter Lippmann

  2. Simon

    I bought mine in a UK supermarket.
    I would imagine they’re very available. The package notes are in French and German.

  3. anabels

    Cocao beans have distinct flavours of their own like grape varieties – that is where the fruit notes come from the beans themselves. Which is the whole reason behind single origin chocolate ditto for coffee bean too.

  4. That unusual taste is cigars. Honestly, they’re a slight tobacco, cigar tobacco undertone to this stuff. The soils that give cuban tobacco its flavour also every so slighly alter the taste of the cacoa beans that make this stuff.

    It was sold in Canada for about 2 years (2006-2007 or so), then vanished to be replaced by stuff from Peru or something. Pity. It was my favoirite of the three.

    I’m guessing it had something to do with wanting to sell this line in the US where anything from Cuba is banned.

  5. Ronald Hill

    I bought some on eBay from Canada in about 2005-6; it was marked “best before June 2007”. It was mailed, however, from a US border city and when I wanted to get more the store was off the Internet. I have been to Baracoa, Cuba, and it is, indeed, the best chocolate I know.

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