Seeing something new from Lindt on my supermarket shelves isn’t really a cause for excitement, but it does make me curious enough to pick up said product for at least a quick onceover. And that was definitely the case with the two new Passion bars, particularly because of the unique packaging.
Lindt have finally decided that people should see the bar inside the box, something which might have to do with the fact that the bar which weighs in at 97g costs the same as the heftier 150g Creation bars. So not only does the box have a cutout, the sealed foil wrapper have a clear cellophane section which revealed the pistachio-encrusted milk chocolate. And it looks pretty good too.
Taking the bar out of its packaging reveals a brand new design for Lindt although it isn’t one I’m particularly fond of. There are no squares to speak of, just a wavy pattern which is broken up by a section bearing the Lindt name repeatedly. It makes it very hard to break off regularly sized pieces of the bar even if it does look nice. The other side is studded with the featured ingredients, and they appear to be stuck well enough in the chocolate that they don’t readily fall out.
The milk chocolate of an undetermined cocoa solids percentage is lovely and creamy, but it is clearly an orange flavoured bar – if you like orange chocolate, you will be very happy with this. A quick look at the ingredients tells me that the nuts are actually a mix of both pistachios and almonds although the pistachios dominate and provide a nice nutty texture and contrast to the. There are also little pieces of candied orange mixed in with the nuts, giving moments of more intense orange.
So I like it. I like it a lot – it is a pretty straight-forward bar that promises exactly what it delivers and it is easy to eat in one sitting. Or at least, it was for me. It probably isn’t worth the premium price that Lindt have put on it, but chances are I will pick it up again when I need a nice bar of orangey milk chocolate.
I now come (finally) to my comments on the last box from Philadelphia Candies, which is an assortment of both milk and dark chocolates. Many of the milk ones are the same as from the box of creams, with dark versions and nut chocolates added to the compilation. Perhaps it’s that last addition in particular that makes me draw the comparison with See’s Candies. That isn’t exactly flattering coming from me as I have something rather against See’s, who pop up all over during holidays as “the perfect gift.” However, I know that some people do think See’s is near perfect, therefore I can say that Philadelphia’s assorted box should have a similar appeal.
When I brought out the box to share, it was well-received, though the general opinion stayed that they’re chocolates of the moment, not ones to sit and contemplate. To address the new chocolates that were in here, I have essentially the same comments as for the rest. The caramel used in a couple is the chewy variety, which creates a nice fudgy combination with the dark chocolate. There was one chocolate, though, that I cared nothing for: it was fruity, perhaps containing orange, but had strange texture and added flavors. The nougat chocolates were fine, with the dark version being like either s’mores or a Midnight Milkyway.
Among the nutty chocolates are an almost heart-shaped peanut chocolate, cashew chocolates, and Brazil nut chocolates. I can’t say any of them stood out particularly to me; they’re simple chocolates. The quick candy fix is what they suit best.
This impressive looking beast comes from the English Cheesecake Company, and apparently serves 12 (or one hungry chocolate reviewer). Cheesecake isn’t something we would normally write about here, but when the English Cheesecake guys asked if they could send something for review, we weren’t going to say no. Just as long as it had chocolate in it.
One important thing to note about these cheesecakes is that they’re delivered frozen and packed in dry ice. Unfortunately, I wasn’t aware of this as I ripped the box open, and ended up burning myself on the uninsulated dry ice bags.
Equally unfortunately, the “This Way Up” notices on the packaging had been ignored, and as a result, all of the topping pieces were loose in the box rather than on top of the cake. I replaced them best I could,but I’ve actually no idea if the cake is meant to look like that or not. A problem compounded by the fact that this particular cake doesn’t seem to appear on their website.
If I’d ordered this cake for a celebration and paid the £27 it apparently costs, I wouldn’t have been happy. But I just don’t think there’s any a luxury cake with loose topping pieces can be delivered by standard courier or post. If anyone has bought one, I’d be interest to know what condition theirs arrived in, and if my experience was a one off.
Gripes aside, the cake is kind of awesome. Everything about it is chocolate flavoured. The base is chocolatey, the cheesecake is chocolatey and the topping pieces are made from chocolate coated honeycomb.
Having defrosted the cake, I took a generous slice and was suitably impressed. Five minutes after that I had made myself slightly ill from the quantity I’d consumed. It was fresh and tasty, but for me the chocolate and cheese clashed just a little. I think a standard cheesecake with the chocolate just confined to the toppings would have been a little fresher and cleaner tasting. In this case, by the time I’d moved on to my second over-sized helping, it was becoming a bit of a chore…
So would I recommend the English Cheesecake Company? Well I’m going to assume my experience of finding the topping everywhere but on top of the cake was a one-off and say “yes”, particularly if you’re a real cheesecake fan. Personally, I’d go for a none-chocolate cake though.
Idilio Origins are a Swiss chocolate maker who did rather well in this year’s Academy of Chocolate awards, winning a total of three awards, including a gold. This particular bar is not one of their award winners, but you can probably see why it caught my eye.
All that deep pink isn’t part of the packaging. The underside of the chocolate is evenly coated in finely milled freeze dried raspberry powder. I’ve not seen a bar so completely covered in freeze-dried fruit before.
As you might expect, the aroma is almost exclusively raspberry rather than chocolate, but underneath all that pink, the chocolate is a Venezuelan bean from Ocumare, and 72% cocoa solids.
Turn the bar over, and it looks a little more conventional.
All that raspberry powder is slightly sticky, so when you break off a chunk, it does have a tendency to stick to the fingers. This chocolate is perhaps not as practical as it is pretty.
The instant hit of flavour you get when you taste a piece is almost overpoweringly sharp for a few seconds, but they layer is so thin that it very quickly fades away to almost nothing. By the time you get around to tasting the actual chocolate, the raspberry is gone, but the assault on the taste buds means you’re not going to pick out subtle flavours here. It’s a pleasant, smooth dark chocolate.
Unfortunately, while I like the idea and appearance of this chocolate, it just doesn’t quite come together for me. The raspberry is too intense and it fights with the chocolate rather than complements it. It’s obviously made with quality ingredients, I just don’t think they go together in this form.
If you love freeze dried raspberries more than you love chocolate, then this might be a bar for you, but personally I’d have preferred something a little more subtle.
