Lindt chocolate discoveries and musings

Thank you to everyone who provided thoughts and advice on pear-related baking. It sounds like pears are a surprisingly challenging fruit! Layering them on top of baked goods, rather than mixing them throughout, definitely seems to be the way to go. I guess you live and learn.

Today, I am moving from fruit and baking to chocolate and purchasing. It's an easy step to make. There are four reasons why I feel compelled to make that step today.

1. This week, Coles and Woolworths both have Lindt Excellence chocolate blocks on sale. Woolworths has them for $1.99 and Coles has them at 2 for $5.

I think we've established that I am vulnerable to buying products on special, even when I don't much like the product in question. Given that I do like Lindt, and these are the chocolate blocks I buy and eat most often, we now have a lot of Lindt Excellence in the pantry.

All of it mine.

2. Not only are the blocks on special this week, but Coles provided two new flavours (Woolworths is lagging behind).

Not one, but two.

And two good flavours.

I tell you, I nearly stopped breathing. I may have hugged the blocks. Mr Bite does not understand me at these times.

3. Not only were these flavours new, and appealing, and on special - but they actually delivered in taste too.

(I had a sad experience with the new Lindt Passionfruit flavour last year. That didn't deliver at all.)

Both had Lindt's standard 47% cocoa content, and both managed to deliver as dark chocolate with a twist.

The strawberry ended up being my favourite. I may have made delighted exclamations on discovering that there were actual, freeze dried strawberry bits throughout the strawberry block. I like bits in my chocolate, so this was a very good start.

These strawberry pieces were sweet, but not excessively so, and they worked as a contrast to the deeper flavours of the chocolate. The chocolate itself was what I've come to expect from this mid-range cocoa selection: smooth, slightly sweet in its own right, but strong enough to cope with the introduction of strawberry.

The coconut version was perhaps a little too coconuty for me. I have only recently discovered I like coconut at all, and prefer it in small rather than large amounts. I still greatly enjoyed this though, and again was pleased at having actual coconut pieces throughout the chocolate.

Kind of like a Golden Rough for adults.

There is, though, one sad and disappointing thing about these blocks. They do both contain dairy (butter fat), something that now characterises all of the flavoured Lindt Excellence blocks. I don't know why, as it isn't necessary with 47% cocoa - and what is more, it didn't use to characterise the chilli flavour in the range. It was a very sad day when I noted the ingredient list had changed for that.

4. All of the above culminated in me creating a Lindt Excellence flavour hierarchy in my mind. And then on the computer.

It is likely to change by next week, especially given the novelty advantage currently given to strawberry and coconut, but for now - here it is:

Lindt Excellence Blocks

I think it would be nice if Lindt acknowledged this by sending me some free selections from the top tier. Or new samples to try. Or just removed the dairy from all of the 47-49% cocoa blocks.

Are these two Lindt flavours new to anyone else?
And how would your chocolate hierarchy differ?!

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