If you're buying a bar of Lindt when you hit up the supermarket, you know you've made it in life. At Rs. 690 a bar, it's decadent, both in taste and price. You're paying for quality Swiss imported stuff, a luxurious silky chocolate that's low on preservatives, refined sugar, and general plasticity. Read on to find our favourite, our least favourite, and why we think these chocolates remind us of the motherland.
We tried all 8 of their dark varieties at office, because we're fancy.
1. A Touch of Sea Salt
Perfection. This fleur de sel infused chocolate has a very light sweetness to it, juxtaposed with a subtle yet compelling salt factor. A crowd favourite, this is chocolate for the refined, with salt that isn't refined.
2. Lime Intense
Even for someone who doesn't generally enjoy citrus, this was superbly executed. The sweetness factor here was upped by the addition of miniscule bits of candied lime peel. With a fresh and engaging texture, it was a superb and summery chocolate.
3. Chilli
This is weird and wonderful. A funky little miris dala situation, perfect for your average spice-craving Lankan. When you first taste it, you think your hardcore Asian tastebuds can't register how low the spice content is. Within seconds, a spicy SMACK whacks into your throat. A rollercoaster for your taste buds. And your mind. The texture and appearance are very much like a normal bit of chocolate, so this is a harmless prank waiting to happen.
4. 70%
We feel like this is basically the highest amount of pure cocoa the average person can handle in their chocolate without finding it too bitter. The deep cocoa taste here was well balanced, with an enjoyable light bittersweet flavour. It isn't as hard as the other higher cocoa content ones are either, and melts gently in your mouth. Classic.
5. Cranberry Intense
This was relatively quite sweet. With randomly dispersed chunks of cranberry, and about 47% cocoa, it was very easy to munch on. Note that they haven't added artificial flavouring, so if the Gods don't gamble in your favour and your little square of chocolate doesn't have a cranberry chunk in it, it just tastes like normal chocolate. I personally wasn't enthusiastic about the addition of hazelnut flakes to it, as the fruit bits already gave the chocolate the texture it needed.
6. Mint Intense
Possibly one of my favourites, the mint option only lost points for being a bit boring. It's a subtle, classy version of an After Eight. Breaking a piece releases this lovely, fresh mint aroma, and the taste is relatively sweet. It doesn't have much going for it in terms of texture though. If you're really keen, you can probably use this to brush your teeth instead of toothpaste and feel equally minty fresh.
7. Cherry Intense
Texturally quite similar to the cranberry, the hazelnut flakes made an unwelcome appearance again. The cherry taste wasn't as compelling though. We didn't hate this, but we didn't love it either. And if I'm paying Rs. 690, I want to feel love. I want to feel passion.
8. Orange Intense
Barely there bitterness, candied orange, infused orange flavour, more hazelnuts (go away already!), and added zest, this tasted VERY ORANGE INDEED. As orange as Trump's face. I feel like the name "orange intense" should have prepared us for this. Unless you're a serious, dedicated, certified orange fanboy, skip this one because it's as subtle as a dude grabbing his crotch on the 176 Maradana bus.
Overall
It's pretty difficult to complain about a set of luxury chocolates, so we won't. All of these were lovely in their own unique snowflake way, and we'd strongly recommend them, especially the top 3. This experiment just confirms what we always knew. Cocoa-rich chocolates are just like Sri Lankans. Dark & Lovely. Plus the best ones are sometimes a bit salty.
