|
|
|
|
Opinion of Lindt Chocolate?
at Thu, 19 Feb 2004 07:43:45 GMT in
>,
(xyz) wrote :
>The other day I bought a bar of Droste's extra dark bittersweet. I
>believe it said 72% cacao solids on the wrapper. Wasn't bad. Today I
>bought a bar of Lindt dark bittersweet. [They were out of the
>Droste.] There was no percentage on the wrapper and the first listed
>ingredient was sugar. Droste listed chocolate liquor as the first
>ingredient. Caveat Emptor I suppose. ... It's obvious Lindt has
>been taken over by MBA-types.
Lindt actually has many levels and formulations of chocolate. That's
typical of any large manufacturer. You may have gotten either the Surfin or
the Excellence bittersweet. Those are around 50% cocoa solids. But they
also make Excellence 70%, and Excellence 85%. You can't miss them - the
percentage is in large, bold type. The wrapper is white with black trim. If
you were to have been fair in comparing Droste 72%, you should compare it
against Excellence 70%. Excellence 70% is pretty good (I'd say better than
Droste 72%) but Excellence 85% is out-of-this-world, IMHO by far the best
85%-class bar on the market. Search for it and buy it. If it doesn't seem
to be in your local stores, demand that they bring it in.
FWIW, Lindt was never a really top-of-the-line chocolatier. They're OK, a
step up from Hershey's or Nestle, but not, for instance, in the class of
Valrhona or Michel Cluizel. So in that sense you shouldn't expect Lindt
bars to be truly great (although as it turns out, Excellence 85% *is*
great, a very pleasant surprise).
--
Alex Rast
(remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)
|