Lindt Creation: Fraîcheur acidulée (citron frappe)

Product name: Lindt Creation: Fraîcheur acidulée (citron frappe)
Purchase details: £0.99 for a 150g bar (99p Stores)
Calories: 394 per half bar
Country of origin: France

Traditionally, lemon isn’t my favourite flavour, but this Lindt Creation: Fraîcheur acidulée (citron frappe) caught my eye as something different and, since I trust the Lindt brand, I thought it would be worth giving a go.

The packaging of this Lindt & Sprüngli bar was in French so I couldn’t read most of it but there was a helpful English translation that told me it was ‘fine milk chocolate with ganache and concentrated lemon filling’ which included concentrated lemon juice (2%).

On getting the bar home, I had a quick look online for a couple of further translations and found that ‘Fraîcheur acidulée’ meant ‘tangy freshness’. This alarmed me slightly as I was hoping for something a bit more mellow, but I was still optimistic that I’d like what was described as a ‘new chocolate experience’. The wrapper also advised that this chocolate was best eaten fresh from the fridge. This went against all my instincts about not chilling the brown stuff so I decided to compromise and eat half at room temperature and half cold.

This bar had the same outer appearance as Lindt’s other Creation bars (such as the Coconut) but its very pale inside almost looked like Kendal mint cake. There was almost a hint of orange in the aroma but I could also smell a subtle lemon flavour – for me, its weakness was a good thing!

Starting with the room temperature half, I initially tried a couple of specks of the chocolate that had broken off and it definitely had a citrus element but, again, this was a bit like orange chocolate. On tasting it properly, though, I could tell that it was the usual Lindt milk chocolate, but a tang of lemon did remain on its surface when it was peeled away from the filling. This centre was a bit like fondant and very much had a lemon flavour but its strength was perfect and reminded me of what you get in a lemon meringue pie. It also balanced well with the creamy, sweet chocolate (although the lemon was the dominant flavour), and the quite thick, squidgy, gooey texture was very enjoyable. I can’t deny it was much nicer than I expected and a lot like a dessert. For some reason, it reminded me of Christmas, but I couldn’t quite work out why – I ended up concluding that I associated it with the kind of chocolates I find in gift boxes at that time of year! This was a lot nicer, though, and had enough of a tartness to the flavour that eating more than five squares at once would have been too much.

The chilled chocolate obviously didn’t melt easily (not helped by the large pieces meaning it had to be broken down a bit first!) but the lemon did seep out nicely when attempting this. The change in temperature made the lemon feel fresher, more concentrated and its acidity was a bit more ‘zippy’, but the main change was definitely the texture which had a much crunchier shell, and a slightly chewy centre.

Personal preference for unchilled chocolate meant that this was how I preferred to consume this bar of Lindt Creation but, either way, the variety was far nicer than I could have hoped and felt like such a treat.

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 7.5/10
Overall score: 7.5/10

Lindt Creation: Milk (heavenly crème brûlée)

Product name: Lindt Creation: Milk (heavenly crème brûlée)
Purchase details: £2.00 for a 100g bar or two for £3.00 (tesco.com)
Calories: 143 per 25g serving (573 per bar)
Country of origin: France 

Despite featuring the word ‘new’ on its packaging, I know this Lindt Creation: Milk (heavenly crème brûlée) has been around for a while because I’ve wanted to try it for a few months now! 

Made by Lindt & Sprüngli, the aim of the bar was to achieve an experience as ‘equally indulgent’ as the famous dessert it was named after. The wrapper certainly looked promising, with an enticing image of the delicious, caramelised topping of a real crème brûlée, as well as an illustration of the ‘extra fine milk chocolate with caramelised pieces of sugar and a creme filling’.  

This Creation variety was represented by the colour amber and, like the coconut version, was divided into 10 pieces. In contrast, though, these were thicker to allow for a deeper filling, and were more curved (though still angular) in shape. Each square had the brand name imprinted on it and, inside, contained a pale creme with quite pale sugar pieces that looked almost like biscuit crumbs. The reality of the product wasn’t dissimilar to the image on the box, although the illustration certainly suggested more of a caramel shade underneath the chocolate shell. 

The 10 pieces acted as completely separate chambers so none of the ‘creamy centre with caramelised sugar pieces’ seeped from one square to the next. Despite containing sugar as the main ingredient, the aroma the bar emitted was really milky with a slight shortbread element to it, although this could only really be detected up-close. 

This milkiness was just as present in the taste and I loved how the ‘delicate crème brûlée flavoured filling’ genuinely did have a kind of vanilla custard taste. As a result, this bar did a far better job of recreating the dessert’s flavour than the Wonka Crème Brûlée bar did. Furthermore, the caramelised sugar, which accounted for 4% of the product, produced a burnt sugar taste which added to the authenticity. 

The chocolate, containing a minimum of 30% cocoa solids and 20% milk solids, was described as being ‘decadent’ and ‘smooth’ and I certainly thought it tasted good. Together with the creme filling, it melted well - it was just a shame that this left a mouthful (and I mean full!) of sugar pieces to crunch on as, alone, these were a bit intense in flavour. As a result, I chewed the majority of the bar, but this wouldn’t have been the case if it hadn’t been for the caramelised sugar. 

The bar had a lovely smooth and moist texture and the crunchy bits did work really well when all mixed together. I noticed on the ingredients that 1% of the product was made up of wafer so, presumably, this added to the crispness too. 

Unlike the Wonka attempt at this dessert, this bar was not overly sweet, but yet it was sweet enough to prevent the sugar pieces tasting too bitter.  

All things considered, I thought the proportions of chocolate, creme and sugar used for this heavenly crème brûlée version of Lindt Creation was pretty close to spot on. 

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 8/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 7.88/10

Lindt Creation: Milk (coconut)

Product name: Lindt Creation: Milk (coconut)
Purchase details: £1.00 for a 150g bar (Poundworld)
Calories: Unsure – estimate 60 per square (600 per bar) 

Country of origin: France

Regular readers will know that, when presented with a 100g bar of chocolate, I will fit it into my diet plan so I can eat it all in one go. However, when I bought this pretty big and weighty 150g Lindt Creation: Milk (coconut), I didn’t think this would be an option. According to MyFitnessPal, though, the whole thing ‘only’ contained 600 calories so I decided to be hardcore and take the risk and have it as a proper treat.

The cardboard packaging described this product as ‘finest milk chocolate with delicious coconut filling’ and I have to say that the image on the front felt very fresh. Within the inner foil wrapper, the bar consisted of 10 large squares that alternately had Lindt’s name and logo imprinted on them. A sweet coconut smell  (which was potentially artificial) drifted through the air on unwrapping the chocolate and, up close, the chocolate’s aroma could also be detected.

The squares broke softly and, since the deep gaps between them produced extra, chunky chocolate, I decided to try this first. As I’d hope from Lindt, this was creamy and silky. It also seemed to have its own coconut flavour, but I think this may have just been absorbed from the coconut filling it had been in contact with.

The clean, white coconut cream contained 2% coconut pulp and was moist rather than being the more solid filling I’d been expecting. It was also slightly bitty as it had tiny coconut flakes that made the experience seem more authentic. Unfortunately, though, the flavour wasn’t nearly as strong as it could have been and the chocolate was by far the main flavour. On the plus side, the coconut didn’t taste artificial, as I’d feared, and the lack of flavour meant that it also wasn’t overpowering.

The coconut filling did do a lot for the texture since, whether chewing or allowing to melt, it seeped out of its chocolate casing and, with the latter, left the coconut flakes behind. On the whole then, the texture was pretty soft for a chocolate bar, although the chocolate gaps between the bulk of each square did provide an extra crunch that didn’t succumb to the creamy centre.

Unsurprisingly, this was a rich chocolate bar and, as a result, it did get slightly less enjoyable as I neared the end of it. However, I did wonder if this would have been the case if the coconut had been a bit stronger, like I’d hoped. 

This was a tasty product but I think there was room for improvement. I didn’t actually think it needed as thick a chocolate layer, and I also felt it would have benefitted from more coconut flakes in the filling.   

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 7.5/10