Lindt Lindor: Strawberries & cream

Product name: Lindt Lindor: Strawberries & cream
Purchase details: £3.50 for a 200g box (Wilkinson)
Calories: 76 per truffle
Country of origin: Italy

A few months ago now, Lindt announced that their next new and limited edition of Lindor would be Strawberries & cream. I was extremely excited about these ‘white chocolate truffles with a smooth melting filling’ so couldn’t believe my luck when I found them the very next day. However, I’ve been very restrained and only just opened them – I’d love to pretend I was waiting for Summer but, really, I had other products that needed eating first!

The presentation of these chocolates was lovely. They came in a girly pink and Summery-feeling box and were individually wrapped in metallic pink foil. The truffles were the usual shape (albeit with shallower ‘plugs’ where the centres had been piped in – see my Caramel review for comparison!) and the white chocolate was liberally flecked with varying shades and sizes of pink. I’d loved the box’s imagery of the baby pink liquid being poured into the chocolate shells but, of course, the centres were more solidified in their finished form. However, the filling remained pale and smooth, although I noticed that its hue had been achieved with beetroot red colouring.

The creamy berry aroma that these Lindor emitted was just like strawberry milkshake. The chunky chocolate was infused with strawberry and tasted creamy, too, with a vanilla flavour and beautiful hints of berry.

The truffles’ centres provided the usual melting texture but with a slight graininess thrown in. I was delighted to find that even this tasted of white chocolate, although the 0.4% strawberry powder and 1.1% cream powder also made their mark. To my delight, they tasted just like milkshake in a more indulgent food form! However, it wasn’t sickly, and the grainy texture somehow reduced the richness which meant it didn’t feel quite as in your face as some of the other Lindor varieties.

Despite buying these immediately in fear or the limited edition not being around for long, I know that Lindor: Strawberries & cream are still available in shops. Here’s hoping that Lindt recognise just how fantastic they are and allow them to be a permanent fixture in the range – I loved them!

Appearance: 9.5/10
Aroma: 8/10
Taste: 9/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 8.63/10

Perugina Baci: Nocciole intere

Product name: Perugina Baci: Nocciole intere
Purchase details: £0.99 for a 150g bar (99p Stores)
Calories: 124 per 21.4g piece
Country of origin: Italy 

When I was 10 years old, I went on my first trip abroad. I’ve got fond memories of that family holiday in Italy and one thing I’ve never forgotten is a particular brand of little chocolates that came in midnight blue packaging and, within their foil wrappers, had little notes written in Italian – they seemed a bit like fortune cookies at the time. However, what I never have remembered is their name. That changed when I saw this bar of Perugina Baci: Nocciole intere recently – I knew instantly that I’d found something by the same brand and I just had to take a trip down memory lane.

Having checked out Perugina's website, I now know the pieces of paper were love notes, and since Google told me ‘Baci’ means ‘kisses’, everything suddenly makes more sense! Although there were no additional bits of paper within this bar’s wrapper, there were various relationship-related quotes printed on the inside, so I didn’t feel like I’d missed out.

I found out from Google that ‘Nicciole intere’ translates as ‘whole hazelnuts’ and, with the product description given as ‘milk chocolate and gianduja hazelnut milk chocolate with hazelnuts’, I couldn’t wait to tuck into one of my favourite flavour combinations. According to trusty Wikipedia, gianduja is a chocolate spread that consists of around 30% hazelnut paste. In my head, I was thinking ‘Nutella’, so it all seemed very exciting.

My nose was soon greeted with a relatively strong scent that was equally chocolatey and hazelnutty with a subtle sweetness thrown in for good measure.

The bar was split into seven oblong segments that featured the brand name. The whole hazelnuts (8%) were visible through both sides of the slab and the chopped hazelnuts (3.7%) were also noticeable throughout. In addition, the chocolate’s surface contained lots of darker flecks which looked a lot like vanilla but there was no mention of this on the ingredients list. The bar was also clearly split into two – the darker base appeared to be the gianduja layer whilst the paler upper layer was standard chocolate.

This Baci: Nocciole intere had quite a strong taste of rich cocoa and plenty of hazelnut. I was right to expect a Nutella-like flavour but it wasn’t as sweet and felt a lot more sophisticated. The texture contributed to this too since it didn’t have a praline feel to it but it wasn’t completely chunky either – it was solid but with a softer chew than most chocolate bars. The well-dispersed nuts provided a great crunch and, when melting slowly, only the whole nuts interfered – the chopped ones didn’t get in the way at all!

Due to the heavy weight of this bar, the pieces were of a pleasing size that were full of flavour. A serving may only have been one piece but this didn’t feel stingy at all...although I won’t deny I could have happily and easily eaten more at once! I just hope I won’t have to wait such a long time again before I get my hands on another Perugina product.

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 8/10
Texture: 7.5/10
Overall score: 7.75/10

Dairyfine Coins: White chocolate

Product name: Dairyfine Coins: White chocolate
Calories: 135 per 25g serving (486 per 90g bag)
Country of origin: Italy

I did well out of Santa this year – I had two visits so I’ve barely scratched the surface on the snacks I received!

Something I happily get in my stocking every year is a bag of chocolate coins and, in recent times, I’ve been particular excited if these have been wrapped in silver foil to indicate white chocolate. This was the case with this bag of Dairyfine Coins: White chocolate which were made for Aldi. As you may remember, I raved about their Choceur Smooth White bar last month but, having checked their website and seeing that this range is specifically aimed at children, I didn’t expect the quality to be as good here.

These Coins came presented in the usual way for this type of seasonal product – in a net bag and shaped and packaged to look like money. In this case, the label even had a picture of an elf and described the product as ‘elf’s pocket money’ which I thought was quite sweet. The coins inside came in two different sizes which represented different ‘values’ – the ‘10 new pence’ coin had an image of a lion whilst the ‘two pence’ had a more traditional money design. 

These foil wrappers slightly moulded the ‘solid white chocolate coins shaped pieces’ but this wasn’t as defined as it could have been. Colour-wise, they looked like standard white chocolate and, despite their relatively thin disc shapes, they still looked fairly decent sizes, and they also had a slight white chocolate smell. 

 

The Coins had a really good melt that was smooth and gradual. However, I found that both sizes were a bit too big to fit in the mouth comfortably to allow this to happen whole, although they were thick enough to provide a chunkiness to chew instead. 

 

Now the downside. These just didn’t taste great. They weren’t very creamy and there was an odd edge to the flavour that I couldn’t work out. They also weren’t that sweet although this element did increase the more I ate. As expected, they didn’t seem to be great quality, and it certainly wasn’t anything like the Choceur bar. Whilst the basic elements for a good white chocolate were there, the strange flavour just took over and, I felt, almost tasted like the chocolate had gone off (it hadn’t!). 

Despite my disappointment with the flavour, I did think these Dairyfine Coins were a good novelty for the Christmas season, and I was also pleased to see that they were UTZ certified and, therefore, supported sustainable farming. 

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 6.5/10
Taste: 5.5/10
Texture: 7.5/10
Overall score: 6.75/10

Lindt Lindor: Coconut

Product name: Lindt Lindor: Coconut

Purchase details: £4.50 for a 200g box (Sainsbury's)
Calories: Unsure – estimate 77 per truffle
Country of origin: Italy 

Despite my previously voiced apprehension surrounding Lindt Lindor truffles (see here), I’ve actually been searching for this limited edition Coconut variety for ages. In the end, I had to call in reinforcements, so tonight’s review is thanks to my sister who finally managed to find me a box! Due to my love of coconut, I expected these truffles to be another exception to the rule in terms of my enjoyment of the brand, although I was slightly disappointed that they consisted of milk chocolate shells rather than white chocolate.

I absolutely loved the colour used for the box and foil wrappers of these ‘milk chocolate truffles with a smooth melting coconut filling’ and, due to the icy shade and white floral decoration, I actually thought they looked quite Wintry and snow-like. I do wish Lindt would put the nutritional information on the packaging, though, since I've again had to rely on MyFitnessPal for the calorie count.

These truffles had the same outer appearance as the Caramel variety and emitted a deliciously strong, milky coconut smell. On cutting into a ball, I found that the chocolate shell was nice and thick, and the white filling contrasted well with this.

When biting into a truffle, the aforementioned thickness of the milk chocolate was immediately apparent and it tasted as good as Lindt normally does, with a minimum of 31% cocoa solids and 20% milk solids.

Whilst only 1% of the product was coconut powder, this flavour was strong and tasted lovely and sweet, although the nutty element was also present. Despite my initial concern, I found that this did actually go really well with the milk chocolate and, to be honest, white chocolate probably would have been a little bit too sweet.

Aside from the flavour being really good, I was pleased that it wasn’t actually that Lindor-like in that I didn’t find it at all sickly. Maybe the curse is broken?!

I found these truffles quite greasy to touch but, in the mouth, they did have a great texture. They weren’t as silky smooth as the Caramel ones in that the coconut centres didn’t turn into puddles in quite the same way due to a slight graininess. However, the balls did still melt well and the truffle aspect did have its anticipated cooling effect.

On the whole these truffles were so milky and smooth that eating them wasn’t that dissimilar to drinking a glass of milk – they just had a more awesome flavour. I think I’m in love. 

Appearance: 9/10
Aroma: 8/10
Taste: 9/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 8.5/10