Only For The Holidays, The Lindt Holiday Spice Lindor Truffle Is Worth Picking Up!

The Good: Good taste, Generally decent ingredients
The Bad: No way to bulk it well, Limited time availability.
The Basics: The Lindt Holiday Spice Lindor truffles are available for a limited time in the Fall and winter and are good, if expensive to get and enjoy!


It's that time of year again and I could not be happier! With the onset of autumn comes . . . limited edition chocolates. One of my favorites from last year would have to be the Lindt Lindor Holiday Spice truffle. My wife purchased some of these last year and I froze my last two in hopes of reviewing them for the site I used to write for. Well, before I could, I noticed that they went missing from the freezer and my wife meekly admitted that she had needed some vitamin C (that being our euphemism for chocolate) and had eaten them. So, when we were out recently and saw the local Lindt store had the Holiday Spice truffles in stock, she picked me up some expressly so I could review them for my new blog. It's hard not to love support like that!

I love Lindt chocolates, but I've been irked about some of their limited edition flavors. After all, I've fallen in love with their Coffee Truffles (click here for that review!) and learned that they would only be around for a limited time. While I am stocking up on those, I am not stocking up on the Holiday Spice truffles. This is not because the Holiday Spice truffles aren't good, but they are more of a novelty than an actually impressive confection.

Basics

Lindt Lindor Holiday Spice truffles are a limited edition chocolate truffles from the Swiss chocolatiers Lindt & Sprungli and their U.S.-based subsidiary which is only available in the U.S. in the winter months. Each truffle is a one inch sphere of chocolate with a shell about an eighth of an inch thick. This shell covers a thick chocolate ball inside and that center ball is a lighter chocolate than the outer coating. Each of the truffles comes individually wrapped in a light pale orange foil wrapper. While I usually rail against the environmental impact of individually-wrapped candies, it is hard to imagine Lindt Lindor truffles not wrapped. This keeps each one clean, unmelted and intact.

Each Lindor Truffle is a sphere with a seam at the hemisphere that is essentially a chocolate globe sealing in a soft chocolate ball inside. In this form, the bag, the individually-wrapped truffles are packaged together in a thin cellophane sleeve. This size has approximately twenty truffles, which means the truffles cost about fifty cents each. This is a little pricey and because these truffles are not available in bulk boxes, the cost is a serious factor for chocolate fans.

Ease Of Preparation

These are candy, so preparing them is as simple as opening the bag and then opening one of the foil wrappers around the actual chocolate truffle one wishes to eat. There is no special way to unwrap or eat Lindt Lindor Holiday Spice truffles, though failure to unwrap them will certainly mute the taste!

Taste

There is a very strong scent to these Lindt Lindor Truffles, which is a mix of cinnamon and nutmeg. Because these truffles only come out around the holiday season, it is hard not to think of these as some form of chocolate egg nog from their scent.

In the tongue, the Holiday Spice truffle melts slowly, though because it is a fairly soft milk chocolate, it does not fracture, it wears away for the consumer. Inside is a flavorful chocolate center that is not waxy and tastes slightly dry. This dry quality comes from the flavor of cinnamon, as opposed to cocoa. Even so, it retains a sweetness to it that is not at all unpleasant.

What is difficult about the Holiday Spice truffles is to describe the taste. The dominant taste is that of quality milk chocolate, but because the scents of spices like cinnamon and nutmeg are so prevalent, they make the chocolate taste more flavorful. But those spices do not overwhelm the chocolate flavor or make it into any other flavor. The result, is this is a novelty chocolate, like chocolate truffles flavored with chilies; the flavor is still chocolate, but there is a hot spicy flavor to it that is undeniable. Similarly, with the Holiday Spice truffles, at room temperature, they are mostly chocolate flavor, with an undertone of other flavors. The last one I had last Spring had a center that was melting and that one tasted like soft chocolate around a cinnamon hot cocoa center!

Nutrition

Well, these are candy, so it is tough to look at these for something nutritious and then blame them for not being healthy. Lindt Lindor truffles are surprisingly good, though, which is probably why they are so expensive. The primary ingredients are bittersweet chocolate, vegetable oil and sugar. There is nothing unpronounable in these candies.

A serving of the Lindt Lindor Holiday Spice truffles is considered three balls. From three truffles, one consumes 210 calories, most of those calories being from fat. There are less than five milligrams of cholesterol, no sodium, nor any vitamins in these truffles. There is, however, 4% of one's daily iron and 2% of their daily calcium in three spheres, so it is not like these will just leave your taste buds satisfied without giving anything to your body.

Honestly, these are candy and anyone looking to them for actual nutrition needs to get a reality check. These are not Vegan-compliant, nor are they recommended for anyone with a nut allergy as they are produced on the same equipment that peanuts (and tree nuts) pass over. They are, not marked as kosher, nor gluten-free.

Storage/Clean-up

The bag of these Lindt Lindor Holiday Spice truffles remain fresh for quite some time. However, even the box notes they ought to be kept in a cool environment between 60 and 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Kept in such an environment, these will remain fresh until late 2011. Given that they are individually wrapped, it is hard to imagine just what it would take for these to go bad outside melting and refreezing.

As for cleanup, simply throw the wrappers in the garbage! Outside that, there is no real cleanup needed, unless one is eating them in a hot environment. In that case, it is likely one would need to wash their hands. If these truffles melt into most fabrics, they will stain. For that style of cleanup, be sure to consult a fabric guide for whatever you stained.

Overall

The Holiday Spice Lindt Lindor truffles are a novelty and they are fun, but the truth is, I was more excited about getting them back to try for review than I think I would want in any sort of permanent rotation. As a result, Lindt actually gets some credit from me; they have created a chocolate worth looking forward to, even if it is not so distinct or incredible to make one feel like they simply must have it all the time.

For other Lindt Lindor Truffles, please check out my reviews of:
60% Cocoa Extra Dark Chocolate truffles
Peanut Butter truffles
Mint truffles

6/10

For more food reviews by me, please visit my index page!

© 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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