The Good: Great taste, Wonderful quality, Decent bulking
The Bad: Melts easily, Still expensive.
The Basics: Lindt Mousse au Chocolate Noir chocolate bars are incredibly good, but do not hold up well in summer conditions, knocking the expensive delicious chocolates a bit off perfection.
It surprised me as I looked around my house and checked my reviewing blog to realize that I had only reviewed one Lindt chocolate bar. The Lindt chocolate store is one my wife and I go into frequently while in the mall and while the Lindt Pistachio Nut bars (reviewed here!) remain a favorite of mine, my wife has been very much into expanding my horizons by treating me with random chocolates for anniversary and holiday gifts. One of the two latest ones she gifted to me, knowing full well that I would review it, was the Lindt Petits Desserts Mousse au Chocolat Noir bars.
I am a huge fan of Lindt chocolates it surprises me that I have managed to hold off consuming and writing about this amazing chocolate bar for so long. Even more surprising was that this was on sale when we bought it. I'm thinking that might have been because it's called Mousse au Chocolat Noir, as opposed to Swiss Dark Chocolate with Chocolate Mousse filling bars. Regardless, usually, one of the serious detractions against this particular confection is the expense of it. Even so, it is delicious enough to justify the cost.
Basics
The Lindt Mousse au Chocolat Noir Bar is a filled dark chocolate bar from Lindt. Each 4.9 oz. chocolate bar is wrapped in silver foil and a slightly harder cardboard wrapper which has the trademark Lindt images of the candy bar. The actual chocolate bar is 3 3/8” wide by 7” long and features fifteen segments of the bars. Each segment is a block with a slightly curved top of chocolate which coats the center of the bar. Each of these bubbles contains a thick chocolate ganache.
The exterior chocolate is very light and very soft. Individually, the bars are found in the $5.00 range, which is expensive, but average price for this quality of chocolate bar. The
Ease Of Preparation
Lindt Mousse au Chocolat Noir bars are chocolate, not preparing chocolate fondue. Preparing them is as easy as opening a box, removing a candy bar and unwrapping the bar. Because the chocolate is so pricy, I recommend eating this segment by segment, not just biting right into the bar.
Taste
Taste is where the Swiss prove they have a superior product and the Lindt Mousse au Chocolat Noir Bar is not an exception to that rule. Unwrapping the foil, the scent of chocolate fills the space like no American chocolate bar does. No, a Hershey's bar does not make the room smell like one is baking brownies, but simply unwrapping the Mousse au Chocolate Noir bar invokes exactly that scent memory.
Placing the Mousse au Chocolat Noir segment on the tongue, one is treated to a rich milk chocolate taste. This is called a dark chocolate bar, but with only 36% dark chocolate in the shell only neophile chocolate lovers will find this to be satisfactorily dark. The shell is fairly soft and begins melting on the tongue almost immediately and the chocolate flavor is sweet and creamy, not at all bitter.
The Mousse au Chocolat Noir bar melts away around a slightly more solid ganache or mousse which is a full-flavored chocolate that is entirely delicious. The center of the candy bar tastes like exactly what it is intended to: chocolate mousse. What might unsettle the tastebuds of some consumers is that that center will be room temperature, not cold like traditional chocolate mousse. It is absolutely delicious, though.
Nutrition
Lindt makes their fine chocolates with fine ingredients, which is arguably why they are so expensive. With the primary ingredients being sugar, cocoa mass and hydrogenated vegetable fats, the Lindt Mousse au Chocolat Noir bars are not a wonderful food to try to survive on. However, they do use natural ingredients and none of them are unpronounceable. In a six-block serving (there are three servings per bar and this is such a rich chocolate bar that it is often easier to portion correctly as a result!), there are 220 calories, 140 of which are from fat. This represents 25% of one's RDA of fat (50% of the RDA of saturated fat). Each bar has 10 mg of sodium and 6% of one's daily protein. In other words, this is not a snack to try to survive on.
Storage/Clean-Up
Because the Swiss chocolate is so mild and fine, the Lindt Mousse au Chocolat Noir bars are especially susceptible to heat. As a result, these must be kept cool in order to not melt. With that in mind, as long as they are kept cool and dry, these will last over a year. I've discovered that with the onset of summer in the United States, these bars are annoyingly vulnerable. While mine have not outright melted, trying to separate the segments has become entirely problematic. The chocolate flexes and does not fracture, splitting open instead of separating. This is annoying and the only solution I have found has been to freeze the chocolate bars, which does alter the taste in a negative way.
Clean-up is easy, so long as the chocolate does not melt. The Lindt Mousse au Chocolat Noir bars have wrappers that ought to be properly disposed of, but otherwise, the chocolate washes off skin and non-porous surfaces. If the chocolate melts onto fabric, consult a fabric guide; this chocolate will stain.
Overall
Despite the expense of individual bars, the Lindt Mousse au Chocolat Noir Bar is an impressive chocolate experience and one that can proudly be served by those who want a fine chocolate to impress others with. Rich and heavy, this chocolate bar is one of the few where it is easy to eat the suggested serving or less in one sitting, making it ideal to be shared with other chocolate lovers!
For other Lindt chocolate products, please visit my reviews of:
Dark Peppermint Lindor Truffles
Peanut Butter Lindor Truffles
Coffee Lindor Truffles
8/10
For more food reviews, please check out my index page!
© 2011 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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