The Good: Generally flavorful, Good ingredients
The Bad: Expensive, Not as rich and diverse on the flavor front as one might hope
The Basics: The Lindt Gourmet Truffles assortment is good, but offers more generic flavor at premium prices.
My wife is a big fan of chocolate and she keeps me in a number of wonderful, premium chocolates for my enjoyment and review. The latest that she picked up for me was the Lindt Gourmet Truffles assortment. The thirteen-piece, six flavor box of chocolates was one she picked up for me for one of our recent minneversaries. And, while they were good, given that they have a comparable price to other premium chocolates like Godiva, I expected a similar level of quality. Alas, the Gourmet Truffles are good, but do not rise to the value offered by most other Lindt products or other premium chocolate brands.
Basics
The Gourmet Truffles by Lindt are a 7.3 oz. box featuring thirteen chocolates truffles. These candies are meant to look distinctive and they are pretty different-looking (thought the milk and dark truffles are pretty close). The six truffles in the Lindt Gourmet Truffles Assortment are: Milk, White, Dark, Extra Dark, Hazelnut, and Vanilla.
The Milk Chocolate Truffle is a textured, somewhat veiny sphere. Instead of a smooth truffle, the light brown sphere looks like it is stuccoed. The Milk Chocolate Truffle is 1 1/4" in diameter.
The White Chocolate Truffle and Dark Chocolate Truffles are both 1 1/4” in diameter and have the same textured look as the Milk Chocolate Truffle. The White Chocolate Truffle is virtually identical in appearance to the Milk Chocolate, save that it is white. Similarly, the Dark Chocolate Truffle looks like the Milk Chocolate Truffle, save that it is a darker brown color for the chocolate.
The other three truffles are each 1 1/8” in diameter. They are smooth, with a distinctive drizzle on the top of each one. The Extra Dark Truffle is even darker than the Dark Chocolate Truffle; it is almost black in color. It has a lattice of white chocolate atop each smooth sphere. The Hazelnut and Vanilla Truffles are smooth and lighter brown, which makes sense given that they are milk chocolate. The Hazelnut Truffle has a simple white chocolate zigzag on it; the Vanilla has a milk chocolate drizzle that mirrors the white chocolate on the Extra Dark Truffle.
Ease Of Preparation
There is no preparation involved with consuming the Lindt Gourmet Truffles. Simply remove the plastic wrap and cardboard sash and pluck out the truffles! These are definitely chocolates that one will want to eat one by one!
Taste
Each of the truffles is different and they are fairly distinctive.
The Milk Chocolate Truffle smells very faintly of chocolate. The aroma is mild and sweet and only hints at the flavor of the truffle. On the tongue, the sweet milk chocolate truffle is somewhat indistinct. The chocolate is sweet and appropriately milky and there is an almost caramel aftertaste to the flavor of this truffle. The chocolate is mild and not at all waxy, but it is also somewhat unimpressive or distinctive. In other words, it is not bad, but it is so sweet as to be indistinct and not overly chocolatey.
The White Chocolate Truffle has no real aroma to it. In the mouth, the White Chocolate Truffle is appropriately mild and creamy. The milky flavor of the White Chocolate Truffle tastes like a sweetened cream in solid form. Seriously, this taste almost identical to a sweet, unflavored, coffee creamer. The milky flavor is sugary and sweet and leaves a slight sweetness on the tongue. The White Chocolate Truffle coats the tongue with a lingering, strongly sweet flavor that endures for about five minutes after it is consumed.
The Dark Chocolate Truffle smells delightfully like chocolate, rich and full. The Dark Chocolate Truffle lands on the tongue with a cocoa flavor that is stronger than the milk chocolate. While the chocolate flavor is rich and tastes like one might expect dark chocolate to, it is cut with a sweetness that is not familiar to those who love true dark chocolate. Instead of finishing strong and dry like a real dark chocolate, the Lindt Dark Chocolate Truffle ends up diminishing in flavor after a few seconds on the tongue and the resultant flavor is virtually identical to a standard milk chocolate. It is that sweet. The Dark Chocolate Truffle has a very slight cocoa flavor that lingers on the tongue for about three minutes after it is consumed. That chocolate aftertaste is also very sweet.
I was most looking forward to the Extra Dark Truffle and they live up! The Extra Dark Chocolate Truffle has almost no aroma to it. The white chocolate drizzle contributes nothing to the flavor of the Extra Dark Chocolate Truffle. The Extra Dark Chocolate Truffle starts sweet and develops into a more intriguing flavor. The dark chocolate has tiny grounds of cocoa beans embedded in the shell. As the dark chocolate shell melts away, the Extra Dark Chocolate truffle is augmented by the dry, distinct chocolate that blends with the creamy, but dark chocolate. The Extra Dark Chocolate Truffles have a pretty strong, dry chocolate aftertaste to it. The aftertaste remains on the tongue for several minutes after it is consumed.
The Hazelnut Truffle actually smells sweet and chocolatey. The chocolate melts away faster on this truffle and the ganache is buttery and appropriately nutty. The sweet chocolate and blends nicely with the hazelnut pieces. The Hazelnut Truffle has a very sweet and buttery aftertaste to it that lingers for several minutes after it is consumed.
The Vanilla Truffle smells simple and unassuming. On the tongue, the Vanilla Truffle is dominated by the sweet milk chocolate that coats the vanilla ganache. The flavor comes through in a very subtle way. As the chocolate melts away, it takes on an increased flavor like vanilla extract is blended into the milk chocolate. The vanilla is not at all dry like the Dark Chocolate truffles and the flavor is very mild. There is no real aftertaste to the Vanilla Truffles!
Nutrition
The Gourmet Truffles is an assortment of chocolates, so they were never going to be a wealth of nutritional value. Even so, these are not the worst confections to ever grace my lips and eventually tummy. The ingredients all start with sugar, cocoa butter, and chocolate. None of the ingredients are unpronouncable.
Still, this is a box of candy, so it is not ideal to try to live off of. The Gourmet Truffles are intended to be two-truffle servings, so there are six and a half servings per box. In each serving, there are 200 calories, 140 of which are from fat! The single serving has 50% of one's recommended daily allowance of saturated fat and there are 5 mg of cholesterol. There are negligible amounts of vitamin A, calcium, iron and protein. In other words, one does not want to try to live off this box of chocolates for too long!
Storage/Clean-up
Just as there is no real preparation for eating the Lindt Gourmet Truffles, outside opening the box, there is no real clean-up issues either. Simply eat the chocolates and dispose of the leftover garbage when one is done! These chocolates get softer in warm climates and as such are liable to melt. As a result, they may stain fabrics. Consult a fabric care guide if it melts into any of your clothes or table linens.
As for storage, this package of chocolate comes doubly sealed and there was no expiration date on my box. However, chocolate does not last forever. Still, sealed properly, the Gourmet Truffles ought to remain viable and delicious for quite some time.
Overall
The Lindt Gourmet Truffles Series of chocolates is a box of chocolate brought down mostly by expense and lack of real distinction to it. The Gourmet Truffles are decent, but not extraordinary, making for a tougher sell than most Lindt products.
For other reviews of candy assortments, check out my takes on:
Ghirardelli Holiday Assortment
Whitman’s Soho Assortment
Jelly Belly BeanBoozled Jelly Bean Assortment
6.5/10
For other chocolate reviews, please visit my Chocolate Review Index Page for an organized listing!
© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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