Saturday, September 11, 2010

Despite The Price, Lindt Pistachio Nut Bars ARE Well Worth Stocking Up On!






The Good: Great taste, Wonderful quality, Decent bulking
The Bad: Melts easily, Still expensive.
The Basics: A perfect chocolate bar, the Lindt Pistachio Bars are worth stocking up on, even if they are a little pricier!

While my blog is not yet filled up with my food reviews, I have written many, many food reviews. And those who followed my food reviews know, price is something I always factor into my reviews of food products. As well, because I strive to have high standards, I also tend to leave perfect ratings only for truly exceptional products. I mention this at the outset of my review of Lindt Pistachio chocolate bars because I cannot recall the last time I had so many cons for something that I consider perfect. Yes, it’s an odd paradox, but there you have it. The Lindt Pistachio Nut Bars are near perfect and are completely delicious!

I am a huge fan of Lindt chocolates and there are few I am willing to stock up on simply because I am eager to keep trying new and different things. The Pistachio Nut bars are a candy I first encountered in high school, shortly after I fell in love with pistachios and the truth is, it is one of only two chocolates I stock up on (the other being Cadbury Crème eggs!). The Pistachio Nut bars are a high-quality chocolate bar and while they are expensive, they are worth it, which helps me to justify giving the five-star rating to these!

Basics

The Lindt Pistachio Bar is a filled milk chocolate bar from Lindt. Each 3.5 oz. chocolate bar is wrapped in gold foil and a slightly harder cardboard wrapper which has the trademark Lindt images of the candy bar. The actual chocolate bar is 3” wide by 5” long and features ten segments of the bars. Each segment has a semi-sphere of chocolate which coats the center of the bar. Each of these bubbles contains a single pistachio nut which is suspended in an almond crème. The almond crème is like a nougat which houses the pistachio nut.

The chocolate is very light and very soft. Individually, the bars are on the $4.50 - $5.00 range, which is super expensive, until one considers just how delicious these chocolate bars are! The bulk pack is a cardboard box which houses a dozen of the bars. The box is made with slots so that each of the bars is suspended for ease of access, but protects each bar from being knocked around while in transit.

Ease Of Preparation

Lindt Pistachio bars are chocolate, not preparing a chocolate soufflé. 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

Here is where I’m sure to run out of two synonyms. The first is for “perfect,” the second is for “buttery.” Lindt’s Pistachio Bar is made with a very soft, Swiss chocolate and it is the type which literally melts in one’s mouth. The chocolate coating is not at all waxy, but it is a light chocolate flavor that has a buttery taste and texture to it. Cocoa lovers will be a little surprised by how mild the chocolate flavor is.

As the chocolate melts away, one encounters the almond crème. The crème is sugary, but not terribly sweet. Yes, it tastes like almond butter, a light, not bitter, but dry taste. The flavor is not as rich as marzipan and some of the white crème I have had in these bars, actually adopts more of the taste of a pistachio. The crème, in turn, melts away to reveal the hard pistachio nut. The pistachios taste exactly like pistachios, because that is what they are. Rather pleasantly, the pistachios remain crisp in these bars, so the full flavor and texture of the wonderful nut is maintained.

Nutrition

Lindt makes their fine chocolates with fine ingredients, which is arguably why they are so expensive. With the primary ingredients being sugar, cocoa butter and vegetable oils, the Lindt Pistachio 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 five-block serving (there are two servings, yeah right!, per bar), there are 250 calories, 160 of which are from fat. This represents 28% of one’s RDA of fat (45% of the RDA of saturated fat). Each bar has 50 mg of Sodium (mostly in the pistachio, one assumes because the rest of the taste is so mild) 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 Pistachio 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 (though with my appetite for them, a box of twelve never does).

Clean-up is easy, so long as the chocolate does not melt. The Lindt Pistachio bars have wrappers that ought to be properly disposed of, but otherwise, the chocolate washes off skin and non-porous surfaces. It the chocolate melts onto fabric, consult a fabric guide.

Overall

A delicious blend of milk chocolate and pistachios, the Lindt Pistachio Nut Bar embodies the best of two very different tastes. This blends on the tongue perfectly to be an amazing confection that is not too sweet, but satisfies an adult sweet tooth!

9/10

For more food reviews, please check out my index page!

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

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