The Good: Good chocolate mint flavor, Bag has mild savings over individual truffles, Decent bulking
The Bad: Slightly waxier chocolate than I'd like, Expensive, Environmental impact of packaging.
The Basics: Delicious and minty, the Lindt Lindor Dark Peppermint truffles are a great seasonal treat that I wish we could bulk up on!
Each passing holiday with my wife brings us closer together and she is an exceptional judge of what I will enjoy when it comes to food, drink and snacks. So, for example, when we first got together and she presented me with a bag of Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Squares With Mint Filling, I knew we were off to a great start! Last holiday season, the love of my life continued to treat me well with a giant bag of Lindt Lindor Truffles in the limited edition Dark Peppermint flavor. I ate these at an astonishing pace (it's actually disturbing, I'm wondering if it is a compulsion) and my wife had to pry me away from the keyboard to get me to exercise them off! The love is still real!
And for those looking through the after-holiday season sales, this limited edition flavor is one to pick up while to you can and the 8.5 oz. bag is a great way to get the most for your money. In fact, I've been feeling bad since the holiday (not just from overeating sweets) because so many of the yummy confections my wife bought for me could have been picked up the day after the holiday for half price (the day has not meant anything to me in years!). Still, Lindt seems to know the value of these Limited Edition Lindor Truffles and they aren't marking them down! Given that these have hit the shelves again this year, this strategy must have worked!
Basics
Lindt Lindor Dark Peppermint truffles are a limited edition chocolate from the Swiss chocolatiers Lindt & Sprungli (or, at least, their U.S.-based subsidiary, as I discovered in the fine print on the bag that these were actually made in New Hampshire)! 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 mint ball inside. Each of the truffles comes individually wrapped in a pine green and white foil wrapper. It is worth noting that while I usually rail against the environmental impact of such things, 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 near-solid chocolate ball inside. In this form, the 8.5 oz. bag, the individually-wrapped truffles are packaged together in a thick foil paper bag. This size has twenty truffles, so they come out to about fifty cents each, and the thick foil paper bag does little to protect the spheres. The bag is not resealable, though this matters very little considering that the truffles do not go bad as they are individually wrapped and get devoured quite quickly by anyone who loves mint chocolate!
One of these bags, even with twenty truffles, tends to run in the $8.50 range. These are not cheap candies!
Ease Of Preparation
These are candy, so preparing them is as simple as opening the bag and then opening one of the plastic wrappers around the actual chocolate truffles one wishes to eat. There is no surprise way to unwrap or eat Lindt Lindor Dark Peppermint truffles, though I certainly recommend unwrapping the truffles before eating them.
Taste
There is no bouquet to these Lindt Lindor Truffles, which surprised me for a product that advertises 60% Cocoa chocolate product. In fact, the surprise for me was how milky the chocolate looked when I first opened one of these delicious little balls. For dark chocolate, this is not very dark. As a result, this has the consistency of milk chocolate. Letting it melt on the tongue, I was a little disappointed that the outer coating of chocolate had a more waxy taste to it than most fine chocolates, making me think this was more mass-produced than what I usually taste from Lindt.
The taste is waxy and only slightly darker in its flavor than a milk chocolate truffle, so those looking for bitter and dry will be surprises how creamy and wonderful the coating is. As an objective test, I cracked one of these Dark Peppermint truffles open before eating it and inside, I discovered a thick chocolate truffle center that smelled divinely of peppermint. As the milky coating melts away, the minty center cracks through and this taste is distinctive, peppermint that is the very definition of the flavor. The center is a little more mild than I would have expected - it did not open the nostrils the way drinking peppermint extract, for example, would - but it was clearly mint and it was delicious.
That said, this is one of the candies I have had lately which most deserves the patience of the consumer. This is a truffle one needs to let melt slowly on the tongue and as it becomes fluid, slowly pass the tongue over and through the truffle in order to truly enjoy the blending of the chocolate and mint. This is an exceptional chocolate when one takes the time to let it works it magic in the mouth; it is not a casual chocolate or one for those who might want something to pop in their mouth while on the fly (I've been enjoying mine with "Frasier" while my partner has her sherry with the show).
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. Still, there is (I was quite surprised) nothing unpronounable in these candies.
A serving of the Lindt Lindor Dark Peppermint truffles is considered three balls. From three truffles, one consumes 210 calories, 170 of those calories being from fat. There is less than five milligrams of cholesterol, no sodium, nor any vitamins in these truffles, but seriously, did you think there would be? There is, however, 4% of one's daily iron and 2% of their daily calcium in three spheres, so there is something to rationalize gluttony to!
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 bags of these Lindt Lindor Dark Peppermint truffles remain fresh for quite some time. However, even the bag notes they ought to be kept in a cool environment between 60 and 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Kept in such an environment, these would have remained fresh until October 31, 2010, had I not eaten them by the end of January 2010, and that makes the limited edition truffles a great value. Given that they are individually wrapped in a very sealed package, it is hard to imagine just what it would take for these to go bad outside melting and refreezing.
As for cleanup, throw the wrappers in the garbage and we all get along on this planet! 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 clean-up, be sure to consult a fabric guide for whatever you stained.
Overall
Delicious and pricey, the Dark Peppermint Lindt Lindor Truffles are worth their price, so long as one has the time to properly enjoy them when the time to consume them comes.
For other Lindt Lindor Truffles, please check out my reviews of:
Holiday Spice
60% Extra Dark Chocolate
Peanut Butter
8/10
For other food reviews, please visit my index page for a full listing of all I have currently reviewed!
© 2010, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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