Lindt Chocolate Tastes Good and You Can Have Some!

Lucky me, I met the fine folks at Lindt Chocolate when I was at BlogHer this year.  So many chocolate samples, oh yum oh yum oh yum.  And then they mentioned me on their BlogHer recap post.  And then they offered to send me more chocolate.  Lindt, I love you.  If Will hadn't given me a giant diamond, and if I could marry a company (corporations are people too?), I would marry you.  For reals.

cue angels sighing 

My dear, amazing, wonderfully hilarious friend Lyz (who lives way too far away from me) also got courted by the Lindt (wemakeyourchocolatedreamscometrue) people, and she made some SEXY PIE out of her chocolate.  I just ate it.  But I made Will help me.  And I made him offer tasting comments.  We worked for this chocolate, yo! (not really)

What did we think?

• 70% cocoa almond brittle -- a pleasant nutty flavor, chocolate is dark but still creamy. I like the crisp/brittle bits amidst the creamy chocolate. Will says it has a "satisfying crunch"
• 70% cocoa nut crunch -- a little more plain, more focused on the chocolate, but still with a walnutty undertone. Not sure I can taste the hazelnuts at all, but I enjoy the still-creamy darkness.  A milder, more traditional-tasting nutted chocolate.
• 90% cocoa -- I was surprised at just how much darker it tasted than the 70%.  I mean, it's a 20% difference, sure, but I hadn't really expected it to be so...cocoa-more-than-chocolate. Not sweet at all, really, more bitter, but not in a bad way? It's not subtly creamy like the 70%, just raw-tasting cocoa.  I like it, a lot, but this is definitely a 1-square at a time richness (the 70% with various nuts are lighter in taste and I could probably eat half a bar at a time).  I wonder what the 99% is going to taste like, holycow.
• Extra Fine Dark with a Touch of Sea Salt -- We tried this almost immediately after the 90%, and it felt extremely smooth and creamy in comparison.  The sea salt is subtle at first, but it sticks with you, leaving a pleasing salty-sweet aftertaste. Will thought it had a slight raspberry taste, and I agree. A bit fruity and sweet, with that saltiness countering nicely.  I'm so glad Lindt sent this in my batch, because it was my favorite one at BlogHer :)  Delicious.
• 99% Dark -- whoa baby is this stuff dark.  Scary dark.  Almost too much to handle dark.  Seriously.  The instructions say to place it on your tongue and let it melt...so Reed and I did just that.  It turned into a sort of chalky, bitter mush in our mouths.  Not super pleasant.  I chewed and swallowed, and it was like, ok. I guess.  Sort of like taking a spoonful of cocoa powder.  Bitter, without the sweetness of the 90%.  This chocolate is probably best used in recipes.  Or maybe turned into chocolate milk.  Will have to experiment with the rest of the little squares (this one comes in much smaller squares than the others).

We didn't do an official taste test for the plain 70% chocolate, because it's the basis for the nutty ones, and because honestly I forgot it was on the counter until I started cleaning this weekend and realized it was still there.  And now I want to make sexy pie.

And I want to give you chocolate!  Read on...

Some words from Lindt:

The Lindt Excellence collection is the world’s most exceptionally-crafted premium chocolate, boasting a wide range of cocoa percentage bars and innovative flavor combinations.  Made with the finest cocoa beans and highest quality ingredients, these innovations from the Master Chocolatiers at Lindt have a thin, refined profile to offer chocolate lovers a unique and sophisticated sensory experience.  The 3.5 oz. Lindt Excellence bars are available at retail locations nationwide, Lindt Chocolate Shops, and www.Lindt.com (SRP: $2.59 each).  For more information, visit www.LindtExcellence.com.  

The winner of the giveaway will receive three Excellence bars including: Excellence 70% Cocoa, Excellence Almond Brittle and Excellence Nut Crunch.
 Excellence 70% CocoaThe #1 premium chocolate bar in the U.S. – a full-bodied dark chocolate, masterfully balanced to be neither bitter nor overpowering Excellence 70% Almond BrittleA delicate crunch of almond brittle provides a sweet counterbalance to the deep flavor of the full-bodied, dark chocolate Excellence 70% Cocoa Nut CrunchThe subtle flavor and delicate crunch of caramelized walnut and hazelnut pieces enhances the refined, intense dark chocolate

To enter -

• Leave a comment about your favorite kind of chocolate.  Or why you love chocolate.  Or why chocolate is the cure for what ails us.
• Share this post on facebook, Twitter, etc. and come back and leave a comment for each thing you do.
• Go read Lyz's post about sexy pie and come back here to leave a comment telling me something you liked about her post.  Cross-bloggy-promotion for my friend Lyz!  Bonus treat: she also posts pictures of her nommably chubby baby, Ellis.  Enjoy.

Giveaway remains open until 11:11pm (Pacific) on 11/11/11.  Because, as Lyz said, I can.

CHOCOLATE!