July 15th: Lindt Eiscafe

Kcal 580 Fat 39.0g Carbs 52.0g (per 100.0g)

Ever since my friends over at Dean-German-Grocery vanished off the planet I have had a little difficulty getting hold of the latest products to be hitting the German marketplace. After pulling a few strings with some German pals via Twitter I have luckily been able to find myself a source - so panic has thankfully been averted! One of the biggest product launches this summer in Germany has come from Lindt, who have recently brought a new line of 100.0g tafel summer variants into their portfolio. This new range consists of eight different flavours which you can view on the Lindt site - See HERE. I wont be able to review of all of them, but I have managed to get some samples of the flavours that appealed to me most - one of these being the 'Eiscafe' variety that I am reviewing today.

As I have mentioned above this bar in a 100.0g tablet form that was split into the same style blocks as the Lindt Mousse au Chocolat range. The bar came described as 'white chocolate with a coffee cream filling' and this was communicated nicely by the on pack visuals which gave the sense that coffee ice cream type experience was at hand. Whilst on the topic of the packaging it's worth noting just how brilliantly the product was presented. Lindt normally do a very good job with their wrappers, but it has to be said they have excelled themselves with this new range. On another positive note the inner chocolate looked remarkably like the picture on the front, which I always think is a good thing.

What with my love for coffee chocolates I was exceedingly excited about getting trying this bar, and my hopes were risen even further when a gorgeous set of milky coffee scents revealed themselves when I peeled away the foil that was hugging the chocolate. The size of the blocks meant they were a little too big to eat in one mouthful, though eating half a piece one at a time was a nice mouthful. Before I ate this bar I felt it best to chill it in the fridge for a few hours before eating it, and this proved to be a good decision. In it's chilled nature the outer white chocolate had a delightful crispness when bitten in to, and it allowed the smooth cream based flavours to be savoured all that much longer as the melt was slowed a little in pace. The milky, vanilla hinted flavours of the exterior chocolate nicely led in to the softer feeling centre, which was similarly cream based in taste. Sat in the middle of the truffle like centre there were small particles of coffee beans which when encountered brought short bursts of coffee to taste. These coffee bursts were admittedly a little on the sharp and bitter side for my liking, and it would have been nicer if the coffee element was delivered in a more flowing fashion through the inner creme. I don't usually find white chocolates all that satisfying, but a few blocks of this more than enough to subside my afternoon stomach rumbling.

Overall the quality of the white chocolate in this bar was exceptionally high, however the coffee element really wasn't optimised. The milky sweetness of the white chocolate did on the whole balance the forceful nature of the coffee, but I was certainly surprised to see the manner in which the coffee given how it was described on the packaging and Lindt website. Billed as a 'coffee cream centre' I was hoping for a Ritter Sport Cappuccino type filling, but what I got was a high quality white chocolate and cream centre with a somewhat lazy portioning of coffee bean chips. Because I'm such a big fan of coffee chocolate I probably judge them a little harshly when they don't come off quite as well as I hoped for. Quite simply though, I feel Lindt didn't make the best of the opportunity they had with this particular flavour combination. They got the vanilla ice cream effect spot on with their white chocolate, but the coffee delivery was really lacking the same level of prestige.

7.6 out of 10