The new Lindt Hello line is rolling out, so I picked up a few bars to sample at Target. One is the Lindt Hello Coffee Blast which is part of their Limited Edition summer flavors.
The front of the package asks, “Feeling hot? Have a shot!” followed by a little heart.
The bar is big and has nicely formed, milk chocolate domed sections which hold the coffee flavored filling. The ingredients are interesting because sugar is so prominent in them, as is vegetable oil (in the form of coconut, palm and palm kernel) but coffee and milk are pretty high up there, too.
It smells good, a little sugary but with a burnt and toasted smell of fresh coffee as well.
At first I found the bar extremely sweet. The milk chocolate is sticky on the tongue, though has a smooth melt. The filling is interesting, because at first I just thought it was a cream with a touch of coffee flavoring. Instead it’s layered - there’s a coffee sort of ganache layer that has crystals or crunchies of actual coffee in it. Then there’s the milky layer, which is a little tangy but not as sweet as I’d expected, so it balances out some of the bitter and very strong notes of the coffee (barley malt powder is listed on the ingredients, that may be in the cream to tone down the sweetness).
As I noted on the previous Nougat Crunch bar, all the Lindt Hello products are milk or white chocolate. I like the flavor profile of this one, but the cream fillings leave me a little on the overstuffed but not quite satisfied side of things. (I have this issue with the much oilier Lindor Truffles.) Lindt was one of the first very dark chocolates I got into sometime in the last century, I’d like to see them add more of that to this line.
Lindt is engaged in a program to create complete traceability for their ingredients, including labor conditions and sustainability for their cocoa but they don’t specifically say anything about palm oils. The package says it may contain peanuts and/or tree nuts. Contains soy, milk and because there’s barley malt, I’d say it’s not gluten free, either.
Related Candies
- Starbucks Dark Chocolate with Via Ready Brew Bar
- Askinosie Intelligentsia Coffee Bar
- Meiji Corot & CoffeeBeat
- Sarotti Scho-Ka-Kola
- Espresso Filled Dark Chocolate
- Javaz - Milk & Dark Chocolate Covered Coffee Beans
- Trader Joe’s Espresso Pillows