One of the hottest trends in candy has been the addition of sea salt. A little savory touch to a sweet.
The use of salt in candy is as old as toffee, caramel, & licorice but now it’s popping into chocolates. Lindt just released their newest, an Excellent Dark with a Touch of Sea Salt bar.
The package is quite pretty and elegantly simple. The standard paperboard sleeve with a cool dark blue background for the chocolate square sporting a little sprinkle of salt.
I usually like chocolate bars that come in paperboard sleeves, they protect the chocolate well, and should make it easy to keep the leftovers. Lindt has designed theirs so that once you open it, there’s no tab to tuck back in, instead it falls apart completely without a little piece of tape or a rubber band.
My bar was fresh and has a wonderful sheen. Smelling it, it’s not quite as complex as I’d hoped. The package doesn’t say how chocolatey it is, but it turns out that this simple dark-named bar is only 47%. The ingredients also list butterfat, which I don’t mind in milk chocolate, but feel it tends to make dark chocolate a little less potent.
Smell aside, the texture is quite nice. Silky smooth until, oh, a little pop of salt grains.
The flavors are deeper than the smell. A little coffee & woodsy notes along with a lighter chocolate cake flavor. The salt kind of sends me off into the realm of freshly baked chocolate chips cookies. There’s a bit of a dry finish that keeps it all from feeling like the experience was too sweet or too salty.
It’s a pretty well balanced bar and a nice example of salt & sugar being used together. It’s not quite as deep and satisfying as the darker offerings from Lindt and of course the fact that they’ve used butterfat means it’s off the list for vegans.
Lindt just relaunched their Excellence Chocolate website and I have to say that they did a nice job as far as I’m concerned. Big images, lots of information about the products, including ingredients & nutrition label. And most importantly it’s not done in all flash so no crazy sounds/music & I can link directly to a product page if I wanted to.
Related Candies
- Marich Chocolate Sea Salt Cashews
- Lillie Belle Farms Assortment
- Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Caramels
- Trader Joe’s Fleur de Sel Caramels
- Fran’s Gray Salt Caramels
- Salted Licorices: Djungelvral and Dubbel Zout
Name: |
Excellence Dark: A Touch of Sea Salt |
RATING:
- SUPERB
- YUMMY
- TASTY
- WORTH IT
- TEMPTING
- PLEASANT
- BENIGN
- UNAPPEALING
- APPALLING
- INEDIBLE
|
Brand: |
Lindt |
Place Purchased: |
Rite Aid (Echo Park) |
Price: |
$2.49 |
Size: |
3.5 ounces |
Calories per ounce: |
135 |
Categories: |
Chocolate, France, Lindt, All Natural |
You need to try Cost Plus World Market’s Sea Salt Dark Chocolate 64% Cacao bar. I buy a couple every time I’m in the store.
I totally agree with Liz, the World Market version is FAB, and a good price. It goes into the basket before I can even think of anything else!
I have been looking for this everywhere but haven’t been able to find it. Any suggestions?
Off topic, but you use too many ampersands.
Pam - I found mine at Rite Aid, but haven’t seen it at the other stores that carry the Lindt line. I only got the press release about the new product three weeks ago, so it might not have made it out to all the warehouses yet.
Liz and Cortney - I’ll check that out, there’s a Cost Plus near my office.
Brad - thanks for your comment, I just did a “find on page” and found you’re right! (Though I’m not quite sure what “too many” means, but there are a lot and no rhyme or reason for why they weren’t ands.)
Lake Champlain Chocolates makes a great milk chocolate bar with sea salt and roasted almonds. (See http://www.lakechamplainchocolates.com/Chocolate/Organic-Chocolate/Organic-Almond.aspx)
FWIW, they also have a really good dark spicy Aztec bar with cayenne, cinnamon, and pumpkin seeds.
This bar is amazing! I had half for dessert last night and the other half for breakfast along with some black tea. I definitely enjoyed the combo with the black tea. I will probably buy this pretty frequently.
Hey~
Have you tried the Vos Mo Bacon bar? It’s bacon and smoked salt and chocolate. It’s fantastic.
I found the bar at Target. I really liked the bit of salt! I will have to go to World Market tomorrow and get their bar to try.
I just saw this review and realized that you still haven’t done the bar with the chili in it. I eagerly await that review.. I have one in my fridge right now from when Walgreen’s had a BOGO for all of their candy bars (I know, right?). It is POTENT. I can only eat a few pieces before I feel the burn. I’m very excited to see your “official” review!
Thank you for the review of the Lindt chocolate with sea salt. This is my new favorite chocolate…and my husband’s too. Your review was the first I had heard of it. It seems like the 6 or 7 Lindt Excellence displays at convenience stores and groceries that I have seen carry the whole line but are freqently sold out of the sea-salt.
When I was in Spain last fall, I had a Lindt bar that was dark chocolate with cherries and chilies. It was absolutely the best! I have not been able to purchase this in the US. Any thoughts?
I saw these at Walgreens the other day and I was really interested in trying one. I’ve come to appreciate the addition of salt to my sweets (and I think you’ve definitely played a role in that, so thanks!), but I decided to put off my chocolate purchase and bought a tried and true favorite of mine, a Godiva 52% Dark Chocolate Raspberry Bar, i think it has dehydrated raspberries in it. I wonder if you have tried it, because i love it.
I think I might have to go try this sea salt bar though, I was already interested and it’s so affordable. (Also I didn’t even realize it has almost, I think I was tunnel visioning on the sea salt and I love almonds so all the better.)
Lindt Excellence series is one of the best dark chocolate bars readily available in most groceries in the US. My absolute favorite is Orange Intense. It would be interesting to see your review on it.
A company known for their excellence and standing behind their chocolate. It’s all a marketing scam. I have been enjoying Lindt Lindor truffles for about 15 years now. It is one of my favorite chocolates and favorite brands. A few months ago I bought some and they tasted old even though they were well before the expiration date. I called them because their packaging says to call them because they stand behind their brand. When I did I was told they would be sending me out a coupon. I assumed it was to replace what I had bought, so I threw the chocolate away. About a week later I received a coupon for $1 off. $1?! It was a slap in the face to a loyal customer. It was an easy fix for them to make and they didn’t. Lindt has lost a long standing customer. Now there aren’t many times I call companies to complain, but to see what good customer service is. I bought a pack of David’s Sunflower seeds and there was something funky tasting about them. I thought that the wrong flavor was in it. I called them to let them know and they sent me out enough coupons to buy 10 bags of sunflower seeds. ConAgra took care of me. I wasn’t even expecting that type of customer service, I just wanted my chocolates replaced.
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