Two Lindt Chocolates

I recently came across two small chocolate squares that really confused me. Both of these chocolate squares were made by Lindt, and both of them were milk chocolate. Before I even get into this, I should mention that both of these squares tasted great, and if this was a review they would both get really high scores. The confusion came from the fact that I wasn’t really sure what might be the difference between these two squares, seeing as they’re both marked as milk chocolate.

I’ll be honest, the Lindor brand from Lindt kind of confuses me (the red package is Lindor, the blue is just Lindt). My initial thought was the Lindor was the name of those yummy chocolate balls that Lindt makes. Kind of like the fact that M&Ms are made by Mars, who also makes Mars Bars. So my assumption before this day was that Lindor was just the name of a treat made by Lindt. Then I got these two squares of chocolate and I realized that my assumption was wrong.

Here I have a small square of chocolate, not a round ball, with the words Lindor on it and one with just Lindt. Had I been wrong, is Lindor its own thing too? It’s made by Lindt, but maybe it’s a company that Lindt bought later on and incorporated it into their Lindt line. Maybe the Lindor balls are just one small part of the Lindor line. I’ll be honest, I don’t really know the back story and eating these chocolate squares didn’t help that much.

I can however tell you that these squares are not just squares of milk chocolate, well at least one of them isn’t. The chocolate in the blue package was just milk chocolate... actually it was very good milk chocolate. The small red square was a smooth creamy milk chocolate cream covered in chocolate that was very similar to the blue square. On taste and texture alone I would say they both rank high. I liked the texture of the red square a little more, but it also made the square very delicate and mine was not in good shape.

What I get from this experiment, beyond a mouthful of tasty chocolate, is that Lindt is a chocolate company that makes nice milk (and other) chocolates. Lindor is also made by Lindt and is made with nice quality milk chocolate as well. Lindor also has cream in the middle. In this case it’s a milk chocolate cream, but in the case of the Lindor balls there are a few other flavours of cream available as well. I’m not sure if they make a square for each flavour of Lindor ball or if this is the only square they make.

Honestly I’m not even sure why they make Lindor squares at all. If given the choice between a Lindor square or a Lindor ball, I would go for the ball. The ball is much stronger than the squares and I think they have a bit more filling as well. It really seems odd to make Lindor in a square shape, considering the whole fun gimmick of Lindor is the fact that they’re balls.

I Assume The Easter Bunny Works Here

He's probably the one shooting the footage, that's why he's not in any of the shots.

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Starting The Christmas Reviews

Christmas decorations and treats started coming out really early this year. I noticed many Christmas things on store shelves well before Halloween was even over. At first it bugged me, but then I learned that stores had a hard time ordering things this year because of Covid shortages and disruptions. I also changed my tune and remembered last year how great it was when people kept their Christmas decorations up a little longer than usual. I quickly changed from the Christmas Grinch to... well whoever the opposite of the Christmas Grinch might be. So this year I've gone a little nuts with Christmas treats to review, and because of that, I've decided to start posting my reviews now. To start everything off I thought I'd have a review-a-thon featuring one of my favourite Christmas treats, Lindor.

Click here to find out how I felt about the first entry in this review-a-thon.

Make sure to follow me on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook to keep up with the review-a-thon.

Also check out Snack Facts, my comic all about snacks and candy to pick up a fun Christmas gift.

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Amazing Christmas Candy/Junk Food Things That You Should Buy - Lindt Advent

 

Sure spending almost $50 for an advent calendar is high, but you're worth it, and Christmas only comes around once a year.

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Tom's Look At The Visual Side Of Christmas Snacks And Candy - Christmas Haul Part 1

Aaah, Christmas time! This is the time of year when companies pull out all the stops to make tempting treats for dazzled eyes! Here are but a few seen recently while shopping...

This is the first time I’ve seen this item. It is a log cabin to build using Kit Kat bars. It’s a fun twist on the traditional gingerbread house. A second visit to the store revealed that Smarties are also involved in the bundle. The photograph I took shows the charming graphics of the bear outside the cabin. It may be his alternative to hibernating in a cave!

The second photo is of two Lindt Lindor treats of a massive proportion! It may not be apparent in the picture but these babies are the size of basketballs! If you are told you have to cut back on sweets and can have only one treat this season, maybe keep this monster in mind! If they’re as good as the regular size Lindors, it’s a win!!

Finally, a local grocery store has a sizable Lindt display that includes the brochure in the third photograph. This is an example of what my sister jokingly refers to as “chocolate porn”. On specifically selected paper stock with high quality printing, paper after page of chocolate Lindt products are temptingly laid out for daydreaming and list-making. Just look at the Lindt treats adorning the cake on the cover!!The season has just begun, folks! Hang in there and pace yourself. Don’t forget the New Year’s promise of copious regular exercise!

Cheers
Tom

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We're Back, And We've Got A New Review - Lindt Excelence "Extra Creamy"

For those of you not in the know, which might prove to be all of you, we've been away for the last few weeks in Africa. We're back now, and we're on board with a new review. This review has absolutely nothing to do with our trip to Africa, but next week we're planning on a special African Candy Review-A-Thon to show off some of our finds.

Click here to read about a chocolate bar that most certainly did not come from Africa.

Want to check out a few photos from our Africa trip, check out our Facebook or Twitter feeds.

You can also follow us on Tumblr, because it's the right thing to do.

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Candy Critic Dessert Club - Inventing a Cookie That I Call Frank.

Or at least I think I invented a cookie.  Yesterday I woke up with an idea, I wanted to invent a cookie.  Nothing ground breaking, but just something that I've never tried before.  You might read this and say "hey, I've made that cookie before it's called a "insert name of cookie here"".  The thing is, I haven't.  I've never eaten or heard of a cookie that is like the one I invented.  I took some cookie basics, switched a few things up (both in ingredients and in process) and baked my heart out.  I asked my friends what I should call this cookie, and only one person responded, so until I get a better idea this cookie will be known as "Frank".

Ingredients

2 1/4 Cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup of unsalted butter (soft and warm)
3/4 cup of white sugar
3/4 cup of maple syrup
1 teaspoon of vanilla
2 large eggs
1 cup whole walnuts
175 grams of dark chocolate (Lindt 70%)

You'll also need two average sized bowls, one mixing bowl, a mixer, a cookie sheet, several things to stir with, measuring cups, and tinfoil. There may be a few other things you'll need, but I'll cover those below.

In one of the small bowl mix the flour with the salt and baking soda.  This is simple enough and requires a quick stir and nothing else.  Set that bowl aside. Then take your dark chocolate and put it in a Ziploc bag and beat the hell out of it with a meat tenderizer or hammer.  You want the chocolate to be as small as you can get it, and let out a little frustration while you're at it.  Second, take the walnuts and chop the heck out of them in your food processor.  You can chop them into dust, or if you get bored you can leave a few chunky surprises, but for the most part pulverize those nuts.  Empty the nuts into your second average bowl and put the pounded chocolate into the food processor and pulverize them as well.  Again you can leave a few chunky bits as surprises, but you want most of it to be very small bits.  Ad that chocolate to the bowl with the walnuts.

Next, take out your mixer on a low setting and ad the butter, start whipping it a little and slowly ad the white sugar.  Keep going until the butter and sugar are bonded well (creamed), and then add the maple syrup.  Keeping mixing with your mixer until the maple syrup is mixed in, then ad your vanilla.  Then ad one egg at a time, keeping the mixer at a fairly low speed.  Once everything is nicely mixed together, in other words once it becomes one mass as opposed to being made up of ingredients, start adding the flour mixture slowly.  Keep mixing until all of the flour has been added and is mixed in well.  You'll probably need a spatula to work the sides, unless you have an awesome mixer.

Once it's all one glob of cookie greatness we'll no longer need the mixer.  Remove the mixer from the equation and slowly stir in the nut and chocolate.  Simply stir in these bits using the spatula you used to clean the sides of the bowl while you were mixing.  If you have a really awesome mixer you'll have to dirty a spatula.  Once the chocolate and nuts are mixed you'll need a really small spoon.  I recommend something smaller than a teaspoon, but bigger than one of those coffee spoons they used to give you at McDonald's in the 80's.  For my cookies I used an egg spoon, and it worked perfectly.

Now spoon the mixture onto your tinfoil covered baking sheet.  Keep them small, because lots of little cookies are awesome.  Bake each batch of cookies at 375 degrees for 7 minutes.  Many people might argue that it would be simpler to make one giant cookie, and it would look so very cool.  I argue that little cookies are so much better, and here's why:

First of all they take a lot less time to cook, and the less time it takes from those cookies to go from being ingredients to going into my mouth the better.

Secondly, if you cook one giant cookie, people will know if you sampled a bit while you're cooking, because there will be bite marks.  Bake little cookies and you can sample a little from each batch, and there will be so many cookies that no one will notice that you ate 17 of them.

Finally, little cookies are cute.

Once the cookies are done, let them cool on the rack for a few minutes, and if possible serve immediately. They will last a few days, but they'll taste best right out of the oven.

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This Week In Candy

It's the Valentine's Day week!  That means that love is in the air, and chocolate is on my mind.  But don't feel like you're going to be left out if you're not with a special someone right now.  We here at Candy Critic have got your back if you're single during this particular holiday.  Later this week (possibly tomorrow) we're posting a list of Valentine's Day chocolates for single folks.  Just because you're not in the midst of a relationship doesn't mean that you should be denied chocolate, quite the opposite in fact.

You may have also noticed a few Valentine's Day greeting cards for sale recently from our sister site bewarethecheese.com.  Every holiday this year, we hope to feature a few selections from the Beware the Cheese catalog of fine candy themed photos as greeting cards and posters.

Just because we can't get off of this crazy ride called Valentine's Day, this week on Snack Facts, our Instagram feed, we're going to look at some interesting Valentine's Day Candy facts.  Check back every day this week for a fun new fact about the holiday all about love, that we all love.  You can follow Snack Facts on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter as well.

I don't want to forget about the Super Bowl. I'm sure the game was great, and the best team won, which ever team that was.  More importantly this afternoon we'll be posting a look at all of the candy and junk food related commercials that appeared this year.  Some are great, some are lame, and some are just freaking weird.

For this week's review I was torn, should I review a football themed candy for the Super Bowl, or should I review a Valentine's Day candy?  Then I realized that no one makes a Super Bowl themed candy, and it surprised me.  I think Super Bowl themed snacks (more than just plastering NFL logos on packages, would be a great idea.  Maybe next year I'll try and come up with some.  As it stands, I found a great Valentine's Day treat to review that's sure to make that special someone in your life really happy this year, especially if that special someone is yourself.  Click here to read the new review.

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German Lindt Review

One of the biggest debates in the candy world is about where you get your chocolate.  Many people argue that certain bars taste better because they're made somewhere else.  While this can be true, it's not always the case. I see so many people who argue that all chocolate bars are better in Europe than they are in North America.  This isn't the case all of the time, mostly because many bars you get in North America are actually made in Europe.  Importing candy, even chocolate, is fairly easy because of its long shelf life (at least compared to things like fruit and cheese).  So unless a bar sells millions of bars in a particular country, there's no reason not to import instead of manufacture.  So is this bar better than its North American brother, probably, but that's only because of the cool name on the package.

Click here to read today's European Lindt review.

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Friday Candy Video

Chocolate Lindt ball melting in Melbourne from Evan Stainsby on Vimeo.

While many of you are suffering with unbearably cold weather, there are others (in the Southern Hemisphere) that are suffering with unbearably warm weather.  This chocolate Lindt ball melting on a Melbourne Australia street will either make you pine for those hot summer days, or make you realize that the cold isn't so bad.

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10 Of My Favorite Halloween Reviews From The Past

Sometimes when I'm abroad, I find myself in a country that doesn't celebrate Halloween, shocking I know.  But at these times I find it difficult to find an appropriately festive treat to review, or even just to have on this awesome holiday.  Rest assured that more and more countries are getting into the Halloween spirit, and even here (Greece) I do occasionally find fall themed treats at some of higher end candy stores.  So today I found myself looking back at some of the past Halloween treats that I've reviewed.  I found myself remembering not only the treat, but even the Halloween when I reviewed it.  Isn't nostalgia awesome.

The reason I loved the Caramel Apple Pop was because it was so creative.  It's rare that a lollipop would use another kind of candy to accent it's flavour and texture, and even rarer to have it seem so appropriate.  While this may not be a scary treat, it's fairly tasty and really creative.

Click here to read the review.

Blood Bones are tasty, but more importantly they look the part.  It's nice when a candy company is OK with making a fairly realistic blood stain on their candy.  Better yet is the fact that each bone is not equal, so a pile of them look like they came out of an episode of Dexter.

Click here to read the review.

I remember getting these in the mail and being completely blown away at how gruesome they looked.  Most of the time when you have candy teeth, they're brightly coloured without much detail.  These are fine as teeth on their own, but the fact that you can eat them makes them all the better.

Click here to read the review.

I'm one of the few people that I know who really enjoy candy corn, recently my father expanded my love for them with the suggestion of adding peanuts to them.  One of my favorite things about candy corn is seeing all of the candy companies make candy corn versions of their own treats.  These are a perfect example of making it work, the candy corn OREO's are probably a better example of it not working so well.

Click here to read the review.

I'm not sure if this was marketed for Halloween, but it works really well as a Halloween treat.  The chocolate's themselves are fairly harmless looking, but the spicy flavour gives them a little kick.  I can't think of a better thing to have in a Halloween candy than a little fear.

Click here to read the review.

This might be the only time in the history of the candy industry when a classy chocolatier got into the Halloween spirit.  I remember these being fairly expensive, so I doubt many kids would get one of these in their candy bag.  I think they were designed for the trend of more and more adults getting into the Halloween spirit.

Click here to read the review.

If I had to make a list of the worst themed candy ever, this might work, but only if you're just looking at the candy itself.  The rings from this can still be found in my front hall drawer, just in case you need a bad ass skull ring in a pinch.  I think I may have given a few of these away to friends as well.

Click here to read the review.

This is one of the forays that the folks at Just Born took when they wanted to expand their Peeps line of marshmallow chicks into other holidays.  I'm always disappointed in these because they lack the dimensionallity of Peeps chicks.  All they are is a bunch of cut out cats, and the same goes for their Christmas treats as well.  I think it would be really cool for Just Born to think of a few 3D marshmallow treats for other holidays.

Click here to read the review.

My dad describes the Mallow Pumpkins as "pumpkin candy corn".  They're fairly similar in texture, and if you hate candy corn you'll probably hate these too.

Click here to read the review.

I'm not sure if these are Halloween themed, or just autumn themed, but I think they work well enough for Halloween.  They're made by Madeline chocolate, a candy company that suffered a great deal of damage during hurricane Sandy, but they're finally getting back up and running.  They make fantastic chocolates for just about every season.

Click here to read the review.

Bonus:

I'm not sure if this is a Halloween treat exactly, but I think it would make a good costume piece in a pinch.  Best of all, when you're finished walking the streets and collecting your candy, you can always eat it.

Click here to read the review.

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Stuff I Want To Try

Mocha Coconut  - Lindt - It's really great to discover new candy flavour combinations, and Coconut and Coffee sounds interesting. - Click here to learn more about this treat.

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Thursday's Candy Links

Lindt is giving away one million bags of chocolate truffles, you could score a bag and all it takes is a "Like".

I think I've written about Unreal candy in the past, but here's some more information on this new treat to look out for.  They've got some pretty big people backing them up too.

Unreal is trying to make a statement about what's in your candy bar, and now, so is Hershey's.

I hate candy articles that simply tell you that sugar (real or fake) is bad for, and says nothing about portion control or the fact that we actually need some sugar to survive.

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Crescent Roll Challenge Part 4 - Dark Chocolate

Ever since I was a kid, I've loved Pillsbury crescent rolls.  They hold so many memories for me, in particular during holiday meals.  With my new found interest in baking, my love of candy, and my fondness for Pillsbury crescent rolls, I've decided to do a little experiment.  Each day this week I'm going to bake a Pillsbury crescent roll filled with a different sweet filling.  Some are very conventional, others... well not so much.

This particular crescent roll is what I would call a classic.  I can't tell you how many times I've eaten a chocolate filled crescent roll in my life.  The difference is, this one is filled with dark chocolate, as opposed  milk chocolate, that seems to be the favorite of most bakeries.  I chose an 85% Lindt chocolate for this, because this is Allison's chocolate of choice and it's what we had in our chocolate box.

I have to say that I was pretty disapointed in the dark chocolate.  It was just really bitter and it made the crescent roll seem really dry.  I normally don't mind dark chocolate, but in this case I think a milk chocolate would have been much nicer.  I think it has something to do with the butter in the Pillsbury dough, I just think it doesn't work (flavour wise) with the dark chocolate.

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Wednesday's Candy Links

If you have problems with lactose, and you love milk chocolate, Barry Callebaut has an answer.

Here's the results of the "L’Art du Chocolatier Challenge 2012", a contest that looks as good as it tastes.

It appears New York is really trying to be the candy capital of the world.  First a Neuhause store, now a Lindt store.

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Stuff I Want To Try

Lindor Vanilla Truffles  - Lindt - I like vanilla a lot, it's really the ultimate flavour - Click here to learn more about this treat.

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Friday's Candy Links

To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Lindt Gold Bunny, Lindt is giving away a whole bunch of them away.

The dangers of toaster snacks revealed "Woman treated after pop tart attack".

Edible food packaging? It doesn't make sense to me, the only reason I need packaging on my food is because I don't want people touching the stuff I eat.

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Friday Candy Video - Lindt Commercial Makes Me Want To Buy Utensils

You'd think that after watching this commercial I'd be craving a Lindt chocolate, but that's not the case.  What I want is one of those awesome looking chocolate whiskers they're using.

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Thursday's Candy Links

Do you know how many calories are in your favorite candies?  Why not take a test.

Brazilian imports are up in the US, does that mean people are eating more Brazilian candy?

Hershey is buying Brookside Foods, a Canadian candy company... Don't go messing with their treats Hershey.

Check out the new Lindt Bear app... how can you eat it?

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Friday's Candy Links

One of the best treats to come out of Chicago is the Tootsie Roll, you can learn all about it.

I normally don't like to post cake decorating sites, but these Muppet cake pops are fantastic.

TCHO is having a great event this weekend in San Francisco, it's called TCHOcolate Sandwiches.

To celebrate the new Lindt Bear, Lindt is giving away a whole bunch of them, both to you and your friends.

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