Lindt Excellence Coconut Bar

Although I was not very excited about the Lindt Excellence Caramel with a Touch of Sea Salt bar that I was sent as a member of the Lindt Excellence Influencers club, I wasn’t scared off. I mean, a Coconut dark chocolate bar still required evaluation.

This bar, with a 47% cacao chocolate base, has a clear coconut aroma, with bits of coconut that are well-distributed throughout the bar.

The base chocolate has a dominant coffee flavor, yet avoids a bitter bite that some coffee-centric dark chocolates put off. The melt is smooth and not at all dry.

The coconut is flavorful and well-toasted. Since I adore chocolate and coconut together, I do like this bar, but I think that other coconut bars, such as the Elbow No. 16 Dark Chocolate and Coconut bar, are much better. 

That said, this bar is much easier to find throughout the U.S. - I've even seen it at CVS, so it's a great solution for any and all chocolate-coconut emergencies.

Lindt Excellence: Caramel with a Touch of Sea Salt

One of the cool things about being selected as a member of the 150-person Lindt Excellence Influencers Club is that they ask us what we think about their new bars.

Most importantly, that means that in the process of gathering our thoughts, they send us free chocolate.

Score.

Since I'm in the middle of heavy triathlon training right now, salt is always on my mind. I lose of a lot of it sweating through 3-hour runs and 6-hour bike rides, so I naturally went for the Caramel with a Touch of Sea Salt first.

The bar has a brown sugar aroma, accented with a hint of woodiness, and the base chocolate has a smooth, creamy melt.

This bar is very strong on salt, which starts dissolving immediately and obscures most flavor from the chocolate. A few hints of coffee and mint accent a cream-heavy flavor, but it is the salt that is most apparent.

And that caramel?

Hard crunchy bits that stick to your teeth. Not ideal.

Overall, unbalanced and a bit disappointing. If I think it has too much salt, it’s very salt heavy.