Lindt’s Master Chocolatiers have been creating quality chocolate for over 150 years and now you have the amazing chance to discover some of their secrets! Read up on all the interesting facts about their fabulous Excellence range and learn how to become a true chocolate connoisseur. All you now have to do is immerse yourself in the information below, then take the short test to become an ‘Accredited Lindt Connoisseur’.

The Cacao Tree
Cacao is an evergreen tree native to tropical South America, but now cultivated throughout the tropics, requiring regular rainfall and good soil.

It produces cacao flowers which grow directly on the trunk and older branches.

The Cacao Pod
After five years the tree is able to bear fruit, cacao pods, which have between 20 and 50 seeds that are surrounded by a sugar rich pulp.

There are three types:-
1. Criollo
These beans are used for their exceptional taste, they are very fragile and incredibly hard to cultivate

2. Forastero
These beans are used for ‘bulk’ chocolate as they are easier to cultivate and less prone to disease

3. Trinitario
This is a mixture of the two above beans so you get the best of both worlds. It is now impossible to find 100% pure beans.

The Making of Lindt Chocolate
The heart of the finest chocolate is the finest cocoa and the real skill is in knowing which combination of beans contribute to the specific taste desired for each of the different Excellence variants. A skill which the Maitre Chocolatiers of Lindt have been perfecting since 1845.

Attention is lavished on Lindt Chocolate making – starting with the selection of the finest raw materials and highest quality ingredients, and culminating in their final exquisite creations.

The process involves, shelling, roasting, mixing, grinding, pressing, conching, tempering and finally moulding.

The special melting sensation of Lindt chocolate develops as a result of the conching process, which was developed by Rodolphe Lindt himself in 1879. Here the flavours unfold by adding cocoa butter and airing out the natural bitterness of the chocolate.

And now a new Excellence range is to be born! Lindt will be ‘first to market’ with this innovative range where the finest cocoa beans are sourced from specific areas/regions from around the world. The ‘Origins’ concept in other categories e.g. coffee, is well penetrated already and growing steadily. The trend is also penetrating other markets now such as wine, olive oils and teas. The range consists of 3 variants; Cuba 55%, Madagascar 65%, Ecuador 75%. This range produces distinctly different taste sensations, with unique nutty, fruity and vanilla taste profiles.

The Lindt Excellence Chocolate Range
Lindt Excellence is dark chocolate in its purest form. The current range consists of:
Excellence 99%, Excellence 85%, Excellence 70%, Excellence Extra Creamy, Excellence Orange Intense, Excellence Mint Intense, Excellence Coffee Intense, Excellence Crunchy Caramel, plus new Excellence Origins range - Cuba, Madagascar, Ecuador.

Why is the ‘Excellence’ the best Chocolate tablet?
• The conching of Excellence is particularly long, giving the chocolate more refined textures and that distinctive melt in your mouth sensation
• Excellence Extra Creamy is rich in diary ingredients, in fact more than most milk chocolates; giving it that signature caramel flavour that is ever-present in Lindt milk chocolate
• Excellence tablets are extra thin to allow consumers to appreciate fine aromas and textures in the mouth
• Lindt uses only the purest cocoa butter and does not use any vegetable fat in its bars
• All ingredients in the recipes are of the best quality and origins
• Lindt prepares chocolate liquors in house, whilst many other chocolate manufacturers buy them in. This enables Lindt to control all the steps in chocolate making; from cocoa bean to bar.

Click here to take the Lindt Connoisseur competition >