Lindt Excellence Coconut Intense

I was somewhat skeptical about this one. When I was younger, I wasn't a big fan of coconut and just about loathed coconut chocolate. Over the years, however, I've developed a liking for coconut, especially in Thai food, curries and so on. But the combination of coconut and chocolate still makes me a little wary – because of my suspicions, I might never have given this a try, but my dear husband had bought it for “tasting purposes”.

The wrapping is pretty, although nothing extraordinary. The picture and the text are clear (no need to wonder what's inside). I particularly like how the word “intense” seems to be emphasised by the use of the, well, intense blue. The chocolate squares are the typical size and shape for many Lindt Excellence bars: thinnish, but fairly large.

Now, the wrapping says “Coconut intense”. They're not kidding.

The scent of coconut is overwhelming. It's very strong and you have to try hard to find the chocolate in there somewhere. If you like coconut, you'll probably enjoy the aroma that almost fills the whole room when you tear open the wrapping. I wasn't sure how I felt about that – while I don't consider the scent of coconut unpleasant, I was afraid the chocolate would taste of nothing but coconut.

But then I sampled the chocolate and was pleasantly surprised! All right, the cocoa content is 47 %, so although the wrapping does say dark, it's arguable whether it actually qualifies as dark chocolate. But that is not a problem for me. The chocolate is delicious, but rather sweet, and the coconut is – as promised – intense and contributes to the sweetness. The coconut chips are crispy and crunchy but not tooth-damagingly hard. They're an interesting addition when it comes to the texture and taste. The texture, especially, is much nicer than I expected – some coconut chocolates include those tiny little coconut flakes that are sort of dry and taste like sawdust and, when there's plenty of them, they make the experience rather unpleasant. Not so here. The chips are not only toasted but also caramelised, which might explain why I liked the taste so much (oohh, caramel!).

In short, I enjoyed this much more than I expected and would recommend it to anyone who likes the chocolate and coconut combination. I'd say that of the coconut chocolates that I've tasted, this is the one where the combination is the most successful.