Every so often I’ll grab a bar of chocolate at the grocery store to snack on at work and usually I don’t think twice about it and just eat my way through it. Now and then, though, I end up eating something that surprises me. The most recent bar to do this was the Lindt Excellence 85% bar.

Now I have had Lindt before and usually not thought twice about it. This is probably because I tend to consider them one of those dependable chocolate you can just munch on and enjoy. That and I might sort of hold those Lindor Truffles against them (they're actually good - I just know what I want in a truffle and they just aren't quite it). Whatever the reason, I wasn’t really thinking about the bar as a possible review target. It was just something I was going to chase my lunch with.

After a couple of days of snacking on the bar, though, I found myself impressed and interested. The bar is expectedly strong. It is also somewhat simple. There is an earthy element to it and some hints of red fruit, but mainly it offers a pure chocolate flavor and lots of it. What really impresses is that for an 85% bar it has no bitterness at all (not like the other bar I’ve been eating lately which is really bitter) and is very smooth. I’ve found a lot of high percentage bars to be rough on the mouth and this isn’t like that. This is pure chocolate flavor, start to finish and there are no negatives to mar the experience.

So what’s the bottom line? It hits a strong chocolate flavor, isn’t bitter, and is really smooth. What’s not to like? It earns a solid 9 out of 10. I can find this bar in most of the big groceries in town and it kind of floors me that I never gave it a try before now.