Chocolate & Golf for Father's Day

It is a bit of a stereotype that golf and Father's Day go together.  My father never golfed, we weren't that high up in terms of economic class for him to have any sort of membership in a club or the money to buy the equipment.  But he was a good Daddy no matter how much money he made because I knew and still know that he cared.  So for the first time on The Chocolate Cult I wanted to do something for the forthcoming Father's Day in the USA so that you all might have a chocolate option for the occasion.  Our Lindt R.S.V.P. Consultant, Amy, who sent us a huge box of their products included these milk chocolate golf balls so I could do this feature for you all.

Does your father play golf?  I know that some fathers do but so do some mothers and a whole bunch of folks who have had kids or may be kids themselves.  Yet at Father's Day in the USA for some reason we have a strong association with golf gifts for the holiday.  Or ties, really your fathers have enough ties folks, trust me, they do.   Men love chocolate, oh our culture may like to say that women love it more but men do love chocolate so let's see if they might love these little things.

First, three of these came in the box and the golf ball nature is more in the white foil that wraps them.  The dimples however are also on the surface of the milk chocolate sphere.  These are big at 1 5/8th inches across and 1.33oz each; regulation golf balls in the USA are to be no more than 1.62oz and no smaller than 1.68 inches across so these aren't too far off in terms of size if not weight. (1)  As this photo to the right shows, these are not solid nor are these hollow, they have a filling and we can see here where that was inserted. The label lists hazelnuts so I'm betting it is a chocolate hazelnut cream even though the package's main labels only say milk chocolate.  Be aware of this when you considering it as a gift and always look at the ingredients list, not just the main labels.

It is rather a challenge to get a bite out of these given the size but I manage to do it.  Maybe I have a big mouth?  The milk chocolate shell is more of a matte than a shiny color but I do appreciate the dimples on it.  The shell is fairly thick as I hope this photo to the left shows and it makes a soft sound when I take a bite.  Inside there is indeed a hazelnut chocolate cream filling but this has tiny pieces of the nuts in it so it makes a good crunch as well.  By itself the shell is a creamy milk chocolate but with the filling the hazelnut is a big challenge that the chocolate rises to and overcomes as the final flavor in my mouth.  I think it would be great fun to give these to a dad that didn't golf but was a golfing fan and joke that you hoped he could at least enjoy these while he watched TV.

If any of these Lindt R.S.V.P. chocolates we've featured over the past six months have intrigued you, do please go to Amy's site and order directly from her as a way to thank her for allowing us to feature all of these products for our Sisters and Brothers in Chocolate to learn about.  While these are clever gifts for Father's Day (or other holidays for any golf lover) I must point out that once more palm and coconut oil have been added and I really really don't like that in my more expensive chocolates especially when they do have cocoa butter as a major ingredient.  I expect more from Lindt & Sprüngli and I hope in the future they can leave out these unnecessary oils and just stick with cocoa butter and milk for their milk chocolates.

(1)  Information on golf balls