Stocking Stuffers from Lindt

I love the freebies that I can get with my Kroger loyalty card particularly when I can turn around and use those for little gifts. As Christmas approaches, I'm thinking about stocking stuffers. You don't want to overload your stockings but everyone in my field likes to get something edible in theirs. These Lindt Truffle Bars are long and thin so they'd slip easily into a stocking of almost any design but are they quality chocolate or candy bars, too? We have two of them to look at today  -- Milk Chocolate Truffle Bar and Caramel Milk Chocolate Truffle Bar. I received both of these for free through two separate Friday Freebie days at Kroger; no other form of compensation was received and neither Kroger nor Lindt knew I'd be writing about them today on The Chocolate Cult.

Let's look at the basic truffle bar first, the basic Milk Chocolate Truffle Bar in a red wrapper. The total bar is over 6 inches long and divided into 6 sections that are easily broken apart. The chocolate is soft so it makes no noise when I break the sections apart or when I take a bite. The chocolate is also very creamy, very smooth, and a touch sweeter than I ideally like, it makes me think of malted milks (wait a moment and that will be explained). Inside the sections is a smooth even creamier chocolate filling. It is basically milk chocolate with soya lecithin, barley malt powder (that's where that unique flavor comes from), and artificial flavors. It is good for someone who likes very creamy milk chocolate or perhaps a malted milk fan.

Now we turn our attention to the Caramel Milk Chocolate Truffle Bar in a golden wrapper. The ingredients listed surprised me and not in a pleasant way – cocoa butter is the 3rd ingredient and milk chocolate is the 4th before then we have sugar and vegetable oil made from coconut and palm kernel. This is less of a chocolate bar than a candy bar. Those oils are listed before the caramel so I think they are used in the chocolate sections. This is the exact same size as the previous bar and has the same calorie count at 230 per stick. The scent is very strong and the melt flavor is more intense; combined it was a very weird flavor that I did not like very much because I want my caramel either sugary sweet or tangy but this was like a malted honey almost.

You know what I want? I want a dark chocolate version of these sticks. What about you? Have you tried them? Would they make good stocking stuffers for someone in your life?