Are Flat Truffles Still as Good?

If you loved their Truffles, perhaps you might find the idea of a truffle bar intriguing. I certainly did! Today we're going to look at six varieties of Alter Eco's Truffle Thins Bars in depth and in the order you see in the above photograph. We were sent these free bars in exchange for testing them and then honestly sharing our experience with them with all of you reading today. No other form of compensation was received.

We'll begin with the Classic Dark bar in the purple box. If you look closely, you'll see that the inside is a slightly lighter colored chocolate filling. This has a strong dark chocolate scent that is tempered by a sweet creamy edge. The bar doesn't make a sound when I take a bite bit it did make a soft snap when I broke off two sections; this was the same for all of the Truffle Thin bars so I am not going to repeat that description. The flavor when I chewed it build up in bitterness but it still was sweeter and creamy to the end. When I let another bite melt in my mouth, the flavor was more bitter because the outside eventually split off from the filling so that the two different difficult flavors didn't blend as well. This might be a good bar for someone who thinks that they should eat darker chocolate but struggles with the bitter edge that will always have. Just make sure that you chew instead of letting it melt in your mouth. Note that the creme filling does include milk as an ingredient. I liked this one a lot but not as much as the same flavor in truffle form.

Next up in the light yellow box is Créme Brulee. It may be challenging to see, but the filling is actually not white, but a light yellow in color. The dark chocolate fragrance is only slightly affected by the sugary scent of the filling. That sweetness has a bi of a sour flavor when I bit off a piece and chewed it. I didn't like that sour note, but I gave letting it melt in my mouth a try. Sugar is the primary flavor that builds up as I let it melt with the darker chocolate rising up at the end but not in a bitter way. Compared to the previous bar, I recommend letting this one melt if you are sensitive to sour flavors. 

There are two Truffle Thins bars with orangish boxes. The lighter one is the Salted Caramel flavor. The fragrance of caramel was noticeable from the moment that I lifted off one of the silver wrapper's edges. The inside looks much like the Classic Dark Truffle Bar did. Chewing this one I didn't notice that the salted caramel flavor did not match the intensity that the scent promised. I got more of the salted caramel briefly when I let the other half of a section melt in my mouth. I loved that blend of flavors, so I also recommend letting this melt in your mouth.

Mint Créme has a green box naturally like the Truffles from Alter Eco did which we covered earlier this year. If you recall, I loved those truffles so much that I needed to hide the box from myself. This bar also had an intense scent when I opened the silver wrapper and its fragrance stayed intensely mint; I even got a cooling sensation from it when I put my nose closer to get a whiff of it. I think the inside looks more white than green but you tell me what you see, please in a comment. Chewing half a section blended the flavors well and allowed the cooling sensation to build up. Letting it melt in my mouth intensified the dark chocolate but the mint flavor and the cooling sensation still came through. There is no wrong way to eat this and I love it! It reminded me of the Andes Mints but without the waxing feeling that they can have.

The Raspberry Créme bar is in a raspberry colored box. It is the only bar where teh cream filling seemed to have turned a bit liquidity and oozed out of one corner so I didn't risk breaking off pieces to show you the inside. I gave this one to an assistant who loves all things raspberry. This is how he described the bar: When I snapped it open, there was a raspberry scent, but primarily all I got was the chocolate fragrance. There is nothing about what it looks like that would suggest this is raspberry until you break off a piece and see the thin slightly pink inside. It doesn't make much noise when I took a bite. It tastes exactly what I hope a dark chocolate with raspberry would. It is quite pleasing, it is not sweet or bitter, but smooth and not particularly sweet. I would definitely recommend it if you like raspberry chocolate. Unlike others I've tested for The Chocolate Cult this does not have seeds, it is not too sweet, sour, or bitter; this is the Goldilocks of raspberry chocolates.

Finally, the darker orange box holds the Orange Créme variety of Truffle Thins. This is a flavor that is unique to the Truffle Thins line from Alter Eco. I generally really like dark chocolate with orange, even blood orange, but it isn't as common as many flavors for truffles by any brand. This, too, had an intense fragrance when I opened the silver wrapper, but that scent dissipated quickly. Looking at the inside of this bar, the color is the same as with the mint bar, so I'm sure that color is white. Biting into half a section, I got an immediate orange cream flavor that did not decrease with each chew, but blended with the dark chocolate quite well. Letting the other half melt in my mouth gave a light orange cream flavor at first, but it built up and blended into the dark chocolate. This was an entirely different taste journey compared to the other bars. I loved it!

 

Truffles are a known product for many chocolate lovers. If the reason you love chocolate is the chocolate, at times truffles can include too much filling and not enough chocolate in the shell. Truffle Thins should offer a more balanced ratio of dark chocolate and the cream filling. Compared to Alter Eco Truffles we wrote about earlier here, each flavor was different. Some were more intense, others less, and that flavor changed if you chewed or let it melt in your mouth. Of these flavors I'd recommend the Mint, Orange, and Classic varieties.