Lindt Extra Creamy Milk Milk Chocolate and Cookie Crunch

Lindt & Sprungli is one of those brands that is synonymous with quality. The brand is available worldwide and is just as widely known for their quality Swiss-made chocolate products.

Recently Lindt launched a campaign with their new 'Creamy Milk' range of 100g milk chocolate blocks. The campaign even included giving away free blocks through their Facebook page. I wasn't lucky enough to win one of the blocks, but that's how I found out about their new product.

The range comes in three flavours: Milk, Cookie Crunch, and Hazelnut. I have the first two flavours for review.

Since its launch, these blocks can often be found on special for about $1.99 (half price) at the two major Australian supermarkets, Coles and Woolworths. The packaging is surprisingly cheap for a Lindt product, just foil and a paper outer layer, but it still manages to look rather dignified with a raised gold logo and a brilliant royal blue background. The Cookie Crunch features a wide yellow swatch across the bottom to help distinguish it from the Milk Chocolate version.

The blocks are broken into small rectangles rather than squares, and each has the brand name impressed into the top.The block is slightly wider than Cadbury's 100g blocks, at a hair under 7.5cm wide and 16cm long, and 5mm thick. At first glance, there seems to be little difference between the Milk Chocolate and the Cookie Crunch, although on closer inspection the cookie version is a touch lighter in colouring. And of course there is the addition of cookie pieces: from the top they are mere specks below the surface, but flip the block over  and the texture fro the tiny pieces is wonderful. The back shows the pieces are well distributed, and just about all are covered by chocolate. The reverse of the Milk Chocolate block is smooth and mostly unmarred, although not glossy like the Cookie Crunch.

There's a definitely a strong milky note to the scent of both blocks - it reminds me of the Lindt Easter Bunnies. :) It's strong and creamy, and without much of a cocoa scent to interrupt the sweetness.

The first block, the Creamy Milk, has a firm snap to it, indicating freshness. In the mouth it melts quickly and evenly, spreading the sweetness all around. It is perfectly tempered and smooth, but quite sweet.

Cookie Crunch had quite a different flavour to it. The malty cookie pieces stole the show from the first taste, standing right in front and dominating the chocolate flavours. The tiny pieces are evenly dispersed throughout the chocolate, adding great texture to the chew but also imparting a strong malt favour. I honestly could barely taste the chocolate beyond a passing background taste. It was like eating a chocolate-dipped biscuit - the biscuit is the star of the show and the chocolate is the chorus. I wasn't disappointed, but I was baffled at the amount of biscuit. Dropping the amount would allow the chocolate's taste time in the limelight.

Both blocks contain a minimum of 30% cocoa solids and 20% of milk solids. Both may contain traces of almonds and hazelnuts.