Lindt chocolate is what I consider a higher quality chocolate, definitely better-tasting, more “sophisticated,” if you will, than Hershey or M&Ms chocolate. Of course, if you put the words “Swiss made” on anything, I get a little dreamy eyed. To make things even better, Lindt chocolates are available at common stores like Wal-Mart and Target. That means when I go grocery shopping I can buy whole wheat bread for my health and premium chocolate for my happiness. Lindt is like the best of both worlds – high quality and affordable.

When I found out Lindt would be sending me a milk chocolate bar to review, I was excited but then promptly forgot about it. (Just like I forget to put the clothes in the dryer when they’re finished washing…) When the bar arrived, I was surprised and a little apprehensive to see that they’d sent me their new Raisin & Nuts Classic Recipe bar. I, uh, don’t like raisins… but I do like nuts! I can handle this.

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Where I currently reside, Munich, Germany, chocolate is in abundance. All different kinds and textures; milk, dark, fruit-flavored, white, crunchy – the list goes on. All too often, a chocolate craving leads to a serious dilemma: what to buy and which flavor will satisfy even the most intense chocolate craving. Recently, while in the throws of a craving, I ventured out to find something for a fix which led me to a new discovery… perhaps a new love.

Before I divulge the sordid details of my affair, let me just explain that I’ve never been a fan of the chocolate/nut combination. In fact, I usually find myself picking nuts out of chocolate/nut sweets. I’ve been taunted for my dissection of Peanut M&Ms, carefully biting open the M&M and prying out the nut in order to enjoy the chocolate with the crunchy candy shell. I even recall a date or two ending early over my spitting out the peanuts from a Snickers bar and almonds from a Hershey bar. As I said before, it isn’t a pairing that works for me. Men are replaceable – the experience of enjoying chocolate in the moment is not. The coarse, dry and sometimes bitterness of the nut doesn’t couple well with chocolate. Nuts are hearty… earthy… chocolate should be left alone, far from the likes of the nut.

Then I met Hanuta.

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Before attending the All Candy Expo, all the registered press people were sent dozens and dozens of press releases from various companies advertising their products and inviting us to drop by their booths. That is where I first heard about Landrin Waferatto USA.

The company’s roots date back to the nineteenth century when Georg Landrin began preparing confections for the Imperial Court of Russia. The reputation of his delicacies spread throughout the country and Europe, earning his products notoriety for their quality ingredients and taste.

Landrin USA was recently founded with the intent to market a line of truffles with designs and packaging inspired by couture fashion and art – i.e., appealing to women. I remember checking out some of the photos from their press release to discover all their boxes adorned with orchids, chiffon prints, the elegance of a perfume box, and they somehow unfolded into vases when you opened them.

Elaborate much? Maybe. But the principal and design is aesthetically sound, which is why it’s a current silver finalist for two of the 2009 Sofi Awards (Specialty Outstanding Food Innovation). But part of me didn’t want to like these. They were too pretty. They were too girly.

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Before I even tried Mars’ Fling, I was already smiling. The wrapper says “Naughty, but not that naughty.” Oh really? Do go on. The website explains that though the Fling is made of “premium chocolate” this little pleasure won’t make you feel too guilty because each finger of the Fling is only 85 calories.

Well, the packaging is fun and the concept is intriguing, but how’s the flavor? I tried two kinds of Flings: the milk chocolate and the hazelnut.

Each finger looks similar to a Twix, so I was expecting that kind of crunch and consistency. Wrong! Airy, whipped chocolate rests on a very light, brittle honeycomb-like bar, and then the whole thing is coated in chocolate. When I bit into it, the Fling snapped and crunched audibly. But the crunchy bit isn’t anything like the cookie crunch of a Twix – it’s hard to explain the texture except to say that the whole thing is really, really airy. I found them really fun to eat – unusual, and interesting.

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I meant to have a box of this for Valentine’s and write a review of it. It didn’t happen, and this box didn’t mean to happen either. I was actually buying them for Mother’s Day. I clicked on the wrong address in my account, and some stranger at my mom’s old address got a box of chocolate. They’re too fragile to be resold after they’ve been shipped back and forth, so all I could do was reorder another box.

That was when things took a turn for the better. When I reordered, they somehow managed to send the order to me instead. Since it was their mistake, they sent another to my mom, and I got this one for myself. Obviously, we were meant to be together.

There are two main things to know about this brand: First of all, this is very much a dark chocolate experience. There are a few milk chocolate pieces, but if that’s what you prefer, go elsewhere.

On the other hand, if you’re a dark chocolate fiend, like I am, read on.

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