Our Least Favorite Lindt Truffle Flavor Proves Not All Fruit Mixes With Chocolate

Lindt chocolate truffles are recognized by their signature, shiny packaging which resembles a fancy folded up lunch bag, their perfectly round and bite-sized shapes, and their seriously expansive array of flavors. The centers of each solid chocolate orb are filled with decadent, creamy, flavored chocolate fillings. The Takeout recently completed the painstaking task (but someone had to do it, right?) of taste-testing nearly 30 of Lindt's truffles to find which ones proved to be delicious and which flavors just didn't impress. With all due respect to the colorful citrus fruit, the blood orange flavor was at the bottom of our list.

The good news is that the blood orange Lindt truffle did indeed taste the way we expect a blood orange to taste, and the chocolate filling was as smooth and silky as we know Lindt chocolate to be. The bad news is the flavor just didn't jive with the milk chocolate it was combined with, in our opinion. Seeing as how blood oranges are slightly bitter, perhaps the pairing would work better with dark or even white chocolate, but with milk chocolate, we had to leave the flavor on the cutting room floor.

As far as the fruit flavors that fared better in these truffles, strawberry with a dark chocolate shell was the only one that ranked in our top ten choices.

Blood oranges are one of the most gorgeous pieces of produce on the planet, in my opinion. Even though they may not play well with Lindt chocolate (which actually isn't "expertly crafted" after all), they have a strong place in the culinary realm. Both the skin and the flesh are beautiful combinations of peach and orange colors melting with deep raspberry hues. The juice is usually a deep garnet color, which turns even the simplest cocktails like mimosas and screwdrivers into striking temptations. With this in mind, blood orange juice will always have a place in the cocktail world.

As far as flavor pairings go, consider the fact that blood oranges are tart, sweet, and a little bitter. They taste wonderful with other sweet, but less tart fruits, like figs, apples, plums, and apricots. Try them with beets and avocado, too. Of course, you can also put them together with their citrus kin, such as in a winter citrus tart with custard. This creamy filling can be mastered with some easy tips. Blood orange juice works with any rich meats (think duck a l'orange), rich fish like salmon, and is perfect for flavoring baked goods and pastries. One Christmas, I made some toasted shortbread cookies and glazed them with a mixture of powdered sugar and blood orange juice. The juice not only imparted flavor, but gave a perfect peach hue as well.