Lindt, Martin Place

One of the ingredients to a great girls night out is definitely oodles of chocolate, and the Lindt cafe has been a favourite meeting spot for many a girls night out for me. So imagine my excitement when I got an invite to the reopening of a completely revamped Lindt Cafe at Martin Place!




Yeah. I was that excited!

The Lindt cafe, as it always is to me, is a sophisticated Willy Wonka Wonderland. Gold and marble adorn the interior, and it's understated in its luxury and opulence. And this sophistication is reflected in the chocolates as well. Lindt chocolate never disappoints, and the people I know who aren't a fan of chocolate because it can be cloying, always end up a fan of Lindt because of their fine balance in flavours and textures, and variety.

Of course, chocolates of every incarnation were proffered to us upon arrival.

They even had a brand new station where vats of tempered, molten chocolate sat, and strawberries, macaroons and pralines were covered in lush, silky chocolate of every kind. I especially loved how the chocolatiers were available for us to talk to, and food nerd that I am, I was so happy with the effortless way they answered my questions and explained to me the finer points of chocolate.

One of the chocolatiers said that they sometimes had to stop work on the finer chocolate work on really humid days as the humidity can be enough to cause the chocolate to seize up. Besides which, chocolate is really best to be set at room temperature (about 20C) and that sort of humidity can cause a really ugly chocolate bloom - which can be caused by the sugar reacting with the moisture in the air.

I also had a chat with Thomas Schnetzler, one of Lindt's Master Chocolatier, who talked about the challenges of following the Lindt traditions right here in a (sometimes) hot and humid Australia. I've heard that some chocolate companies - in order to work with the climate that Australia has - sometimes change the recipe of their chocolate according to the region. Lindt however - according to Thomas - staunchly refuses to change their recipe, and instead chooses to apply technique and equipment to allow the quality and standard to be unchanged throughout the world.

So besides eating amazing chocolate straight out, what else can you have in a chocolate cafe? Chocolate with coffee of course!

Now I may not be the biggest connoisseur of coffee, but the mix of dark chocolate with rich coffee actually made a really nice drink. It was served towards the end of the night, and it was a great pick-me-up.

And guess where that chocolate came from?

Australia's first chocolate on tap! With sophisticated machines imported from Italy, the chocolate is kept liquid and warm, and when it comes time to clean the machines, chocolate is used to flush out the machines, because any drop of water might ruin the chocolate.

And the piece de resistance for the night? Customizable chocolate slabs!



Yeah yeah, I know that some people might be unimpressed because it's just chocolate writing on chocolate, but think about all those generic chocolates gifts that you give people throughout your life. Now, instead of giving them a card and a box of chocolates because you don't know what to get people, you can give them a card written on chocolates! How cool is that?



Of course, what kind of food blogger would I be if I didn't get one myself?



Thank you again to Laura from Trish Nichol Agency and Lindt for the invite!