Lindt is a Swiss-based chocolate candy maker with factories in Europe and North America. Rodolphe Lindt developed the method for making the now-famous chocolate in 1879. The company has a complete line of chocolate candies including bars, truffles and even chocolate sauce. Lindt produces several varieties of dark chocolate with different cocoa content. Dark chocolate truffles are also available.
Identification
Dark chocolate does not contain the milk additives of regular chocolate. Without the milk additives, dark chocolate has a stronger chocolate taste than milk chocolate, and is often described as bitter. The ingredients of dark chocolate include cocoa beans, sugar, preservatives and sometimes a flavoring, such as vanilla or orange.
Cocoa Content
Dark chocolate is defined by the percentage of cocoa in the product. The more cocoa in the chocolate, the darker the candy. Lindt offers dark chocolate bars with 50, 70, 85, 90 and 99 percent cocoa content. The caloric content varies slightly among the bars.
Size
A Lindt dark chocolate bar is 3.5 oz, or 100 g. The bar is precut into 10 squares. The nutritional information provided by Lindt is for one serving size, which the company lists as four squares, or 40 g. One bar has about 2.5 servings.
Chocolate Bar Nutrition
The 99 percent cocoa dark chocolate bar contains 200 calories, 20 g of fat, 13 g of carbohydrates and 6 g of protein. The 90 percent cocoa dark chocolate bar has 210 calories, 20 g of fat, 14 g of carbohydrates and 5 g of protein. The 85 percent cocoa dark chocolate bar contains 210 calories, 18 g of fat, 8 g of carbohydrates and 4 g of protein. The 70 percent bar has 250 calories, 19 g of fat, 17 g of carbohydrates and 3 g of protein. The bar with the least amount of cocoa, at 50 percent, contains 200 calories, 15 g of fat, 22 g of carbohydrates and 2 g of protein.
Benefits
MayoClinic.com notes that eating dark chocolate does have some health benefits. Consuming cocoa may reduce your risk of heart disease as it contains flavanols, which have antioxidant properties. Flavanols may also help lower your blood pressure and increase cardiovascular health. Dark chocolate contains more flavanols than milk chocolate. However, you should only eat dark chocolate in moderation due to its high calorie and fat content. MayoClinic.com recommends eating dark chocolate with at least 65 percent cocoa content and consuming no more than 85 g per day.
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