Aldi Vs Lindt: Who Makes The Better Milk Chocolate Bar?

Aldi is known for having great European chocolate, but is its milk chocolate better than Lindt? Aldi is certainly cheaper, making it the budget choice. But if you're going for chocolate and flavor, as well as chocolate and texture, you'll want to know which is truly the best choice. So I set out to find the answer to this question once and for all.

Some of the Aldi brands I tried have been around for over a century, while others are much newer. Lindt's award-winning Swiss chocolate bars have been a favorite of chocolate connoisseurs since first coming out in 1949. Meanwhile, Aldi has a couple of brands labeled as made in Germany, including Choceur and Moser Roth. Moser Roth has been around since 1841 and is usually exclusive to Aldi, though other stores will occasionally carry its seasonal or specialty chocolates. Meanwhile, Choceur is a newer brand that's only been making velvety smooth chocolate since around 1982. Aldi also carries a brand from the U.S. called Picca, which appears to only make Dubai-style chocolate. With viral Dubai chocolate bars only becoming widely popular in 2021, Picca is certainly among the newer brands.

To find out whether Lindt or Aldi chocolates were superior, I engaged in a taste test, pitting similar chocolate bars against each other to find out first hand which is best. Read on to discover whether Lindt or Aldi comes out on top as the champion when it comes to milk chocolate bars.

I started my quest by looking for Aldi milk chocolate bars with Lindt flavor equivalents. These included regular milk chocolate bars, Dubai-style milk chocolate bars, milk chocolate truffle bars, hazelnut milk chocolate bars, and fruit and nut milk chocolate bars. While both Aldi and Lindt have other milk chocolate bars available, it didn't seem to be fair to compare ones that weren't similar, so I left those behind.

I purchased all the necessary chocolate bars and compared them through a taste test. It wasn't difficult to convince a family member to help me with this, and I found we largely had the same opinions about everything we tasted. I considered the texture of the chocolate and ingredients, as well as the flavor of the chocolate and any additions to make a choice. In fact, deciding which was the best between the Aldi and Lindt options was usually easy when comparing texture and flavor.

For each category, I've declared a winner. The final verdict depended on whether Aldi or Lindy came out on top more often in the end.

For the first taste test round, I pitted Lindt, Choceur, and Moser Roth plain milk chocolate bars against each other. I wanted to try all three brands, thinking that I'd establish a base line for which chocolate I preferred most. Aldi's Choceur classic recipe milk chocolate bar was the first of the three plain milk chocolate bars I tried. I was actually disappointed with it since I always have a Choceur dark chocolate bar waiting in my kitchen drawer for a chocolate emergency since it's my favorite dark chocolate bar. Unfortunately, this one won't be joining it.

Reading the ingredient list is interesting, as it includes chocolate liquor and hazelnut paste. Perhaps it's the hazelnuts giving it a strange and off-putting aftertaste as well as a grainy texture. It ended up coming in last place for both texture and flavor. While the Choceur milk chocolate bar has one more gram of fat than the other two, it seems to take longer to melt in your mouth. I know I'm comparing it to Choceur dark chocolate, but it's not super chocolatey or very rich.

With a name like Moser Roth extra creamy milk chocolate bar, it's no wonder that this one ended up being my favorite of the three plain candy bars when it comes to texture. This Aldi chocolate bar is ridiculously smooth and creamy. So, it has that going for it. However, there are some negatives as well.

One odd thing I noted about the ingredient list for this chocolate bar is that, while the other bars list ordinary liquid milk as their dairy ingredient, Moser Roth uses dry rather than liquid whole milk, nonfat milk, and cream. It's also the only one with vanilla on the ingredient list.

What struck me immediately about the flavor of this milk chocolate bar is that it tastes nutty, although there aren't any nuts in it. I'm not really a big fan of the nutty flavor, as it detracts from what I want to taste most: the chocolate. I can also detect vanilla as a lingering mouth taste if I think about it. While this one comes in on top for texture, it comes in second of the three in flavor.

The last of the plain milk chocolate bars that I tried was the Lindt classic recipe milk chocolate bar. With my gripes about the flavor of the other two, I was pleasantly surprised at how lovely this one tasted, and it ended up being my favorite of the three.

The ingredient list is what you'd expect in a milk chocolate bar, but it also includes barley malt powder and some artificial flavors to add to the flavor profile. Because Lindt makes a big deal out of Rodolphe Lindt having developed the conching process of making extremely smooth and velvety chocolate in 1879, I was expecting intensely smooth chocolate. However, the texture is somewhat grainy and not as smooth as the Moser Roth one. The flavor is nice though. It's exactly what you think milk chocolate should taste like. It's full of creaminess, and the chocolate flavor is on point. While it's the second best for texture, I think it's the best of the three for flavor by a landslide, making it my favorite of the three plain milk chocolate candy bars.

Having tried several brands of Dubai-style chocolates, it's become clear to me that some brands are much better than others. I have to agree with our writer, Emily Hunt, that Lindt is my least favorite when ranking the Dubai style chocolate bars I've tried. Lindt Dubai style milk chocolate candy with pistachio & kadayif isn't necessarily bad, but Dubai-style chocolate just isn't this brand's forte.

Reading the ingredient list, I was surprised to see almonds and hazelnuts included, along with the expected pistachio paste. Interestingly, this bar isn't remotely green on the interior like many other Dubai-style chocolates. Nevertheless, the chocolate is absolutely on point for this one. It's smooth and chocolatey. Then, you experience a lot of nice crunch from kadayif pastry crumbs inside. However, the odd thing for me here was that the pistachio reminds me more of the flavor of sunflower butter than pistachios. The person tasting these chocolates with me had a more extreme reaction, saying that the flavor reminded them of the smell of formic acid that ants release when they feel threatened or when you smash them. Luckily, that wasn't my experience, but I can imagine that would be rather offputting. Still, overall, I just didn't like it as well as other Dubai-style chocolate bars I've had, including the one I tried from Aldi.

The Picca Dubai style milk chocolate with kadaif & pistachio from Aldi was actually quite delightful. In fact, it's one of the better ones I've tried, which is nice since it costs nearly $11 less than the Lindt one. In fact, it's better priced than any others I've seen, making it that much more attractive. It doesn't hurt that it also has great flavor and texture.

The ingredient list for this one is pretty much what you'd expect for Dubai style milk chocolate, except that it includes palm oil, which is a controversial oil. It also has 5 more grams of fat, 110 more calories, and 10 more grams of sugar per serving than the Lindt one. Still, when it comes to flavor and texture, it's one I'm likely to try again when I'm in the mood for Dubai chocolate.

One thing that I really appreciate about this bar is that the kadayif is still in the form of thin phyllo dough pastry noodles rather than being crushed like Lindt's. The kadayif noodle texture adds to the whole experience. My fellow taste-tester likened the flavor of the kadayif to pretzels, and I have to agree. The chocolate is very creamy and delicious. Plus, you can actually taste the pistachios in this one, which is what you expect. There's no contest between this and the Lindt one, with this bar coming in first place between the two with barely any contest at all.

Lindt didn't come through as strongly for me with its hazelnut milk chocolate bar. I think I would have been more impressed with the Lindt classic recipe hazelnut milk chocolate candy bar if I hadn't been comparing it to the Choceur hazelnut bar, which I ended up liking better. However, I do want to mention that my taste testing companion liked this one better than the Choceur hazelnut bar, making it the only bar on the list about which we didn't completely agree.

The ingredients are mainly what you'd expect, except that this bar contains barley malt powder, which seems to be a defining ingredient for the brand. It's also noteworthy that the Lindt hazelnut bar has 3 more grams of sugar per serving than the Choceur one. It's the intense sweetness in this one that makes it a lesser favorite for me, as the sweetness stands out more than the chocolate. The chocolate is smooth, but it's not the star. Instead, the nuts are. They're broken into pieces rather than being whole. So, they're interspersed in a way that means that you get nuts in almost every bite. They're better than the average hazelnuts I've experienced in candy bars, but they're just not as impressive as Choceur's.

I've decided that Choceur milk chocolate tastes better when it contains nuts. I'm not usually the biggest chocolate and nut fan or the biggest chocolate and hazelnut fan, but the Choceur roasted hazelnut milk chocolate bar changed my mind. As such, it came out above Lindt's hazelnut bar.

Like the plain milk chocolate Choceur bar, this one has some dried dairy ingredients: dry whole milk and buttermilk. Perhaps the buttermilk is what makes this one taste richer. Another noteworthy ingredient is vanilla. As previously mentioned, the Choceur hazelnut bar less sugar than Lindt's. The lower sugar level really works here because it seems to allow my tastebuds to focus on the richness of the chocolate and the flavor of the nuts more.

These ingredients come together to make a milk chocolate bar with really great chocolate, without the aftertaste that the plain milk chocolate had. It's smooth, buttery, and chocolatey. I especially like how crisp the whole roasted hazelnuts are. In fact, they're so good that they've made me realize that maybe I don't dislike chocolate and hazelnut after all; I've just had bad representatives of the genre previously. This is certainly a solid choice for a milk chocolate bar at Aldi, and it's also one of the best candy bars on this list.

If I'd only ever tasted Lindt's version of the fruit and nut bar without ever having tasted the Choceur one, I'd be in absolute love. The Lindt classic recipe fruit and nut milk chocolate bar really does have some good things going for it, but it's just not the best between Aldi and Lindt. Still, I think it's worth a try if you like fruit and nut bars.

Like all the other Lindt bars on this list, the fruit and nut one contains barley malt powder to set it apart. The add-ins for this bar are hazelnuts, almonds, and raisins. The chocolate is smooth and sweet and the nuts are crisp. Interestingly, the raisins taste spicy, which makes me think of holiday desserts. So, this might be a good choice when you're picking out holiday candies. However, the raisins are thin rather than plump, which make them a little less than exciting. Plus, not every bite seems to include raisins. So, the spice experience doesn't feel very homogenous. Sometimes, your bite might have a full-sized crunchy almond instead. This really is a lovely candy bar, and it has a lot going for it. Unfortunately, it just doesn't compare to the ingredient quality and texture of the Choceur version.

I love how the Choceur raisin & hazelnuts milk chocolate bar tastes like I'm eating a full-fledged dessert, which is what makes it the standout fruit and nut bar. I can imagine that I'm eating a chocolate-frosted fruit-laden cake rather than a simple candy bar. It's a pretty amazing chocolate bar. In fact, when I wasn't looking, my family managed to consume half of it behind my back. So, I guess we know which one has the vote for best chocolate bar in my house. 

Once again, this Choceur bar contains dry whole milk and dry buttermilk, and the buttermilk makes the milk chocolate nice and rich. Unlike the Lindt version, the only nut in this one is hazelnut. The ingredient quality pushes this over the edge, with the hazelnuts being crisp, while the raisins are delectably plump and moist. I could swear the raisins taste buttery, although butter isn't one of the ingredients for this candy bar. The only thing it doesn't have that I wish it did is the spices that feature in the Lindt bar. However, this is by far, the superior bar. In all my Aldi chocolate runs, I've never considered getting this before, but it will definitely make it into my rotation, as it's quite delightful.

Finally, we have the showdown between milk chocolate truffle bars. The idea with these seems to be to simulate the experience of eating a chocolate truffle but in a candybar format. Moser Roth chocolate delice truffle milk chocolate bars are quite delicious. The only problem is that, at summertime room temperature, they quickly become a melted mess. So, these may be better to keep in the fridge.

The ingredient list for these bars is reminding me of the ones for Choceur, with dry rather than liquid versions of whole milk, non-fat milk, cream, and buttermilk. The result is a rich dairy base for the chocolate. It's also infused with vanilla. Surprisingly, there are also tiny pieces of hazelnut mixed in, which adds a somewhat nutty flavor overall. The ingredients that remind me of the experience of eating a truffle, though, are the coconut and palm oil. These oils seem to mostly be in the middle truffle layer, which provides a pleasant fat-laden oily mouthfeel as well as turning the candybar to goo in warmer weather. I'd prefer this without the hazelnut pieces and the hazelnut flavor. However, it's still a great candy bar — albeit, not one I like as much as the Lindt version.

If you've ever had and enjoyed a Lindt Lindor chocolate truffle, you're going to recognize the flavor and texture in the candy bar version. The Lindt Lindor milk chocolate truffle bar has some of the best milk chocolate I've ever tasted. Plus, having the truffle filling brings an added texture and mouthfeel that make it stratospherically good. It's my favorite of all the milk chocolate bars on my list.

There aren't any big surprises in the ingredient list. Barley malt powder makes an appearance again. And, like the Moser Roth truffle bar, this one uses coconut and palm kernel oil to create the delightful nice, oil-laden mouthfeel. Like the Moser Roth, it's also a melted near-liquid mess at summertime room temperature. So, it belongs in the fridge in summer.

This is the type of chocolate that makes you close your eyes in delight. The chocolate flavor is well-pronounced, it's creamy, it's rich, and the truffle portion has the perfect fat content. I'll definitely be buying it again for myself and as a gift for chocolate-loving friends.

My final verdict is that both companies make excellent chocolate. However, if I have to choose just one? It's Aldi. Now, this wasn't necessarily surprising, considering Aldi's Choceur ranked number one when I tried 23 grocery store dark chocolates. I also tend to gravitate toward European-made chocolates because they taste different (and better to me) than U.S. chocolates.

While Aldi's chocolate bars are made in Germany, Lindt is made in the U.S. (despite being a Swiss brand). Lindt still tastes like a European-produced chocolate, though, so the choice wasn't as cut-and-dry as I initially believed. Then again, only twice did I prefer Lindt to Aldi: the plain milk chocolate bar, and the truffle bar. On that note, if you're in it for the pure taste of the chocolate, Lindt comes out ahead. But it seems like Aldi –- and specifically Choceur –- does a better job when it comes to making milk chocolate bars featuring extra ingredients.

Since most of this list includes chocolate bars with mix-ins, Aldi came out on top. It had crisper nuts, superior ingredients, and an overall richer flavor experience. I might usually be a dark chocolate girl, but some of these really won me over. Considering Aldi has better prices and usually tastes better anyway, that's where my future milk chocolate experimentation will certainly happen — especially among the Choceur Choco Changer bars, which outshine lots of fancy chocolate bars.