Lindt Lindor Truffles and hot weather leaves me with...

So, last week I was in Minneapolis for training, and found my way to Mall of America, as would any red-blooded American. I got this thing for Lindt Lindor Truffles, particularly the ones that have some form of white chocolate or vanilla in them. It just so happens that there is a Lindt store in the mall, where they sell every possible variety of those little marbles of guilty pleasure. They had some new flavors, including a new all-vanilla flavor in an bright purple wrapper. I promise you, my intent was to get just a few of those babies, leave some for the hotel maid, and a wee few for the trip home.

They lasted one night, I think.

So, back to the mall a couple days later. Since I was going to be flying home the next day, I bought a whole bunch of those truffles, over $20 worth. I put a few of them into a nice brown plastic carry-on baggie which seemed to be purpose-built for taking on the airplane. The balance of my treasure I packed away into the suitcase

Fast forward to Friday evening, May 18th 2012. I board my Delta flight home to Anchorage, and after a few minutes I decide it was time to dip into my treat baggie. I lean the bag forward a bit to roll out a treat, and instead, out pours a bit of white goo. Ugh. Okay, did I mention the local temp in Minneapolis had been in the mid-to-high 80's that week? Uhm, yeah. Ooh, and did I forget to mention that I had to load all my stuff into the rental car that morning after checking out of the hotel? You know, living up in Anchorage, I forgot cars get hot in the inside! So I surrendered that ruined bag of glop to the trash can in the back of the plane, and pondered the fate of the bag of treats I had packed away in the suitcase. Only time would tell.

I got home, and I guess I should have taken a picture, because my description will not do it justice. I'll try, though. You ever went into the fridge and took out a forgotten bag of lettuce and a big part of it had decomposed to brown glop which smeared around in the bag? Yeah, that's what I had. At least two of the truffles had completely failed into syrup, and the remainder of them were now battered with the blood of their brethren.

Not one of the remaining truffles were anywhere near spherical, most of them ended up resembling chewed gum. Undaunted, I stuck the whole messy bag into the refrigerator and let them chill down. That did help quite a bit, as after that, the truffles were salvageable, although the outer wrappers were all rendered hopelessly sticky.

I will say, the new vanilla truffle in the purple wrapper are really good, but I think my favorites are still the white chocolate in the gold wraper, and the Stracciatella in the light blue wrapper. Word to the wise, though, if you come across a Lindt store in the mall, bring a bag of ice along.