I like my chocolate in the low 70’s. I’m not a fan of the high-percentage Lindts. Even their 70% is too harsh for me. The bitterness isn’t really the issue so much as the acidity in combination with the bitterness. A chocolate that has a higher acid content should be formulated at lower percentages. That acid/bitter combination feels like a chemical assault on my tongue.
The Swiss have always been fond of sweeter chocolates, but the rest of the world began favoring higher percentages about 25 years ago. Swiss makers like Lindt saw that to compete, they would have to start ramping up their percentages like everyone else. But I don’t think they’ve really understood how to do that gracefully.
They seem to have simply made the same chocolate that they’ve always made, but put in less sugar. That’s not the way to go. For high-percentage chocolates, you use less forceful, less acidic and more complex cocoas.
Eating chocolate shouldn’t be an exercise in tolerance.