Easter Chocolate Reviewed: It’s An Eggstravaganza

Well the festival of chocolate is nearly upon us. I do know, of course that Easter is a very special occasion in the Christian calendar and for many others it’s about the celebration of Spring. But for us chocoholics, it’s a very good excuse to indulge. So here’s an Eggstravaganza review of Easter chocolate.

Easter Chocolate

You really can’t have too many ideas for Easter chocolate. So if this eggstravaganza doesn’t quite do it for you, I have more. Why not take a look at these chocolate Easter eggs: the best of the nest or this extra thick chocolate egg. Then again you could try making your very own homemade Easter eggs.

Lets get stuck in.

Thorntons

During my early days as a student in London, I was befriended by a girl about town. Her tastes were rather more sophisticated than a country girl up from Cornwall. And that despite my travels to exotic climes and years as an au pair in Switzerland.

One of the stylish shops she introduced me to was Thorntons in Marylebone High Street, an area full of upmarket independent retailers not far from our place of study.

As students, we couldn’t really afford the extravagant prices charged back then, but we would occasionally treat ourselves to just one Viennese or Champagne truffle each from their Continental range. Sometimes, we got lucky and were able to purchase a big slab of their milk chocolate at a bargain price. This was milk chocolate that for some reason had not made it through the quality checks. I was in heaven.

Thorntons has moved on since then and is now a well known high street brand. I too have moved on in my chocolate journey since those heady days, but the fondness for Thorntons remains.

Thorntons Continental Easter Egg

This flight of nostalgia was brought on when I was sent a large Thorntons Continental Luxury Easter Egg to review. It’s the start of this Easter eggstravaganza.

The egg itself is huge and comes complete with a box of 18 classic chocolates from the Continental range. The box design is elegant and I was really taken by the impressionistic, slightly retro, spirograph-inspired design on the egg itself.

When I opened the box, a rush of cocoa aromas emerged that I found quite intoxicating. This is by no means the case with all chocolate. The egg is rich and creamy with a slight astringent note that gives it a fully rounded chocolatey flavour.

These days, I prefer my chocolates with less sugar rather than more. These Thornton’s Continentals err towards the sweet side, but I enjoyed them nevertheless.

I was pleased to see that my old friend, the Viennese truffle was represented. And although the old champagne truffle I remembered was not, there was a ganache au marc de champagne, so I wasn’t too disappointed. In fact it was very nice indeed and left a pleasantly warm glow as it travelled from mouth to tummy.

The other classic I remember from those olden days was the Diplomat, which was another firm favourite. It seems we may have treated ourselves rather more than I at first remembered.

Cappuccino truffles were never a favourite as I’m not a fan of coffee flavoured chocolates and there are two of these in the box. Luckily CT is rather partial, so he did get a bit of a look in. In fact the egg, combined with the chocolates kept us both happy for several days, as it should weighing in at 500g. Normally £24.99, I’ve just noticed it’s currently up for an absolute bargain at £14.99.

Fairtrade Chocolate Easter Eggs

I wrote recently about the importance of buying fairly traded chocolate, so I am not going to repeat it all again here. Suffice it to say that there is a huge range of Easter Eggs on offer to suit all ages and tastes and they are not difficult to find here in the UK. Just look for the Fairtrade mark. I was sent a few to sample from the Fairtrade Foundation.

Green & Black’s Plain Dark Chocolate Egg (70%)

I’ve been a fan of Green & Black’s since they produced there very first bar way back in the 1990s. Not only are their bars Fairtrade, but they are organic too. They are also very tasty. In fact their spicy orange bar Maya Gold, was the first chocolate bar to gain the Fairtrade mark in 1994.

This 165g egg is plain chocolate made from high quality Trinitario cocoa beans. It’s robust and earthy in flavour with notes of tobacco and coffee – one of my mother’s favourites.

Cocoa Loco Raspberry Chocolate Pigs

sugar, cocoa butter, whole milk powder, vanilla powder, freeze dried raspberry powder

Cocoa Loco is not a brand I am particularly familiar with, but if these cute little pigs are anything to go by, it’s one worth taking note of. Pigs heads certainly make an interesting change from Easter bunnies.

Turns out they’re organic as well as Fairtrade – horrah! White chocolate is incredibly sweet, but the sharp zingy notes of raspberry lift these little piggies nicely. I’m not normally a fan of white chocolate, but these disappeared with remarkable rapidity.

Divine Shaun the Sheep (23%)

sugar, cocoa butter, dried cream, cocoa mass, whole milk powder, soya lecithin, vanilla

This milk chocolate egg is made for youngsters and to tie in with the movie. It comes with sheep’s ears and a wooly top. I decided it would be far more appreciated by my next door neighbour’s grandchild than by me, so I passed this one on. I’ve written plenty about Divine over the years; it is co-owned by the farmers that grow the cocoa beans in Ghana and was the first UK company to be 100% Fairtrade.

The Meaningful Chocolate Company

The Easter eggs sold by The Meaningful Chocolate Company, are not only Fairtrade, but they tell the story of Easter. It is true that many no longer know the Christian meaning of Easter and why it’s celebrated. With this in mind, David Marshall, now CEO, decided that an Easter egg was needed that was both ethical and put people back in touch with the Easter story of Jesus.

In true Christian style, the company also donates a proportion of its sales to development and educational charities. This year The Meaningful Chocolate Company will donate 10p from every 150g egg to Traidcraft. In addition to the two eggs I was sent, there is also a 180g dark chocolate egg on offer. Eggs are stocked at varies independent retailers as well as Tesco, Morrisons and Waitrose.

The Real Easter Egg (36%)

sugar, cocoa butter, whole milk powder, cocoa mass, cocoa solids

The Real Easter Egg comes in two sizes. One is a 150g box which includes a 25g bag of milk chocolate chunky buttons. Then there’s a large 280g one which includes an 80g bar of orange milk chocolate and an olive wood dove keyring from Bethlehem. Both contain booklets relating the Easter story, though one is illustrated for children and includes an Easter quiz, a recipe for Easter biscuits and a jolly 3 ft Easter banner.

The chocolate has a relatively high cocoa content and is creamy with caramel and vanilla notes. It’s a little sweeter than I would normally prefer, but it has a good flavour and I really liked it.

The orange chocolate bar has the scent and taste of real orange. Because it contains orange oil this shouldn’t really be a surprise. CT is very fussy when it comes to orange flavoured chocolate and is rarely keen. However, the balance here is good and he gave it the thumbs up.

Monty Bojangles Chocolate Easter Eggs (31%)

sugar, cocoa butter, milk powder, cocoa mass, soya lecithin, natural vanilla + additional ingredients for the truffles

For something whimsical, curious and completely different, there is fun to be had with Monty Bojangles. The Easter egg boxes weigh in at 200g and contain a 120g Belgian milk chocolate egg and 80g of chocolate truffles.

The chocolate isn’t overly sweet and has a pleasant nutty flavour. Despite the purist in me sniffing at the palm oil included in the truffles, I really enjoyed them. They’re all smooth, rich and unctuous and dusted in bitter cocoa powder which makes a fantastic contrast to the sweet insides. All of them contain intriguing crunchy bits.

The packaging is colourful and interesting with lots of pictures to look at and snippets of the fantastical adventures of Monty Bojangles. There are several in my family who would love to have these particular Easter chocolate bites. At £6 an egg, these seem eminently reasonable.

Berry Bubbly

We should perhaps have been alerted by the name, but CT and I were in for a surprise when we bit into these truffles. They made us both giggle as the crescendo of crunchy popping candy drowned out all other noises. With a rich and fruity flavour as well as the element of fun, we both quickly reached for seconds.

Scrumple Nutty

Not such a surprise, but equally tasty, these truffles hold pieces of crunchy toasted hazelnuts.

Flutter Scotch

Much as I liked the Berry Bubbly, these were my favourite. The slightly salty dark intense truffles contrast very nicely with the sweet flecks of butterscotch.

Stay in Devon

No Easter eggstravaganza is complete without a chocolate making kit it seems. The idea of making my own Easter eggs has always struck me as a little daunting. And although every year I have plans to give it a try, I never actually manage it.

However, this year I was sent an Easter egg making kit from Stay in Devon, so the proverbial bull just had to be taken by the horns. So I did.

The kit is really meant for children, so how scary could it be? It came with a chocolate mould for two eggs and two 150g bags of milk chocolate buttons from Choconchoc. It also came in a sturdy box with instructions, some sweets to make one’s very own egg heads and a paper chef’s hat.

I was a little surprised at the quality of chocolate which tasted good and had 33.5% cocoa solids. I was pleased that just because the kit was aimed at children, the little ones were not being fobbed off with low quality goods.

There is plenty of Easter fun to be had on the website including a photo gallery of the eggs being made or eaten and an Easter egg hunt with a £500 prize up for grabs.

Homemade Easter Eggs

The instructions were a little basic. They didn’t tell you how much chocolate to melt for starters. However, it worked and I successfully made two shiny Easter eggs. The trick it seems is to polish the moulds with a little flavourless oil before you add the chocolate. I used sunflower oil. This not only makes the eggs easier to get out of the moulds, but helps to give them a nice shine too.

Basically, it’s a process of melting the chocolate and adding it in layers. I swirled the chocolate around the mould, using a teaspoon to ensure all surfaces were covered, then poured the excess back into the bowl of melted chocolate, allowing it to set before doing the same again. My kitchen was cold, so it only took a few minutes before I was able to repeat the process, which I did twice more.

As per the instructions, I dutifully decorated the eggs with the sweets provided. My egg heads looked like something from a B movie sic-fi romp, but hey, everything is post modern these days. For something a little more sophisticated, you could try my homemade Easter eggs with dark chocolate salted caramel popcorn.

Easter Chocolate: Godiva

You may remember, my recent post about the Godiva competition and that I was too late to enter my Amaretto chocolate pots. Well I was also unable to take up the invite to go up to London for the award celebrations. For those interested, the finalists and their entries can be seen in this video clip.

As some sort of compensation, Godiva very kindly sent me some of their chocolate: some Easter bunnies and some chocolate pops – aka mini Easter Eggs. They’re a welcome addition to this Easter eggstravaganza.

Easter Chocolate Pops

The eggs were wrapped in colourful silver paper and looked so good I kept them in a bowl on the sideboard for several days before tucking into them. Each colour egg had a different flavoured ganache, mousse or praline filling and was covered with either dark, milk or white chocolate, with a layer of the same running down the middle.

There were nine different colours in all, including an orange covered coffee ganache, a gold covered white chocolate ganache flavoured with vanilla, a yellow white chocolate ganache flavoured with lemon and covered in dark chocolate and an 85% dark chocolate ganache.

My favourites were the pink milk chocolate speculoos mousse, the red dark chocolate raspberry mousse and the green dark chocolate praline with biscuits. The layer of chocolate running down the middle broke up the filling in an unexpected way adding extra texture and interest. We both liked the pops.

Easter Chocolate Bunnies

Sadly, the chocolate bunnies arrived in bits. They were crushed in the post, so I didn’t get to assess them in the looks department. To be fair though, these are not normally something that’s sent in the post as they are only available to buy in shops.

The chocolate itself was of the milk variety and tasted a little of coconut. It was rather too sweet for CT or I to eat as it was, but it worked very nicely in this leftover Easter egg ice-cream.

Cadbury’s Mini Eggs

To finish this Easter eggstravaganza, I give you a bowl of Cadbury’s mini Easter eggs. Cadbury’s creme eggs I have known and loved as an Easter special ever since I can remember. You may or may not have seen the creme egg buns I made with them a few weeks ago. They were very nice.

This is the first time I’ve come across them in mini form though. Cute with a higher ratio of chocolate to fondant filling than a regular creme egg. They’re very tasty, if rather sweet, mouthfuls.

The others were completely new to me in egg form: Caramel eggs, solid Dairy Milk chocolate eggs and some I got stupidly excited about when I saw them, Daim eggs. I adore the delicious bits of crunchy Scandinavian butterscotch that permeate the chocolate. To let you into a little secret, I was completely addicted to Dime bars as a student. The eggs come in 89g bags which gives 8 eggs, except for the Dairy Milk where you get 93g and 9 eggs.

As soon as I got my hands on these egg, I formed baking plans. The result was this delicious spicy chocolate and orange Easter bundt. Something for you to get your teeth into. I’ve subsequently also used them to top these spiced rum Easter chocolate cakes.

Easter Chocolate: Madécasse

For those of you who read my review of this incredible chocolate back in February, you will know that I am now a fan. Not only does Madécasse chocolate taste fantastic, but this bean to bar company is enriching the local economy right where the chocolate is made in Madagascar.

Earlier on this month, co-founder Brett Beach was over in London to talk about the company, its work in Madagascar and the Fair for Life brand. He was also conducting chocolate tastings. Sadly, I was unable to make any of them, but to help me get over my disappointment, he sent me a couple of their chocolate bars.

Sampling Madécasse chocolate makes you stop and think a bit. Not only about where chocolate comes from and how it’s grown, but about the different flavours that circulate in the mouth. A pack of these bars would make a very special Easter gift for the chocolate connoisseur in your life.

Salted Almond (dark 59%)

Cocoa beans, sugar, almonds, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, sea salt (75g)

Fruity chocolate with a clear high note followed by a warm nutty taste, courtesy of the mildly salted almonds on top.

Sea Salt & Nibs (dark 63%)

Cocoa beans, sugar, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, sea salt (25g)

This has an earthier quality and despite having a higher cocoa content than the salted almond, it tastes sweeter. Earthy coffee notes with mildly salted crunchy cocoa nibs on top. Waves of flavour cross the palate which makes it quite intriguing – from salty to earthy, then sweet to bitter.

Dr Oetker

cocoa mass, sugar, whey powder, milk, soya lecithin

Chocolate to cook with is always welcome around Easter time. It is in my household anyway. I’ve used Dr Oetker’s 72% Fine Cooks’ dark chocolate on a number of occasion and I’ve always found it easy to work with. And it consistently produces good results. Try these coconut chocolate bars or these Mexican mole muffins.

It should be noted, however, that Dr Oetker chocolate is not suitable for vegans. Nor for those with lactose intolerance as, unusually for dark chocolate, it contains whey and milk. They sent me a couple of bars of chocolate with some cocoa powder, baking powder, vanilla extract and a packet of rich chocolate cupcake centres.

With the latter product I made these chocolate surprise cupcakes, which appeared on my Easter teatime table.

Stay in Touch

Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. I hoped you enjoyed this Easter chocolate eggstravaganza. If you’re inspired to acquire anything or get to try one of the eggs, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. Do you have any chocolate Easter egg recommendations?

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If you’d like more chocolate reviews, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious and nutritious, of course.

July 2024

This Easter chocolates post is an amalgamation of two original posts. I’ve now deleted Easter Chocolate Bites.

Thanks to Madécasse, the Fairtrade Foundation, The Meaningful Chocolate Company, Thorntons, Godiva, Stay in Devon, Monty Bojangles, Cadbury’s and Dr Oetker for my mountain of Easter chocolate eggs. I was not required to write positive reviews and as always, all opinions are my own. Thank you for your support of the brands and organisations that help to keep Tin and Thyme blithe and blogging.