It’s probably been 32 years since I last had eggs with soldiers (soft boiled eggs with strips of toast for dipping, for the uninitiated), but this cute little Easter box from Hotel Chocolat still managed to catch my attention.
The chocolate version consists of a layer of five praline milk chocolate ‘half eggs’, with a layer of white chocolate soliders underneath.
The eggs have white chocolate ‘yolks’ on one side and an attractive pattern moulded into the back, while the soliders are really little more than sticks of white chocolate.
The eggs are solid rather than filled, with the 40% milk chocolate being combined with hazelnut paste. The result is something with a very pleasant, nutty flavour that manages to retain the texture of milk chocolate. I rather enjoyed it.
The soldiers are just white chocolate, so as you’d expect they’re very sweet and creamy. Luckily they’re only small, so it’s not too much unless you try to eat them all in one go. Like I did. Try as I might, I was entirely unsuccessful at ‘dipping’ them into the eggs though. No yolky goodness here.
There’s not much to these, but like so many Hotel Chocolat products, it’s the idea that makes it work. It’s something a little bit silly made from quality ingredients and wrapped up in beautiful packaging. Don’t expect them to last long though.
As you may know, I’ve been involved in the organisation of this year’s Academy of Chocolate Awards. I’m happy to say that the results of this year’s awards are now out, and you can view the complete list here.
The stand-out result for me is the one right at the top. Duffy Sheardown’s Honduras Indio Rojo 72% bar, which jointly won the coveted ‘Golden Bean’ award for best bean-to-bar dark chocolate. The fact that the other joint winner of the award was an established player like Amedei makes it even more interesting to me.
You might be wondering why there are joint winners. The awards were given purely on the scores they achieved on the judging days last month, and the two bars in question were right at the top of the pile with almost identical scores. The only fair thing to do in this case was to give the award to both.
Lots of other exciting and interesting results cropped up, and I think there’s a great mix of old favourites like Amedei, William Curley, Rococo and Thorntons with newcomers like Bojesen, Amelia Rope, Go*Do and Matcha.
Congratulations to all the winners, and thanks to all the judges who gave their time and sanity to help us!
Here’s something a little different from Josef Zotter, and by ‘different’ I don’t mean ‘some crazy new combination of flavours’. No, in this instance the difference is that the Labooko range offer the consumer a pairing of two bars made with cacao beans from different parts of the world, but in similar styles. This particular pairing is two 35g mini-slabs of high cocoa content milk chocolate presented in a gatefold pack with quite extensive notes about the cocoa and the people who grow the beans. Unfortunately this particular pack was bought in Vienna and consequently everything’s in German. I did laugh at the “Attention, Do Not eat!” card, and I managed to work out that the beans are being grown organically by co-operatives in the respective countries. Like everything else Josef Zotter has created, most of the ingredients are fair trade and organic.
Once you open up the paper packaging and peel back the gold foiled paper, you get to see this. Unfortunately my 60% bar was a little the worse for wear, but you can still appreciate the design of the mould. Personally I find it very attractive. The chocolate itself has an initial light acidity which opens out into robust cacao flavours. It’s not particularly sweet, as you might expect from 60% cacao chocolate, and it has a long, deep finish. If you’re used to sweet, lightly flavoured milk chocolate this may come as a bit of a surprise, but if you enjoy the flavour of single origin cacao chocolate, it’s defintely worth trying.
As is the 50% Nicaraguan bar. It might be the lesser of the two in terms of cacao content, but it lacks nothing in terms of delivering flavour. Delicate, fragrant cacao with a hint of vanilla, slightly sweet and fruity, quick to melt, and with a light mouthfeel – in short, jolly good milk chocolate.
Of course as with all things Zotter, these bars are premium products, but with such excellent Fairtrade and organic credentials (and this nifty idea of pairing bars made from cacao from different countries) you do get value for money. More good news is that you don’t have to go to Austria to get your hands on them. There are a number of retail stores in the UK that now stock Zotter bars (John Lewis food halls being one of them) and you can of course order online.
I’m a big fan of Lucky’s. Their Valrhona enrobed cakes are as innovative as they are delicious, so I was excited to hear they were branching out for Easter.
Their Humpty Dumpty eggs are just as unusual as their cakes, with the shells consisting of two layers of chocolate with a filling sandwiched in between. These 320g eggs are presented in a large reusable tin, which really does make them stand out.
There are three varieties to choose from; white chocolate with pumpkin, milk chocolate with chestnut and dark chocolate with caramel. They come in two sizes, and I was lucky enough to be given one of the large milk chocolate eggs with chestnut puree filling.
Unfortunately, I picked mine up from the Southbank Chocolate Festival, where I think the heat must have got the better of it, as the chocolate wasn’t in great condition.
This was my first experience of chestnut and chocolate and it wasn’t really my thing. I think it’s probably a ‘love it or hate it’ flavour though, as Chloe really seemed to enjoy hers.
I love the concept of these eggs, but this one just didn’t quite hit the mark for me. I’m putting that down to a combination of personal taste and a little too much heat.
If you’re in London, Lucky’s have a pop-up shop on the 5th Floor of Harvey Nichols until the end of the month, so you can try them for yourself and make up your mind. Just be sure to pick us up a few Honey Time cakes while you’re there…
