Sugar Savvy

In some ways Easter feels like it’s ages away, but in reality it’s just a few weeks and it’s time to start thinking about egg-shaped chocolate.

I was lucky enough to try a Hotel Chocolat Nutty Egg: which is half dark chocolate, half milk chocolate with nuts and filled with nut chocolates. The two halves are packaged separately so you can keep some for later (or share more easily, if you’re that way inclined).

The egg halves are good thick chocolate (especially where the seam would be) and Hotel Chocolat’s dark chocolate, in particular, is very smooth and rich. It’s very easy to break off a piece which is too large - or have to break two because the first piece is too small!
The chocolates inside the egg include slivered almonds covered in either dark, milk or white chocolate (the dark one was especially good), as well as chocolate coated Brazil and macadamia nuts and chocolates based around pistachios and hazelnuts. If you like chocolate and nuts, you won’t be disappointed by this egg - but I’d be surprised if you can eat it all in one sitting.

The egg costs £18, before delivery, so it’s definitely a special treat. However, Hotel Chocolat’s range of Easter goodies starts from around £3 (for a punk choc chick).

Hotel Chocolat started life as a mail order business (they deliver world wide) and now has stores throughout the UK. In addition to seasonal gifts and a wide range of chocolates, the company also runs a chocolate tasting club and an all dark chocolate tasting club. The chocolate is sourced from a single plantation in the West Indies, which makes Hotel Chocolat the only origin chocolatier in the UK.