Gone Chocco

Who knew that tracking down information on a 40g net bag of tiny Easter Eggs would be harder than a day old piece of bread at an outdoor BBQ?

These cute little eggs remind me of the ‘Noggy eggs’ I remember buying at the high school canteen in the eighties, but this time I didn’t forget about them and let them melt into a puddle before dripping out of the pocket of my summer uniform……   No, these little babies were found at the corner shop and immediately taken home, photographed and sampled quicker than you can say ‘How come I can’t find the importer – Creative Confectionery Australia - via the white pages, the yellow pages or even google?

Having read the tag, I did find out that these are made in Italy by Sorini, but even then their website just shows a logo and a postal address, so clearly they’re not too interested in bragging about their eggs in cyberspace. 

Which is a shame because they taste delicious if you’re into a melty chocolate hazelnut praline filling which experience suggests that pretty well all of Europe is.  Sapphire and Love Chunks enjoyed them too, which is even more surprising considering that LC isn’t a big hazelnut fan.

And I should have left it there: sweet, cheap, uncomplicated and a nice little treat or gift for a child.  But no, I just had to go and read the back nutritional panel.

First, I got all excited because the milk chocolate contains 30% cocoa solids which is not to be sneezed at.  The hazelnut filling comprises over half of the egg, so my heart sank when I read that ‘vegetable fats’ was the second ingredient behind sugar.  Cocoa butter was third, and hazelnuts were a fair way further down the list at a not-so-whopping 2%. 

Rats.  Maybe the invisible importers and non-existent manufacturers would have been better off without attaching a tag to the eggs….

You know how sometimes you look at something and sort of dismiss it with a “Meh,” assuming that it’s not going to be anything riveting but it turns out to be far better than you thought?

These milk chocolate cashews from Haigh’s gave me that experience.

Naturally they’re coated in Haigh’s chocolate (32% cocoa solids) so you know it’s going to be delicious but cashews and chocolate very rarely seem to work all that well.

Hazelnuts are celebrated everywhere (although sometimes it leaves me puzzled as to why), quality almonds are divine and walnuts too can work a treat with chocolate (especially dark) but cashews can often taste a bit soggy and lifeless (esp when unsalted), so my hopes weren’t riding too high for these.

Retailing at $7.20 for a 200 gram bag, they’re just whole roasted cashews coated in milk chocolate but they work.  Beautifully.  The cashews taste as buttery as a macadamia and have something extra that just ’sings’ to the milk chocolate.  In fact these taste better than any milk chocolate nut I’ve ever eaten before.  That’s a big claim but one I’m prepared to stick with for now!

These babies were gobbled at my computer desk over three days. 

The ingredients panel says that they’re 65% chocolate and 35% cashew and they will wallop you with 39 grams of fat per 100 grams.  Or roughly one hour of pretty hard power walking to get rid of it.

Which is worth it, baby!

I have tried and loved Berlin chocolatier Rausch’s ‘Plantagen Schokolade’ selections before, with decadent blocks that celebrate single origin cocoa and intensities that range from 35% from Noumea to 80% from Trinidad. 

Rausch have been around since 1918 when Wilhelm – himself the son of a confectioner and chocolate maker -  opened his own business in Berlin making the finest chocolates, chocolate bars and gingerbread.  These became hugely popular, and eventually his three children continued the business and, these days, his grandson Jurgen heads the company.

Maybe Jurgen – or even one of his own children or grandchildren (because he can’t be too young these days) influenced the release of the less-serious but still top-notch ‘Kleine Goldhasen’ – or, as I understand it, Small Gold Bunnies.

These come in two types – the milk chocolate with 32% cocoa solids and the dark with 62%.  It’s rather impressive to note that the dark chocolate has only three ingredients – cocoa mass, sugar and cocoa butter; and the milk chocolate has only four (in reverse order) – sugar, cocoa butter, milk powder and cocoa mass, so they are aiming at chocolate lovers who appreciate quality during Easter time.

The packaging is rather pretty too.

These little bunnies look like they’re all snuggled in a burrow somewhere instead of being slotted into a gold tray inside a cardboard box.  Even in the nude, they’re cute.

And they taste divine.  The milk chocolate is, in my daughter’s opinion, ‘Better than Lindt’s.’  Strong words from one so young yet already so exposed to the many offerings available in the chocolate world but these are very pretty good, with a classic ‘Swiss’ taste of milk and cream even though it’s German.   The dark chocolate bunny is more serious but not in a suck-your-saliva-and-grimace-because-it’s-incredibly bitter kind of way.  It melts easily, tastes earthy and sweet and makes you want another one. 

These little golden guys add a combination of whimsy and sophistication that I’d gladly give to anyone aged between three and 103.  Cuteness and Quality personified.  Contact Premier Food and Beverages for availability.

It’s an automatic reaction for most of us to see the little Easter eggs on sale and ignore them entirely if they’re not a trustworthy brand like Red Tulip, Lindt or Cadbury. 

However, seeing this generous 480 gram bag (comprising 60 eggs) for a pretty cheap price won me over, as did the fact that it has three flavours as well as solid milk chocolate – strawberry, peppermint and caramel. 

That’s not to say that my hopes were high, because I’d been burned on cheap choccies before and wondered if I’d ever learn my lesson…..

Plus, I was a bit nervous because if you try and find Ballantyne online, they’re a proud Melbourne company that seem to specialise these days in butter and canned cheese products.  What the…?  And yet, their logo is on the pack of these eggs which seem to be made under licence by Fyna, based in Hallam.  Trouble is, the Fyna website wasn’t behaving itself, so the mystery – and my anxiety about trying the chocolate – was increasing….

…..which meant that it was a fantastic surprise to discover that they tasted really nice.   Sure, the milk chocolate’s first ingredient is sugar and then milk solids before cocoa butter gets a look-in, but it has a minimum of 28% cocoa solids which is pretty decent for a bag that sits squarely in the cheap-and-cheerful and ‘take them out of the packet so that no-one thinks you’re a tightarse’ market share.

The strawberry was a typically sweet fondant that was recognisably strawberry-ish (with one percent real strawberry and some yoghurt powder added); the mint was fairly tame but still pleasant and the plain chocolate was very sweet but perfectly okay to keep scoffing.  The little winner was the caramel, made up of a mixture of brown sugar, golden syrup and condensed milk which is evilly sticky and made me reach in to unwrap the foil on another brown one and another and another….

My advice? Don’t overlook these as Easter Egg hunt direction markers or to fill out a basket.  When they’re out of the bag, they can be judged on taste alone and they’re actually pretty darn good.

It’s a sad day when you have to kill some gorgeous baby chicks with a steak knife and then photograph the horror for the entire world to see.

Look at these sweet little Belfine Easter chickies, aren’t they adorable?  I decided to do the evil deed in my daughter Sapphire’s room – a place far more innocent than the kitchen where too many sharp objects dwelled…..

Belfine are Belgium chocolates that are imported into Australia by Premier Food and Beverages.  It’s likely that you’ve seen and admired their rather cute chocolate lollipops that are available at DJ’s, Myer and gourmet shops at Christmas time.  They are hugely popular here and are PF&Bs most popular chocolate line.

These Easter chicks comprise of two that are predominantly milk chocolate (with a not-too-shabby minimum 32% cocoa solids – the same as Haigh’s) and one white chocolate, or what Belfine describe as the  ’Cocoa Confectionery Chick’.  Even so, it contains cocoa butter and no other scary ingredients.  Dark chocolate is used for their eyes and has 55% cocoa solids, so they haven’t gone all cheap and nasty on something that will appeal to children.  And chocolate reviewers.

Premier Food and Beverage’s Managing Director Rainer Sandmann has visited the factory in Lokeren, Belgium and says that each chick (or reindeer, if it’s the Christmas line) is coated in four layers of chocolate but that each different colour must dry completely before the next one is applied.  This attention to detail makes foil or silly packaging unnecessary because the chocolate itself is what appeals to the eye. 

And the tastebuds.  But first, I had to free these little birdies from their plastic cage…

…. try to ignore their friendly, trusting young faces and ….

Dismember them!  Mwah hah ha haaaaaaa!

I tried these with some tea that PF&B also import, namely Teakanne herbal teas that are endorsed by Steffi Graf.  The fresh flavour of the Ginger Orange Green tea meant that my mouth was warm and the milk chocolate just melted instantly, allowing the sweet creaminess to reassure me that cutting up these cuties was absolutely worth it.  The white one too was delicious and would give Lindt’s version a run for its money.

At fifty grams each, these chicks are just the right size for a meaningful treat and I’m impressed not only with their presentation but also the taste.  I’m betting that there’ll be a few big kids that might try and seek these out at David Jones, Myer, good specialty shops or go straight to the source: Premier Food and Beverages.

Harry’s Rocky Road are already renowned for their slabs of chunky heaven and this year they’ve gone a step better by releasing a range of Easter Eggs.

These aren’t delicate thin shells that tend to make you feel slightly ripped off if you ever look at the ‘price per 100 grams’ tag but are instead hefty halves that you know are going to actually feed you. In a fun way. 

This particular quartet features Triple Choc (top left), Cookies and Cream (oh go on, have a guess where that one is in the picture), Caramel (bottom left) and Pineapple (bottom right).

See what I mean?  These eggs are seriously solid and they smell so delicious when the plastic wrappers are off.  Just turning them over for this photo required an inordinate amount of self control.

Firstly, the Triple Choc.  In addition to the milk chocolate and particularly good quality marshmallows are chocolate jubes and chocolate cookie pieces.  We sliced this up (or should I say that we stuck a pointy knife in and let the chunks fly off in all directions) in front of a particularly good episode of ‘Frasier’ and in our satisfied munchings the most articulate comment was “Oh yeah. Niiiiiiiiiice.”  Harry hasn’t let the side down in the egg department.

 The Caramel egg is a slow starter.  Firstly you think that it’s not much different to the Triple Choc until you notice some crispy caramel wafer and then some chewy, Fantail-textured caramel that warms up and melts on the tongue with the chocolate.  Once again, my vocab extended to the very technical, “Mmmmmm.”

My daughter Sapphire particularly liked the Pineapple one.  This had pineapple-flavoured jubes inside with rice crispies for texture amongst the fluffy marshmallow.  The overall effect was very sweet and yet when washed down with a glass red wine (yes, it was well into the evening and coffee would have kept me awake and doing cartwheels and no, Sapphire had water) it worked.  Unsophisticated yes, but fun.

Finally the Cookies and Cream.  This was a real revelation for me and it’s becoming more and more of a shock to discover that I’m enjoying white chocolate.  Harry’s version has chewy vanilla jubes and really dark chocolate biscuit pieces (Oreos?) to give the white chocolate and marshmallow a run for their money.  It tasted so much like fresh cream and was the very clear favourite in my book.

These chunky honeys pack a flavour and sweet punch that means it will be impossible to eat a whole one in a single sitting so you feel like you’ve had value for money and end up with some lovely rocky road chunks in a tupperware container to revisit and sneak pieces off for several days afterwards.  Well done Harry, you’ve kicked a chocolatey goal. But use a football, not one of your eggs or you’ll find yourself in hospital….

Yes, Easter.  Unlike Valentine’s Day, I don’t mind getting excited about Easter weeks – or even months – before it commences. Cadbury Creme Eggs start hatching in January and Lindt’s gorgeous selection have just started emerging in February, with more to come in March.

When these two little beauties arrived, I was intrigued by the selection.  I tend to buy the hollow milk or dark chocolate Lindt bunnies and wouldn’t normally go for a white chocolate Easter egg.  However it was brilliant to discover that the ever-elusive Peanut Butter lindor balls were now available as eggs, whoo hoo!  For this photo shoot and review, I decided to enlist the help of a real rabbit – our little fella Skipper.  He’s been known to disapprove of many things.

To be honest though, today he wasn’t disapproving but instead mostly interested in trying to nibble the cardboard packaging:

…….but did stay still long enough for me to take the photo with the slightly less active Lindt bunnies before it was time for me to start eating them (the chocolate, not any of the rabbits, just to clear up any misundertandings).

As you can see, being a chocolate lover and reviewer has its drawbacks sometimes.  No, not the constant threat of an expanding waistline but cheeky visitors who pop in just as I’m about to go ‘click!’.  That’s why there’s only eight Peanut Butter eggs in this picture – two were already snaffled. 

The large white egg is completely smooth and this somehow it makes it look more elegant and taste even richer, like fresh cream that’s been somehow frozen at room temperature.  “Mmmm, this is evil,” Love Chunks said.  As a non white chocolate fan, this egg allows me to venture over to the White Side because of the quality; it’s the very best on the market. Lindt ensure that their white chocolate is ’real’ because it has 27% cocoa solids, which is around six percent higher than Cadbury dairy milk. 

The peanut butter eggs are simply awesome, if you’ll permit me to regress back to 1984.  The thick layer of milk chocolate is 33% cocoa solids and it allows the peanut butter filling to reveal a bit of complexity. Yes, you read that right – complexity.  Yes, in peanut butter.  What I mean by this is that you can clearly taste the salt in it as well as the peanuts and it marries up perfectly against the sweetness of the chocolate.  Trust me.

If I was going to be given white chocolate for Easter, then I would be happy to receive this white egg (and the accompanying lindor balls) and certainly be able to enjoy its rich sweetness over several sittings.  As for the Peanut Butter Easter Eggs….  well, let’s just say if I could snorkel my way through a mini-skips’ worth, I’d be a happy little bunny.  Or a fat one, but I’d be willing to risk it.

Nestle Crunch bars have been the favourite of Aussie vending machines everywhere.  When you’re a student, in a hospital waiting room or at the airport and not willing to pay a week’s salary for a day-old sandwich, you invariably find yourself punching in the numbers for the Nestle Crunch.

You did so because it was bigger – or seemed bigger - than everything else and with plain chocolate and a few rice crispies thrown in, it also seemed as though it could stop the tummy rumbles for a while.

Recently, Nestle re-launched their Crunch bar, with ‘NOW more rice crisps’ in yellow lettering on the front.  When unwrapped, it certainly looks as though they’re true to their word:

And it does taste a bit ‘crispier’ as well.   Nestle Crunch still has their basic, sweet, milky chocolate (at only 20% cocoa solids) that does the deed of holding the crispies in place and keeping them crunchy rather than stale or soggy.

I wish I could say that it’s one of those bars that you savour and eat slowly, but you don’t, do you?

It’s to be gobbled down quickly, with the snap-crackle-and-pop of the crispies temporarily deafening you before the sugary-sweet chocolate makes its presence felt.

And bless ‘em, Nestle advise us on the back of the label that they believe that ‘proper nutrition and physical activity combined with positive lifestyle choices are important in maintaining good health’.  Right they are too, so eating one of these 45 gram bars will give you 12 grams of fat of which 7.8 grams are saturated (half my daily allowance!).   Still, if they give you that essential burst of energy you need to race for the plane that’s leaving from Gate 22 and NOT Gate 42 where you’re sitting, then it’ll be worth the gold coin in the slot, won’t it?

Oh dear, sweet, accessible Cadbury Creme Egg. My fillings ache just by glancing over at you, glistening in your cheery-coloured foil, dangling fetchingly from a chrome rack in aisle seven.

Easter marketing may have started on the 1st of January, but I forgive you your haste.  In fact, I’ve been looking forward to seeing you again: ours has been a long love affair dating back to the deep mists of time – or 1981 to be precise.

I was a shy Australian girl starting high school in Aberdeen, Scotland.  Accents were inpenetrable, as was trying to negotiate the cliques of Punks, Poseurs, Skinheads and Swots.  In science, I was given a dare: put an entire Cadbury Creme Egg into my mouth and not be found out by the teacher.

That. Was. It.  It was easy to be silent and I prayed only that the teacher wouldn’t call upon me to answer a question.  I was lucky that day, and inside my gob the egg slowly dissolved.  Ickily sweet, dreamily creamy, making science divine.

And so, 29 years later, as a not-so-shy grown up back in Australia and at the supermarket I now find my hands excitedly fumbling for my wallet; coins spinning on to the moving checkout belt. My surrender is now complete.

The family groceries are paid by credit card but the pack of four Cadbury Creme Eggs are paid in cash like a guilty secret and shoved into my backpack before anyone else can see. Like a true addict, I fidget nervously and look around for a secluded spot to eat one. Not out in the sunlight where it would be too public and possibly offensive for people to see, but in the shade, yes, over there, under the train tunnel next to the station. My feet are yearning to run like the wind instead of badly act out the casual saunter my brain is imposing upon them. It wouldn’t do to have someone else guess my purpose; I was never ever going to share.

A quick glance around reveals no other passersby, just bird crap-spattered cars, takeaway containers and cigarette butts. My shaking hands rip off the foil as I eagerly hunch over the egg, shielding it from view. My eyes close as my two front teeth bite hard into the thick chocolate. The egg white fondant pours out of the top and runs becomingly down my chin, but I am already far away from my grimy spot on earth to care.

Another big bite sees the fondant turn into a yolky yellow as I greedily gulp it down and chew the chunks of chocolate at a more leisurely pace. Blood is pumping warm and strong in my veins and successfully insulates me from the disapproving look of two nannas heading to the shops. After only three precious mouthfuls, I reach the last morsel – the bottom of the shell. No fondant, just a thick layer of Cadbury dairy milk chocolate. A cruel consolation because it left me wanting more…..

Luckily I had three more to take home.  And eat in an embarrassingly quick time.

….and then I went back to the supermarket the very next day, bought two more bags of four eggs each, put them in the fridge so that they were firm enough to cut and photograph and then gobbled them up!

Alrighty then. We’ve tried Heritage’s dark 70% Ecuador and Premium dark (50%) blocks, but here’s where Andy Van Den Broeck and Heritage excel – when they add their own flavour combinations.

On the left we have Swiss Dark and Ground Coffee and on the right we have the Ginger – doesn’t it look pretty?

And it smells even prettier.  The sweetly spicy ginger wafts up the nostrils when the plastic’s torn off and the dark coffee is heavenly…… Thank god my hands weren’t shaking with anticipation too badly before getting a decent photo taken.

First off, the Ginger.  Using the Premium Dark (50% cocoa solids) as the base, Andy’s put in 14% of ginger.  These are varied in size from chewy crystallised chunks to crunchy gingery sugar grains so that each mouthful is decadently different from the next. And the next. And the next………  This block of chocolate is a genuine triumph and even though it’s all about the ginger, it also heightens the rich flavours of the chocolate.  I absolutely love how the nutrition panel on the back says that a serving size is 40 grams instead of the 25 grams that other more nervous marketing nellies tend to use, although this bad boy is so good that 40 grams might just be a starter.

How could the Swiss Dark and Ground Coffee out-do the ginger?

It. Just. Does.  I love this job!  The beautiful, inviting aroma of coffee meant that I wanted to – and had - a good, long sniff of the back of the block before snapping off a row.  The tiny coffee grounds are visible on the back of the block and comprise 7% of the total ingredients.

That’s a very important 7% because too few would be decidedly un-fun and too many would be like chewing through bark and wondering why you have an urge to do nude cartwheels up your driveway. Andy’s got it exactly right with this block – the coffee grounds provide an earthy, crunchy hit that are reminiscent of cocoa nibs but with the lovely coffee bean flavour and texture.

This is my utter, total and complete favourite of the Heritage selection and I promptly found another block to chew into and thus not have to share with anyone!