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.
Thank you! You read my mind – I was going to ask you to review these. Now I can buy them for bribery….
Are they colour coded, with all the red wrappers being strawberry, blue being mint etc? Because that would make them an easy gift for the girls at work; I could buy a bag and tip them into a largeish bowl to leave on the front desk for all my workmates to dip into. with a note of course stating which is which, so the peppermint haters could avoid them, leaving more for me….
The brand name is ringing bells with me for some reason. I’m wondering if they also make the boxed chocolate ginger you get in the supermarkets?
You can indeed, DrB – just take them out of the packet first so they’re judged on taste instead of the brand….
River, yes, they’re colour-coded.
Christine you’re correct. I haven’t tried the ginger for ages (I’m a fan of Ernest Hillier’s version) but have got a box of Ballantyne after dinner mints in my fridge waiting for a taste and review.