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You are here: Home / Photography / Hotel Chocolat’s dark chocolate egg – pure Easter indulgence

Hotel Chocolat’s dark chocolate egg – pure Easter indulgence

by Jeanne Horak on April 20, 2011 13 Comments in Photography, Product reviews

HotelChocolatEasterEgg © J Horak-Druiff 2013

 

One of my mom’s favourite quotes went as follows:  “When I left for college, I thought my father was the dumbest man I knew. But when I returned from college after four years, I was amazed how much he had learned in four years.” (Mark Twain)

Don’t you love it?  Each time I hear it it makes me remember that astonishing moment when I thought for the first time that my parents may in fact have a point, and were not just out-of-touch uncool dinosaurs sent to make my life a misery.  My parents, in particular my father, were full of quirks of the kind that would baffle a kid’s mind.  For example, when I was very little, my dad used to play Edith Piaf and Nat King Cole on the state-of-the-art 8-track player in his car.  Nobody else that I knew had a father who listened to funny music in a language nobody could understand and as a result I thought my father was clearly insane.  It was only years later that I realised how achingly cool this suave doctor in his Aston Martin with Edith Piaf playing must have seemed in my fairly provincial hometown in the 1970s.

 

HotslChocolatPackaging

As a child, you always knew what chocolate meant.  It was the light brown, tongue-coatingly sweet stuff that came wrapped around things like Marshmallow Eggs, Caramello Bears, Sweetie Pies, Crunchies or Lunch Bars.  It was not challenging or sophisticated or clever, and always hit the spot.  But in my house, chocolate was a little different.  Sure, my brother and I ate all the sweets listed above (in fact my dad always bought us a Sweetie Pie each when he went to get the Sunday papers – although at the time they were packaged to resemble bee hives).   But the chocolate you were most likely to find at home was not milk but dark chocolate.  You see, my father was hooked on the stuff.  He could quietly sit and devour a whole bar by himself, slowly and deliberately, over the course of an afternoon – as long as it was dark chocolate.  Often my friends would visit, spy the silver chocolate wrapper on the kitchen counter and make a grab for it.  But as soon as they saw it was dark, bitter chocolate, they would lose interest.  At the time it was to us kids yet another example of my parents’ exasperating weirdness in a world where conformity was our only aim.  And yet now, years later, I also only eat dark chocoalte.

 

HotslChocolatCollage2

Although I have always been a huge fan of Easter egg hunts, for me the fun was always in the hunting and not the eating. This means that I seldom bother buying Easter eggs these days:  if the Easter bunny is not going to hide them around the house for me then what’s the point? 😉 But when the lovely people at Hotel Chocolat offered me a luxury extra thick chocolate Easter egg to try, I figured that opening the packaging would be a reasonable substitute for an egg hunt.  Moving with the times and all, you know?  Besides, this was not to be your run-of-the-mill, overly sweet cheap chocolate – they promised dark chocolate with cocoa nibs, filled with their signature truffles and caramels.  How could I say no?

The Serious Dark Fix extra thick chocolate egg is made from their 70% cocoa house dark chocolate and is indeed studded with crunchy cocoa nibs – and when they say thick, they mean it! It’s wonderful, high-quality stuff and I love the nutty crunch of the cocoa nibs. Inside the 2 individually wrapped halves is a selection of their lovely lovely filled dark chocolates including ultra smooth pralines, rum and single malt whisky truffles, chilli pralines, and plain and coffee liquid caramels.  The 5-second chilli is still a favourite, although it is now getting serious competition from the coffee liquid caramel (a mouthful of heaven) and Nick adores the properly boozy truffles.

If you still want to order one of these for yourself or for a special friend, delivered in time for Easter, you still have until 4pm on Thursday to place your order on the Hotel Chocolat website!  And if the egg does not grab you, have a look at their selection of other chocolate Easter gifts.

 

HotslChocolatCollage3

I am also thrilled and honoured to announce that Hotel Chocolat is one of the proud sponsors of the Plate to Page workshop which I will be hosting together with Meeta, Ilva and Jamie in Weimar next month.  Lucky participants are in for an indulgent chocolate surprise when they peek inside their goodie bags! Thank you, Hotel Chocolat 🙂

 

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Don’t forget that this month I am hosting the Monthly Mingle, my darling sister Meeta’s monthly event.  The theme is Topless Tarts and you have until 30 April to get your entries to me!  Full details are available on my announcement post.

MMBadge-ToplessTarts-04-2011

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  1. Katie says

    April 20, 2011 at 9:31 am

    Milk chocolate ia a waste of calories. Dark chocolate, on the other hand, is worth double. Fortunately, we have a good arrangement at our house – mon mari likes milk and hates dark. That way I don’t have to hide it. Sharing not an option.

    Reply
  2. Colleen says

    April 20, 2011 at 9:46 am

    Oh dear heaven! Chocolate heaven…………I……..MUST………LOOK……….AWAY………..NOW!!!!! My eyes are transfixed and the let down reflex of my salivary glands has gone beserk!!!YAY for Hotel Chocolat sponsoring your P2P! Awesome news….I would give up SA citizenship for this easter egg actually….What a fabulous article…your photographs of the egg are just awesome! Do you know how much just the egg shell weighs perchance? I would have LOVED your quirky father, I just know it for sure! Just like I love you 🙂 MWAH!

    Reply
  3. Rosa says

    April 20, 2011 at 11:27 am

    Those chocolates look wonderful! Lovely. I’d love to test them…
    Cheers,
    Rosa

    Reply
  4. Marisa says

    April 20, 2011 at 1:08 pm

    Why do you do this to me? When I have no means of getting my grubby paws on chocolate until home time? Sies.

    Reply
  5. Charlotte says

    April 20, 2011 at 2:55 pm

    About to raid the family Easter stash in response to your glorious photo … though nothing I have laid up looks as good as this.

    Reply
  6. SMITH BITES says

    April 20, 2011 at 6:24 pm

    alas, not a single Easter chocolate in this entire house . . . this is pure torture Jeanne . . .

    Reply
  7. Melanie Heavenly says

    April 20, 2011 at 8:31 pm

    Great post. Your story about your Dad reminds me of my Grandad who used to love Bourneville Dark Chocolate, the only dark chocolate you could get in South Africa in the 70’s and 80’s I think. As a child I used to try it and not really like it that much but felt rather sophisticated and grown up. It’s how I learned to suck chocolate instead of chewing it. It went very well with a mug of Nescafe.
    Aaaah how times have changed, now I very rarely eat Cadburys or any average corner shop bars. I favour strong Italian coffee and either Green and Blacks or Hotel Chocolat.

    Reply
  8. Krista says

    April 20, 2011 at 9:46 pm

    I love this picture of your father. 🙂 He sounds very dapper indeed. 🙂

    Reply
  9. Firefly says

    April 21, 2011 at 7:46 am

    Yum yum yummies… Now there is an choc egg I would love to search for.

    Reply
  10. carine says

    April 22, 2011 at 9:36 am

    OHH!!!MY!!!LORD!! I WANT IT RIGHT NOW!!

    Reply
  11. PinkPolkaDot says

    April 26, 2011 at 1:36 pm

    Oh, goodness, that Easter egg looks decadent! My one daughter and my son just looooove dark choc!

    Reply
  12. Emma says

    May 11, 2011 at 2:53 pm

    Those pictures made me go out and buy some chocolate candies. Your pictures look delicious!

    Reply
  13. Kit says

    May 30, 2011 at 8:43 pm

    Too, too cruel! I haven’t seen an egg like that around here ever. Our Easter bunny obviously doesn’t know his stuff.
    That looks like Easter heaven to me! I’m also a dark chocolate fiend and it is one way to keep the chocolate to myself. The only one safe from the kids is the very dark 85% chcocolate – they’ve even learned to like the sea salt dark one to my horror!

    Reply
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Jeanne Horak is a freelance food and travel writer; recipe developer and photographer. South African by birth and Londoner by choice, Jeanne has been writing about food and travel on Cooksister since 2004. She is a popular speaker on food photography and writing has also contributed articles, recipes and photos to a number of online and print publications. Jeanne has also worked with a number of destination marketers to promote their city or region. Please get in touch to work with her Read More…

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