These are eggs that you’ll want to break immediately, and not shed a tear over. The new wave of Irish artisan chocolatiers, and some bigger producers too, have released their Easter 2022 collections, and there are some stunning chocolate eggs, seasonal bonbons and animal figures to choose from.
Many of the makers featured here are using all, or mainly, recyclable materials, and sustainably produced ingredients, and all but one of the eggs and gifts in this selection is made in Ireland.
Hazel Mountain Chocolate Wild Atlantic Way Easter egg, 220g, €28
Created with bean-to-bar chocolate made in Co Clare, this handpainted egg sits on a crunchy salted almond base. It comes in 40 per cent cacao milk chocolate from Cuba, or 72 per cent dark chocolate from Venezuela. Kasha Connolly of Hazel Mountain Chocolate has also just launched an art and chocolate collaboration with artist Corrina Earlie, which has three limited-edition chocolate bars and four lovely quality greetings cards reproducing some of Earlie’s latest work, in a gift box (€57.95).
Praliné Chocolatiers Miniature filled eggs, 65g, €10
Chefs Georgia Quealy and Daniel Linehan opened their boutique chocolatier business in 2020 and now produce seasonal collections in what just might be the smartest chocolate boxes on the market. For Easter 2022 they have both large and small eggs, as well as a limited edition collection of chocolates, Pop of Spring, which has fillings such as rhubarb and Madagascan vanilla, and yuzu cheesecake. The mini eggs come in raspberry or caramel flavours.
Bean and Goose Milk or dark chocolate Irish hare or goose, 180g, €19.50
Karen and Natalie Keane’s Bean & Goose chocolate hares and geese sell out every Easter, so get your name on one of these quickly. The sisters have been making chocolate in Co Wexford since 2014, at the wonderfully named Last Tree Farm, near Ferns.
Chocolately Clare Vegan chocolate bonbons, 16 bonbons, €29.50
If you’re vegan, you can have your chocolate and eat it, of course. Especially if it’s Clare Tait’s Irish-made range that uses cacao from organic Peruvian Criollo beans. There’s a gift box assortment of six bars, with or without nuts, too (€24.50).
Butlers Dark chocolate egg, 310g, €12.50
A grown-up 70 per cent cacao dark chocolate egg with dark chocolate truffles, from a large range of Easter products that is widely available. The family-owned firm is celebrating 90 years in business this year.
Grá Chocolates Egg-straw-dinary egg, 300g, €45
Gráinne Mullins’s hand-made and hand-painted chocolates and chocolate eggs are individual works of art, and also taste superb. There are five large Easter eggs in the range, including this white chocolate and strawberry one, and they all come with four large Grá chocolates, and a few surprises inside.
M&S Drippy egg, 225g, €15
An Easter egg in a paint tin – why not? These are made for M&S by Lir Chocolate in Ireland. The chocolate is milk, and the drip effect is added by hand. There’s also a Dippy egg, with a caramel filling, but that one doesn’t come in a tin.
Lorge Chocolatier Easter eggs, 300g, €22.60
Kenmare chocolatier Benoit Lorge’s Easter eggs come in milk and dark varieties, as they are, or filled with a selection of 12 of his chocolates, dark in the dark egg and a mixture in the milk egg (€32.50). For a longer-lasting Easter gift, book a place on his one- or two-day chocolate courses.
Chez Emily Easter family sharing box, €32.50
Sharing is caring, right? So this family box from Chez Emily has something for everyone, including an egg adorned with Smarties and jellies, and a chocolate hen. Ferdinand Vandaele and Helena Hemeryck will mark their 26th year making chocolate in The Ward in north Co Dublin in July.
Tesco Finest Belgian chocolate filled egg, 380g, €10
When is an Easter egg not an Easter egg, you might ask. When it’s half an egg, like this one. Although with the amount of goodies packed into this half shell, it’s probably a good job. There’s a weighty 380g of Belgian milk, dark and white chocolate, salted caramel pearls, chocolate ganache, marshmallow and malt balls. This is made by Lir Chocolates for Tesco, and at €10 it’s one of the best value this year.
Arcane Chocolate Treasure of the Rainforest, 550g, €70
One of two new additions to Belgian chocolatier Erik Van der Veken’s Easter 2022 collection, this one is made with a rare Bolivian wild Criollo Amazonico cacao couverture. “Less than 0.1 per cent of the cacao beans in global circulation are of this variety, harvested exclusively by indigenous Chimane natives,” he says. The eggs are filled with truffles made with the same cacao. Arcane eggs can now be delivered nationwide.
KoKo Kinsale Caramelised hazelnut milk chocolate egg, 200g, €35
No two eggs that are made in this former art gallery in Kinsale are ever the same, say the owners. Their hand-painted eggs are almost too beautiful to crack open. New for 2022 is a caramelised hazelnut milk chocolate egg, which, although it doesn’t have a painted exterior, comes in a lovely floral box. Two different grinds of hazelnuts, which they caramelise themselves, are incorporated, so there are some nice big pieces of nut as well as flavour throughout the egg.
Lindt Easter bunny, 1kg, €50
It’s the only one in this round-up that isn’t Irish-made, but these 1kg solid Lindt Easter bunnies are very special. You’ll need a heavy implement to break into the solid Swiss milk chocolate – if you can bear to, that is. Great for a high-impact gift.
Lir Chocolates Nutty egg, 250g, €12
Connie Doody and Mary White set up Lir around a kitchen table in Dublin in 1987, and now the company has a 250-strong team based in Co Meath, making products for other brands and supermarkets, as well as their own label. This is new for Easter 2020, a milk chocolate egg completely covered in chopped almonds and cocoa nibs, which comes with a bag of hazelnut and praline truffles. Divine.
Flow Chocolates Easter range of bonbons to be released next week
Paul Young, who shares a name with a famous UK chocolatier (though Paul A Young uses a second initial), is another pandemic pivot entrepreneur. Formerly general manager of The GreenHouse restaurant in Dublin, he left the hospitality business in 2017 to study pastry and baking. For Flow, he uses Swiss chocolate and creates very creative fillings such as raspberry and Provençal lavender and blood orange caramel and aged balsamic vinegar. See flowchocolates.ie next week for the Easter range release.
