Easter Chocolate: The Good Stuff

As a child, I did not receive an over-abundance of candy; this was not a bad thing, for a variety of reasons, including the fact that candy, particularly good chocolate, was a treat, something to be shared and enjoyed and appreciated. There's a lot to be said for heightened anticipation increasing the eventual delight of any special occasion. So Easter was an event to be looked forward to, with great delight and fervent expectation.

Back then, unless you shopped at local small chocolatiers, which my parents really weren't equipped to do financially or geographically, you were limited in terms of what was readily available. I was never a fan of peeps, or anything marshmallow, but I loved the solid chocolate bunny we each got, (one year I got a duck!), and Jordan Almonds (one of my mom's favorites) and of course the small solid foil-covered chocolate eggs, and malted milk balls covered with a speckled sugar coating and sold as "Robin's Eggs." And of course, the ubiquitous jelly bean, which has become much more intriguing of late thanks to the wide variety of flavors "gourmet" jelly bean makers like Jelly Belly produce.

Now, I still have definite fondness for Jordan Almonds and Robins Eggs, but I'm here to tell you that things have changed in terms of chocolate and Easter candy. There's a lot more better-quality chocolate, and, much to my personal delight, a fair amount of dark chocolate, available in ordinary grocery stores and chain drug stores.

Cadbury's Mini Eggs, the small solid chocolate eggs covered with a thin sugar shell are readily available. For the last few years, Cadbury's Mini Eggs have been available in a rather nice dark chocolate with darker color sugar shells. I love these, I really really love these. You can find them even at grocery stores now. And of course there are the Cadbury's Creme eggs, hollow chocolate eggs filled with creme (these always remind me a bit too much of actual eggs, and are thus not a personal favorite), and Cadbury's Caramel Eggs, hollow chocolate eggs filled with caramel.

Cadbury chocolate is distributed in the U.S. by Hershey, who also have their own line of high-cacao chocolates, under the Hershey's Cacao Reserve label. You can find, quite easily, small assortments of Hershey's Cacao Reserve chocolates; these are higher cacao percentage Hershey chocolates, and "all Natural." They became fairly easy to find in local stores a few years ago, and I notice this year some chains have special "Easter displays" of Cacao Reserve chocolates. These include small bags of assorted Dark chocolate squares, including 65% Cacao Dark Chocolate with Cacao Nibs, 35% Cacao Milk Chocolate, 65% Cacao Dark Chocolate squares. Some stores even carry the harder to find 60% cacao Dark Chocolate assortment, a mixture of individually wrapped squares of Pure Dark Chocolate and Pure Dark Chocolate with Cranberries, Blueberries & Almonds.

Dove chocolate, a Mars brand, weren't around when I was a kid, but they also provide fairly high-quality chocolate for Easter in the form of eggs, as well as the usual available-all-year round small rounded squares of foil wrapped milk and dark chocolate. The eggs are available in either dark or milk chocolate. Plus they make small but solid bunnies, and solid large dark chocolate eggs.

Ghiradelli makes a variety of chocolates just for Easter, including foiled eggs and assortments of small square chocolate bars, both in special packaging as well as in small bulk bags at local stores. At a local chain store I spotted Ghiradelli Mint Chocolate, Dark Chocolate, Milk Chocolate, Milk Chocolate with Caramel, Dark chocolate with Raspberry, and Peanut Butter chocolate squares. Lindt does much the same thing, though they're harder to spot; they either sell out very quickly, or just aren't purchased in large quantities; I'm not sure which. You're very likely to find small bags of specially packaged Lindt Lindor Truffles. These typically come in Extra Dark (60% cacao), Dark, and Milk Chocolate, as well as the "Ultimate" collection, an assortment of Milk, Dark, White, 60% Dark and Peanut Butter Chocolate Truffles. Lindor Truffles are individually wrapped, and they're just the right size for tucking into an Easter basket or using as a table favor at an Easter brunch, or for hiding as a special surprise in an Easter egg hunt. If you're very very lucky, you may find a local specialty shop carries Lindt Chocolate Gold Bunnies.

Much to my surprise, the local chain drug store even had a few bags of Green and Black's Organic Dark 70% cacao chocolate squares. If you look at your local alternative stores (places like co-ops, Whole Foods, and Trader Joes) you can find a wide assortment of reasonably good chocolate that's organic, as well as a selection of imported chocolates from region-specific importers. You'll find small 3.5 ounce Dagoba, Green and Black bars, and other offerings from organic chocolate makers with a variety of flavorings and, typically, a very high cacao content.

The wide range of high-quality chocolate offerings means that Easter candy isn't just for kids anymore; those waxy-brown, off-brand, barely-edible, "chocolate-flavored" foil-wrapped bunnies and chicks have been thoroughly upstaged by the availability of excellent Easter confections, created and packaged by quality chocolatiers, and suitable for anyone who loves chocolate but has a discriminating palate. Yes, of course I'm going chocolate shopping next week; I already have my list.