Should you prefer your Easter eggs sweet, milky and in purple foil, you may wish to look away now

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Should you prefer your Easter eggs sweet, milky and in purple foil, you may wish to look away now. 

But if you’re up for a challenge, bite into the latest healthy Easter trend: 100per cent cocoa eggs and treats. 

Just don’t make it too big a bite — not the first time, anyway.Your taste buds will need time to acclimatise to the savouriness of 100 per cent cocoa (or cacao to the aficionados). 

You’re not even technically allowed to call it chocolate under EU law because it doesn’t contain sugar. 

‘People’s faces are so funny when they try 100 per cent for the first time — their mouths pucker up like prunes,’ says chocolate expert Jennifer Earle (chocolateecstasytours.com), who has judged international chocolate competitions. 

‘It’s the espresso of chocolate, which can take some getting used to if you are more used to caramel lattes. On blind tastings, everyone who loved dark chocolate said they liked it.’ 

Sales of strong, premium chocolate are surging, with the European market growing annually by almost 9 per cent.One hundred per cent chocolate is vegan, sugar-free, gluten-free and milk-free. It also contains all the phytochemicals of the cocoa plant, including tannins, polyphenols and flavanols — powerful antioxidants that reduce your risk of disease. 

As it’s so strong, your chocolate craving will be sated after just a couple of chunks.‘It’s intense but it shouldn’t be unpleasant or bitter,’ says Jennifer. ‘But this isn’t chocolate to guzzle.’ 

Here’s our round-up of the best 100per cent Easter treats… 

LOW-CARB BUT HIGH INTENSITY 

Absolute Black 100 per cent Cocoa Egg with Buttons (£7.50 for 240g, montezumas.co.uk) 

One of the reviews of Montezuma’s chocolate warns: ‘If you’re not used to 100 per cent bars, then this will be a bit of a shock.’ It’s not wrong. 

I wasn’t prepared for the lack of even a hint of sweetness.Once you get over the initial ‘Whoa!’, it’s the dry intensity of the cocoa that hits you first — a bit like the hit from a super-strong coffee. There’s an earthy flavour, with a hint of coconut notes (although there’s no coconut in it, only pure cocoa solids). 

Most surprisingly, considering this was the darkest-coloured egg, there was no bitter aftertaste — only clean, savoury intensity. 

You can see why keto diet (low carb, high fat) followers enthuse about this — it contains only 7g of carbs per 100g.If you want to experiment with other 100 per cent flavours, Montezuma’s also offers Absolute Black bars with orange, almond or hemp and sea salt. 5/5

 SLEEK WITH SWEET SULTANAS

100 per cent Dark Chocolate Easter Egg (£15 for 220g, hotelchocolat.com) 

The sleekest egg on offer — designers at Hotel Chocolat sculpted the mould after a trip to London’s Tate Modern. 

The company’s 100 per cent egg has many devoted followers, including diabetics.It has zero sweet notes, yet still manages to be velvety and smooth, though it delivers a really bitter coffee finish that was a bit much for me. 

However, it is studded with plump and soft Turkish sultanas and Californian almonds.When you find one it’s like manna from the sugar gods. 3.5/5

ECO-FRIENDLY DORSET DELIGHT 

Chococo 100 per cent Madagascar Totally Dark Easter Egg (£19 for 215g, chococo.co.uk) 

The bar version of this chocolate won the Academy Of Chocolate Golden Bean Award, and I can see why: despite the fact that there’s no added sugar, your taste buds pick up multiple layers of flavour, from sweet red berries to a farmyard kind of smokiness.

There’s no bitter aftertaste, and the prettily sculpted half-eggs inside are a lovely surprise. 

Set up by husband-and-wife team Claire and Andy Burnet 20 years ago, Chococo hand-makes its chocolate in Wareham, Dorset. 

The base chocolate for this egg is made in Sambirano, Madagascar, where the Grand Cru beans are grown. It’s part of the Raisetrade scheme to support local economies, as this is more beneficial than exporting the raw beans.It’s then tempered and moulded in Dorset. 

Top marks for the eco, plasticfree packaging, too. 5/5

BUTTONS WITH A HINT OF BANANA

Before Chocolate 100 per cent Dark Chocolate Buttons (£5.29 for 100g, beforechocolate.com) 

Before Chocolate was set up by Mandi Kaurin 2019 after she experimented with pure cacao in her Sheffield kitchen. 

She was desperate to eat less sugar but still craved chocolate, so she set herself a mission to strip out the extra ingredients in industrially produced chocolate (30 in many cases) and return to a simpler time when cacao was the main, or only, ingredient. 

But she also wanted her chocolate to be accessible, so she selected Peruvian beans that are lower in acidity, and added cacao butter for a milder taste. 

These Great Taste awardwinning buttons are almost creamy, with hints of berries and banana, and without the hit of other 100 per cent products.4/5

MAD ABOUT MADAGASCA 

Chocolat Madagascar Single Terroir Ottange 100 per cent Cacao (£6.95 for 75g, chocolatetrading co.com) 

If 100 per cent chocolate is like fine wine, then Chocolat Madagascar would be up there with Chateau Lafite Rothschild.The website you buy it from even has tasting notes and ratings for acidity, bitterness, fruit and roast. 

This Ottange bar scores 5/5 for ‘bitter’, so your taste buds may need to adopt the brace position. It’s almost unbearably intense at first, but then you pick up notes of citrus, honey and nuts.There’s no bitter aftertaste, either. 

It is made from Criollo and Trinitario beans from the Ottange farm in the Sambirano valley. It’s also produced in Madagascar as part of the Raisetrade programme, so is rather ethical. 

Not for beginners: one for the cocoa aficionado in your life.4/5

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