Bettys Grand Cru Chocolate Easter Egg reviewed

Betty’s Tea House is not exactly the name you’d associate with fine chocolate. They are the oldest chain of tea houses in the UK and are mostly located in the north of England. Betty’s in York is a lovely place and the staff are amazingly passionate people. There is, however, a dark secret lurking behind the scenes in Betty’s – a dark secret few seem to realise…

At Christmas, I was contacted by Betty’s to review their grand cru truffles. These innocent-seeming dark chocolate truffles were not made with just any chocolate – they were made with Felchlin Bolivian Amazonian rainforest chocolate. These smaller beans are more expensive to process but give an amazing flavour. It was possibly one of the best boxes of chocolates I received to review over the holidays and so of course I jumped at the chance to review their Grand Cru chocolate Easter Egg.

I love that Betty’s uses recyclable packaging. Rather than plastics and bubble wrap, the egg arrived carefully wrapped in tissue and brown light card honeycomb cut paper. This provided an initial layer of protection and then pseudo air pockets were made from light cardboard as well, making all packaging recyclable. It is always fantastic to see a company so dedicated to not adding yet more plastic to the environment. Even the egg itself had only a single sleeve of plastic with the rest of the packaging made from card. But it is what is inside that really counts…

Tempering is an important part of making a bar or egg out of chocolate. Good tempering is why chocolate has that shine and snap. While judging the Academy of Chocolate awards, I saw various levels of chocolate tempering including some very disappointing ones. One of the things my phone camera could not capture was the gorgeous tempering of this egg. The shine was stunning, the finish was flawless, the tempering was just expertly done. This is probably one of the most professionally finished eggs I have ever seen from a tempering point of view – and that was on the inside!

The dark chocolate was sparsely decorated with just three squares of chocolate and a bit of edible gold glitter. The egg has been designed in a simple and refined way but I feel this simplicity really belies the amazing complexity of the chocolate that the egg is made of. This is not an egg for eating great handfuls of – this is an egg for savouring. I would encourage you to let the recipient know that this egg is made with some of the best coverture available and that if they take a piece and let it melt in their mouth, they will be rewarded with a delightfully different chocolate experience.

The flavour for me was not too complex, with notes of fruit hinted at and a solid nose of fudgy brownies, this chocolate has enough red and purple fruits to make me glad I have secreted it away and am *not* sharing it with the office. The delicate flavours take time to emerge but with only an ever-so slight hint of acidity, this is an extremely milk dark chocolate – easily mistaken for a dark milk chocolate when melting in your mouth.

I cannot compliment this egg highly enough. It arrived in perfect condition in fully recyclable materials, it was absolutely perfectly tempered, it was smooth in the mouth, it had robust flavours and it was beautiful. If you get only one egg this year, make it this egg – buy British and buy the best!