How to choose the Easter egg: last minute guide

2023 Author: Cody Thornton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-24 11:20

Minus two. 48 hours from Easter and, unless they want to do it at home, for most Italians it is time to look for chocolate egg, indispensable complement for the lunches of these days, especially if there are children around.

Not easy. Every year it's the same story: how to choose this blessed one Easter egg? Privileging what? There quality, the price, the surprise?

It is a market that should not be underestimated, among fluorescent packaging, Peppa Pig and assorted extravagances, in the month preceding Easter we spend about 350 million euros, the average price of eggs weighing between 180/220 grams is 8 € (40 € per kilo).

To help you in the last-minute choice we have prepared a small one guide which explains how read the labels And which brands to choose according to your priorities.

UNDERSTAND THE LABEL

The list of things to do before Easter is long, true, but lingering a couple of minutes to read the label, including the micro characters that companies often hide on the back, has its advantages.

It is not so complicated a sport to decrypt the labels. Some general rules that are easy to understand apply.

If the percentage of cocoa is higher, the quality of the chocolate is higher.

Fewer are the ingredients the most valuable is chocolate. Good: cocoa butter, sugar, natural flavors such as vanilla and milk if there is one. Less good: whey, flavorings and obviously vegetable fats. Especially tropical oils such as palm or canola oil.

As specified further below, the dark must have a minimum percentage of cocoa of 43%, of which cocoa butter for 26%. While the minimum percentage of cocoa in milk chocolate is 30%.

The wording common chocolate indicates the presence of cocoa in a percentage lower than 25%. In this case, the lower quality must have an impact on the price.

Monitor the percentage of sugar, which in Easter eggs of modest quality is often very high.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN THE PRICE

Price is the crazy variable of Easter eggs.

According to the calculations made by the magazine Il Test, we pay for a medium-sized egg, between 180 and 220 grams, about 8 euros. The cost for the producer consists of: chocolate - less than 1 €, surprise –About 30 cents e packaging (colored tinfoil, plastic objects, bow and hardcover) –1, 30 €.

The shopkeepers add a reload average of 2, 50 €. We evaluate the additional costs, from labor to marketing and the accounts add up.

Now, however, let's consider the egg Kinder Great Surprise. It clearly demonstrates that the price is the real surprise of the Easter egg.

It weighs 22o grams, costs 14/15 euros. And of course, having examined the abundance of common fats, including palm oil, it is difficult to believe that the price is linked to the quality of the ingredients or to a particularly artisanal process. Will it depend on surprises that are generally very popular with children (Transformer, Star Wars and Winx)?

You decide. But know that € 5 is enough to buy Oggy's 150 gram Perugina egg.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN QUALITY

Cultivate like us a serious passion for dark chocolate? Finding cocoa and cocoa butter ingredients at the top is a good sign. The principle is that the greater the quantity, the better the chocolate egg.

If you find words with a meaning that is not immediately understandable, or in any case vague, know that expressions such as fine, very fine, extra or superior are indicative of a better dark chocolate. In these cases, in fact, the quantity of cocoa and cocoa butter exceeds 43%.

On the contrary, do you prefer the round softness of milk chocolate? If the percentage of cocoa is 30% and that of the milk at least 18% it will be of superior quality.

Then there are the classic evaluation criteria, unfortunately not very useful before purchase, with an Easter egg still wrapped.

By breaking the dark chocolate, the crac must be clear and precise, the intense aroma and persistent flavor with clearly perceptible bitter notes, the melt in the mouth not hindered by knots or granules. The latter parameter is also valid for good milk chocolate.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN THE SURPEND

After talking about prices, labels and quality, finally breaking the chocolate egg, children or non-children, we want to see the surprise.

Unless you buy a handcrafted egg, as expensive as you want but with the ability to customize the surprise, the choices of the best-known producers are quite predictable (what a surprise it is, then).

Bauli, in the Grandi Marche egg line, includes fashion accessories such as key rings and scarves. Chocolate eggs for children are inspired by cartoons. In this case, Kinder eggs dominate, but at what prices!

And often to the detriment of quality, as Il Fatto Alimentare clarifies:

"The label reads 'Sweet egg with surprise covered with fine milk chocolate'. In other words, it is a white shell prepared with mediocre quality vegetable fats such as palm oil, covered with a layer of milk chocolate ".

Today, however, given the important marketing lever, even the race for the most engaging surprise for children is crowded. A competition with beneficial effects.

There are small brands like Walcor, licensee of beloved characters such as Spongebob, Looney Tunes characters and others, which sell Easter eggs at more sensible prices. Another possibility: the 200g Peppa Pig Dolci Preziosi egg costs € 4.50.

It goes without saying that it is important for parents to check the presence of the CE mark on the label and the intended use of the surprise: for example, if it is suitable for a child under three years of age, if it contains detachable and / or easily swallowable parts.

N EGG JUNIOR BY GUIDO GOBINO

The Easter egg portrayed in the images of this guide is called New junior. It weighs 300 grams and it seemed the most beautiful among those that we have personally crossed in various Italian artisan shops. Irresistible even in flavor (let us be daring).

The Turin chocolatier did it Guido Gobino designed by Daniela Cavalcabò, who makes jewels in the Piedmontese capital, with hand-made decorations.

The ingredients are cocoa, brown sugar, cocoa butter. The chocolate is 63% extra bitter, with a blend of the best Gobino cocoa.

The hope, of course, is that this is your chocolate egg too. They are needed though 43, 90 €. In case you can find it in the shop in Via Lagrange 1, in Turin, or in that of Corso Giuseppe Garibaldi 39, in Milan, this weekend open continuously from 10 to 20.