Rocky chocolate road to Easter

Novelty chocolates are the hottest Easter treats this year, with rocky road, creme eggs and hand- painted bunnies among the most popular items for chocolatiers.

Cadbury produces more than 270 million Easter eggs each year and its Red Tulip Elegant Rabbit, Cadbury dairy milk bunny and crème eggs are perennial favourites. It’s also the Australian distributor for Green & Blacks, which has two new organic chocolate gift boxes in its range.

Melbourne-based Koko Black ranks its Elise Hurst signature keepsake boxes, filled with ganache and praline chocolates, speckled eggs and caramel bunnies alongside “quail egg” cartons and mini speckled eggs, as top sellers.

“The quail eggs are aimed at adults — they are filled with a nut praline, ” marketing manager Caroline Swallow says. “The bunnies are for adults because of the price and quality of chocolate.”

Make that $35 for a 250g “small” with milk and dark chocolate and $55 for a 450g “large” with five solid foil-wrapped eggs. Like limited- edition prints, they’re individually numbered. Almost too good to eat.

“We go through about 15 tonnes of chocolate over the Easter weekend and the preceding week, ” Martin Black, from Margaret River Chocolate Company, says. “Our chocolatiers only start making Easter products about two months before to ensure freshness, so it is a very busy period — and they keep making them right through until Easter Sunday, which means you can walk in and buy an egg that’s just been made.

“Rocky road Easter eggs are up there in the top five sellers, but we also do sugar-free Easter products that have grown in popularity.”

Fremantle Chocolate has doubled production this month, with rocky road eggs, “scooter bunnies” and “spotty dotty eggs” with hundreds and thousands top of the list.

“Milk chocolate is definitely still the perennial Easter favourite and will be for a while, but dark chocolate is growing in popularity and we make white chocolate products for people who love the sweeter, creamier taste, ” manager Andrew Wyers says.

Our Fresh Easter chocolate tasters, South Perth real estate agent Bill McKenzie, wife Diana and children Elizabeth, 12, Josie, 10, and William, 5, sampled 17 chocolates and novelties for us. See their family favourites below .

Margaret River Chocolate’s rocky road was an all-round favourite, though Mr McKenzie rated it an equal first with Chocolatier’s chocolate honey macadamia egg.

Mrs McKenzie liked Margaret River Chocolate’s big dark egg for its “nice bitter” flavour that wasn’t too rich, but thought it was “too big”— it’s 520g.

Elizabeth loved the Lindt white chocolate bunny and Fremantle Chocolate’s freckle egg. Josie gave top score to the “nuttiness” of Koko Black’s quail eggs. William liked the “soft and creamy” taste of the Kinder bunny but thought it was “too small”.