Egged on by Easter

This post is inspired by a friend back in South Africa from whom I received two mysterious missives in the past week. Both referred to the consumption of eggs. Both were part of a series of e-mails that I hadn’t read because both e-mails had reached mein error.

Not being in the Easter frame of mind, I was momentarily mystified. This is despite attractive reminders like this window display at my local bakery, The Little Pie Company, who, for the record, do some increadibly creative window displays.

But as it happens I consider myself somewhat of an Easter egg afficionado, even though my consumption level has dropped to virtually nil.

You can keep your year-round Kinder Surprise eggs or the overly-sugared-to-make-up-for-short-changing-on-the-cocoa-and-cocoa-butter mainstream American offerings from Sees Candy.

And I’m not sure I’d venture near any of those strings of chocolate-coated marchmellow eggs. Candy conundrum: as these re-appear as Christmas eggs, Valentines eggs and other ridiculous egg-cantations, are the manufacturers simply repackaging them from one season to the next? Ugh.

For me, Easter egg excellence is produced, one candy-coated six-pack at a time, by Beacon Chocolates. One can spend near an hour consuming a single egg usig the ‘lick off the candy coating first” approach. (Highly recommended), or as little as a few minutes once, like some jurassic beast, you’ve gotten your jaws optimally positioned around the egg to crunch through the layers of white candy and chocolate.

Those who grew up, as I did, in South Africa, might share my particular penchant for the Beacon variety. That would be the brand stocked by Pick ‘n Pay, as opposed to others sold by Woolworths. (Cultural clue: Unlie in the US, Woolworths in South Africa is not only going strong, but is the purveyor of clothing, homewares and high-end groceries.)

Seeing as none of the US-based online vendors have stocked up on my Easter treat (unlike their British counterparts, I’d have to “settle” for the “County Critter Collection from one of America’s most inventive chocolatiers: the Portland-based Moonstruck Chocolate Co.

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