jury selects this year’s highlights

Enjoying an Easter egg needs to be a complete moment. From opening the loop and revealing the chocolate’s aroma and sparkle to the moment it is actually bitten and melts in your mouth. Did you feel like just reading the description? To ensure that consumers – and chocoholics – derive maximum satisfaction from this experience, the Good Gourmet gathered a team of nine tasters to evaluate, in five categories, 37 eggs from 11 brands of commercial chocolate present in the Brazilian market and choose the 2023 Easter eggs that stand out the most.

Milk, Bitter/Bitter, White, Including ingredients in the shell and Priced up to BRL 60 were the categories included in the 2023 Easter egg tasting. Each brand chose which product and which category they would participate in.

The tasting took place in secrecy. That is, the participants tasted the samples without knowing which brands they belonged to. They gave scores from 1 to 10 – 1 being very bad and 10 being very good – evaluating appearance, texture and taste.

Based on the judges’ assessments in each of these criteria, the scores were averaged to arrive at the result obtained by the participating Easter eggs. The chocolates with the highest scores in each category were elected this year’s highlights.

Check out the 2023 Easter Eggs that stood out in each category:

milk easter egg

Champion: Egg Ferrero Collection With Milk – Suggested Price: R$ 89.99 | 241g

It comes with four assorted Ferrero bonbons: Ferrero Rocher, Raffaello and Rondnoir. The judges highlighted the cocoa flavor and the chocolate shine. “Balanced flavor and sweetness”, evaluated chef Polyana Rodrigues.

2nd Place: Truffled Lindt Egg R$ 169.90 | 450g

3rd Place: Tie between Ovo Brasil Cocoa Ao Leite R$ 38.90 | 134g / R$ 52.90 | 300g and Ovo Dengo 36% Cocoa With Milk R$ 69.90 | 126g

Bittersweet/Bittersweet Easter Egg

Champion: Ovo Dengo 70% Cocoa Intense – Suggested price: R$ 69.90 | 126g

Made with 70% cocoa chocolate, it accompanies intense chocolate truffles. The acidity and intensity of the cocoa were the points praised by a large part of the jury. “Excellent sensory,” wrote chocolate expert Barbara Sordi.

2nd Place: Egg Ferrero Rocher® Dark R$ 89.99 | 225g

3rd Place: Egg Nestlé Kitkat Dark R$ 46.99 | 227g

white easter egg

Champion: White Kopenhagen Tongue Egg – Suggested price: R$ 121.90 | 300g

Comes with a box with white cat tongues. Sweetness and flavor were strong points chosen. “Differentiated”, noted chocolatier Julian Caron-Lys.

2nd Place: Egg Nestlé Galak R$ 42.99 | 185g

3rd Place: Egg Lacta Laka R$ 39.99 | 175g

Easter egg with inclusion of ingredients in the shell

Champion: Egg Lindt Nocciolatte – Suggested price: R$ 149.90 | 350g

In a new format and packaging, it takes milk chocolate and hazelnuts in pieces. The quality and quantity of these was the great highlight for the jury, in addition to the balance of flavor and texture. “Very good. Well caramelized and melted chocolate”, commented the businesswoman in the chocolate business Bibiana Schneider. In addition to being elected the best egg in the category, it had the highest score among all the eggs evaluated. Thus, it won for the second year in a row as the best Easter egg of the year.

2nd Place: Egg Dengo Lemon Breaker with Tapioca R$ 115,00 | 260g

3rd Place: Tie between Ovo Barion in milk chocolate with dulce de leche R$ 49.99 | 310g and Egg Kopenhagen Caramelized Pistachio Exaggeration R$ 144.90 | 400g

Easter Eggs up to R$60

Champion: Milk Chocolate Barion Egg with Cashew Nut and Cinnamon Stuffing – Suggested Price: R$34.99 | 200g

In addition to the cost-benefit ratio, the judges’ attention was drawn to the light cinnamon flavor and the soft and delicious filling. “Nice texture and flavor”, punctuated reader Patrícia Cornelsen.

2nd Place: Egg Ferrero Kinder® Minions R$ 58.99 | 100g

3rd Place: Cocoa Show Ovinhos Dreams R$ 44.90 | 150g

Understand the evaluation process

In the evaluation process, the judges carry out a complete sensory analysis of the competing samples. Pastry chef Carolina Garofani points out the need to understand if there is complexity in the taste of chocolate in the mouth, with different notes of acidity, fruity aroma and the amount of fat, as all this evidences the quality or otherwise of the cocoa and its processing.

The jury also considers how long the chocolate takes to melt in the mouth. “If it takes a long time, it usually denotes lower quality, because it has a higher melting temperature than cocoa butter. If it is a bit pasty, it may have a very large presence of emulsifiers”, he comments.

French-Swiss chocolatier Julian Caron-Lys, who has lived in Curitiba for just over a year and idealized the Utopia Tropical brand, despite already knowing that Brazilian chocolate has more sugar than European chocolate, was surprised by the amount of confectionery included on easter eggs. “I was surprised by some stuffed ones, because I’m not very used to it”, he reveals.

Among the positive surprises shared by him and most of the tasters are the eggs in the range of up to R$ 60. The quality, flavor combinations and proposed fillings were outstanding aspects. Some representatives of dark and semi-sweet chocolates were disappointed. “In intense chocolates, in which the cocoa concentration is higher, it is more noticeable when the quality of the raw material and the processing are not so good”, laments Bibiana.

About the afternoon full of discoveries and sharing of perceptions, Patricia Cornelsen, educational consultant who participated in the tasting representing the readers of the Good Gourmet, collects learning about cost-benefit. “What I was able to assess from this experience is that we don’t always have to buy for the brand and its renown, we have to give them the opportunity to learn about new things”, he stresses.

How to choose a good Easter egg and not regret it

Carolina Garofani warns that information is the best weapon when choosing chocolates. Here are some tips from her and chef Roberta Schwanke:

• Don’t judge an egg by its price. Even the most affordable ones can surprise you with their quality or the expensive ones may not be as tasty;
• Reading the label is key. Even if you don’t understand everything, you can do some research, familiarize yourself with the terms, and pay more attention to your purchases. And always: the fewer ingredients in the composition, the better;
• Check if there is cocoa butter (very important in tempering chocolate, that is, in the reorganization of the butter crystals which, if done satisfactorily, gives shine to the product) in the ingredients and if it comes before a possible vegetable fat in the order of ingredients, it means that the largest amount is cocoa butter;
• Avoid products with fat substitutes for this butter, as they are of lower quality. An example is anhydrous butterfat, nothing less than dehydrated butter.

Service:

The following brands participated in the tasting: Arcor (arcor.com.br), Barion (lojabarion.com.br), Brasil Cacau (brasilcacau.com.br), Cacau Show (cacaushow.com.br), Dengo (dengo.com.br), Ferrero (ferrero .com.br), Kopenhagen (kopenhagen.com.br), Lacta (lacta.com.br), Lindt (lindt.com.br), Nestlé/Garoto (nestle.com.br and Kid.com.br) and Nugali (nugali.com.br).

Panel of judges composed of: Barbara Sordi (Countle Chocolates), Bibiana Schneider (Cuore di Cacao), Carolina Garofani (Caramelodrama), Julian Caron-Lys (Tropical Utopia), Ledinara Batista (Curitidoce), Patricia Cornelsen (reader), Polyana Rodrigues (Grué Atelier), Roberta Braga (Pinó) and Roberta Schwanke (Roberta Schwanke Gastronomie-Patisserie).

The parts used in the production of the photos are from Platinox – Equipment and Utensils for Gastronomy. Address: Av. Pres. Kennedy, 670 – Rebouças. Phone: (41) 3024-2929