Tried & Tested: Velvet's verdict on this Easter’s trending chocolate

Easter would be incomplete without a clutch of chocolate eggs. Together with the team at Brampton’s The Food Marketing Experts, Velvet puts a dozen of this year’s top trending treats to the test

Easter Egg, £155g, £12.50, happichoc.com: Known for making truly top-notch plant-based chocolate from single-origin 47% Colombian cacao and creamy oat milk, Nottingham-based brand HAPPi has become a go-to for vegan Easter eggs, which come both in classic shell and solid bar form. Housed in cute and colourful cardboard packaging, which is fully recyclable, compostable and plastic-free, this Salted Honeycomb egg is perfection: the texture is rich and melting, the flavour sweet with a brilliantly balanced touch of salt.

Charbonnel et Walker Pink Handcrafted White Chocolate Easter Egg with Pink Marc de Champagne Truffles, 245g, £45, charbonnel.co.uk: A fixture in London’s Mayfair since 1875, Charbonnel et Walker was famously granted the Royal Warrant for its chocolates by the late Queen Elizabeth II. Expectations for this egg are therefore high - and met, it’s fair to say, on every level. The beribboned box alone is exquisite, its pretty pastel cylinder lid sliding up to reveal a pleasingly thick-shelled egg and tray of truffles. The truffles, laced with Champagne, are deliciously decadent, clearly designed to be savoured singly, while the white chocolate egg, gorgeously creamy and not too sweet, is so dangerously moreish, you could scarf it in a single sitting.

Chococo Milk Chocolate Nest Easter Egg, 175g, £16.50, chococo.co.uk: As ethically sound as it is delicious, Chococo’s chocolate is produced with ‘people, product and planet’ all uppermost in mind. Cast from 47% Colombia-origin slave- and palm oil-free chocolate, this egg, new to the Chococo range for Easter 2025, is already winning rave reviews; among other things, it’s been rated one of the year’s best by Square Meal. Crack open the artfully faceted shell (lower in sugar than most milk chocolates, it packs a proper cocoa punch) and inside it’s studded with blonde mini eggs (made from caramelised white chocolate, they’re flipping gorgeous). The box, with its bright graphics, is also great for gifting.

Cox & Co Blood Orange Crunch Easter Egg, 155g, £12.50, coxandcocacao.com: Working with Columbia’s Luker estate, investing in cocoa farmers, their communities and sustainable production methods, Cox & Co is renowned for its single-origin dark chocolate. Sleekly presented in a brown cardboard box with watercoloured artwork, new for this Easter is the Blood Orange Crunch Egg: blending 60% Colombian cacao with blood orange extract and raw cacao nibs, the powerful chocolate flavour is balanced by zesty citrus and subtle vanilla notes and a moreish crunchy texture. A stylish, grown-up egg, it’s suitable for vegans.

Bettys Jenny the Sheep White Chocolate Easter Egg, 175g, £18, bettys.co.uk: This cute egg comes with an adorable story: it’s named after Jenny Mills, a talented Bettys chocolatier who has been making chocolates in the much-loved Yorkshire tearoom’s craft bakery for 21 years. Inspired by the ‘Yorkshire Dales in springtime’, it’s a white chocolate egg hand-decorated with a swirly white chocolate fleece, finished with a cute dark chocolate face and a hand-piped royal iced daisy. Wow, the shell is thick! And whereas some white chocolate can be overly sweet, this little beauty, handcrafted with luxurious cocoa butter, Swiss cream and milk, is the perfect blend.

Laura’s Confectionery Easter Sweets Collection, 415g, £12, laurasconfectionery.co.uk: The confectionery wing of The Bottled Baking Co, the Yorkshire brand born out of one family’s shared love of homebaked goods, Laura’s has put an Easter spin on four of its signature sweetie pouches. In this quad - which weighs in at an impressive 415g in total - you’ve got traditional foiled mini milk chocolate eggs, sugar-dusted gourmet mallow chicks, chocolate and caramel ‘bunny poop’ sticks, and - the pièce de résistance - creme egg fudge (which tastes just like its inspiration, but with a satisfyingly chewy fudge texture). If you’ve got children, are planning an egg hunt or simply have a sweet tooth, this is cracking value.

Hotel Chocolat Extra Thick Exquisitely Nutty Egg, 390g, £34.95, Hotel Chocolat, arc, Bury St Edmunds; Lion Yard, Cambridge; and hotelchocolat.com: Presented in an elegant outer eggshell, made entirely from paper pulp and inspired by the shape of a cacao pod, this egg’s new packaging is biodegradable, compostable and 100% recyclable - great to see from this local-hero chocolate brand (it was born and remains based in Royston). Crack it open and you’ll find two individually wrapped halves of gloriously chunky chocolate, one 50% milk chocolate spun with pecan praline, and the other a creamy 40% milk with roasted hazelnut. Inside is a dozen of Hotel Chocolat’s most-loved pralines in the shape of Easter bunnies and eggs. Love nuts and praline? Then this delicious egg is for you!

Pump Street Spring Chocolate Bar Collection, 3 x 79g, £25.50, pumpstreetchocolate.com: Coming in a simple and elegant cardboard sleeve, with windows framing the nature-inspired watercolour prints on each of the three paper-wrapped bars inside, this is the perfect Easter gift for the discerning chocolate lover. It contains three flavours from the Suffolk company’s bean-to-bar Bakery Series: Gibassier, which infuses 62% dark chocolate with aniseed and orange peel to replicate the Provençal pastry; Pain Aux Amandes, a 38% milk bar with crisp croissant crumb and toasted almonds, delivering the buttery crunch of almond croissants; and Hot Cross Bun, a 60% dark gently spiced and studded with currants.

Rococo Chocolates Arriba Nacional 62% Dark Sea Salt Chocolate Easter Egg, 360g, £49, rococochocolates.com: Since it was established on London’s King’s Road in 1983, Rococo has become synonymous with chocolate which combines finest quality with creative flair and flavours. This may be the priciest egg on our list, but you get a lot for your money: the artful keepsake box, which makes this egg perfect for gifting, contains an impressive 360g of truly stellar chocolate. Made from a Peruvian cacao prized for its delicate acidity (as well as its positive impact on the communities that grow it), the egg’s powerful dark chocolate flavour has a lovely freshness to it, while the truffles, secreted inside, are balls of pure ganache indulgence. Any serious chocolate fan would love this.

Cocoa Loco Solid Marbled Chocolate Bunny, 200g, £13.99, cocoaloco.com: About to celebrate its 10th birthday, Sussex brand Cocoa Loco has made a name for its handmade, organic, Fairtrade and palm oil-free chocolates. Billed as ‘an icon of the Easter range’, this hand-poured solid chocolate bunny comes in a sweet little cello bag finished with ribbon and tag. Swirled with milk and white, the chocolate is beautifully smooth and luxurious - and the flavour, sweet but not too sweet, makes it very, very moreish! If you’re looking for an alternative to a classic egg, this is a very cute - and high-quality - option.

Bird & Blend Golden Egg and Bunny Hop Teas, from £3.50, Bird & Blend, Green Street, Cambridge and birdandblendtea.com: A B Corp as famous for its ethical practice as its innovative flavours, great British tea brand Bird & Blend has released two limited edition themed teas - ideal if you’re looking for a non-chocolate Easter treat. There’s Golden Egg, a naturally caffeine-free blend which, thanks to a combo of turmeric and fenugreek, gives a caramel and maple flavour that’s decadent yet light. And then there’s Bunny Hop, a sweet treat of a black tea which, containing chocolate nibs, toasted rice and pink and white vegan marshmallows, brews a perky shade of pink.