Godiva Easter – Or how I learnt to stop sharing and start hiding my chocolate stash.

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Godiva Easter –

Or how I learnt to stop sharing and start hiding my chocolate stash

If there is one word in the chocolatier’s lexicon which produces a Pavlovian response in me, it is Godiva. Many many years ago I happened across an epiphanic chocolate experience – a smooth milk truffle lovingly embracing a lightly salted whole macadamia nut and the taste... Oh! The mere thought sets my salivary glands all a-tingle! Sadly, Godiva no longer produce this most wondrous of cocoa creations (my whole family still mourn its passing!), but they do still produce a full and glorious enough range of truffles, pralines, creams, fruits, caramels, liquors, bars and more to excite even the most pernickety of palates and for Easter, well, they’ve really rolled out the big guns.

As we all know, the egg is the traditional gift of choice for Easter and Godiva certainly have plenty on offer, from the modestly priced Small Wrapped Eggs (£7.00/100g), to the decidedly decadent Nougatine Easter Eggs (£150.00 for half a shell with 1.3kg of chocolates of your choice/£200.00 for a full shell). For me however, much as I appreciate a finely crafted smooth and creamy shell, it is what lies inside that really attracts my attention. So, if you were thinking about it, don’t worry about splashing out on an egg for me this year (unless you were considering one of the whopping Nougatine jobs!), I would much rather have a nice big Godiva Easter Box.

Available in two sizes (16 pieces/£17.50, 6 pieces/£9.00), the Godiva Easter Box, embossed with a beautifully bright spring bouquet, looks almost as good as the chocolates within it taste. The assortment includes a little bit of everything, from my predictable favourite Serti Macadamia, where salty macadamia pieces mingle provocatively with smooth sweet white chocolate, to the more traditional Coeur Lait (milk chocolate praline heart)  and the Lune Passion, a dark chocolate shell filled with a silken white chocolate and passion fruit ganache. These are not frivolous bits of confectionary to mindlessly munch, more morsels of gastronomic excellence to savour with raptures of delight, so I need hardly say – these are not for the sharing.

You can find Godiva boutiques at  at 141 Regent Street, W1; 150 Fenchurch Street, EC3; Harrods Food Hall, Knightsbridge, SW1; Selfridges, W1A; 17 Russell Street, Covent Garden, WC2; and online at www.godiva.be.

© Purple Peccadilloes