A free Easter Egg Tasting event probably rates pretty high on lot of women’s fantasy lists, but I have to admit, it probably doesn’t make my top 10. That’s not to say I wasn’t looking forward to the event, organised by the Guardian Food Blog’s (Word of Mouth) Editor & Cookalong organiser extraordinaire, Susan Smillie, but other reasons than a chocolate obsession. The fact that there were artisan producers of Sherries & Ports definitely caught my eye, as well as the chance to meet some other Cookalongers and an opportunity of a nose around Guardian Towers.

On arrival and after a vigorous vetting process, fellow Word of Mouthers gathered & filled in the sticker name tags. We were supposed to not only put our user names, but also what childhood confectionary best described us. Feeling a touch foolish, I opted for ‘Yorkie Bar’ going for the big & chunky comparison (that’s big & chunky, NOT thick & chunky!). Ms Lawmarsh went for the Quality St Green Triangle, which I thought was a good one (memorable shape, most calming colour & popular enough to be sold on it’s own, if I remember correctly). Not everyone participated in this frippery, although I did get one response from someone who had obviously thought about it but had forgotten or were too embarassed to write it on their name badge; ‘Yorkie Bar? Ooh, I’m sherbert dib-dab!’

Armed with a glass of Cockburn’s finest port, we were welcomed into a converted meeting room, with the conference table filled with an array of broken up Easter Eggs. A brief introduction and a few words from artisan chocolatier Paul A. Young and we were off.

Chocolate highlights were pretty much all of Paul A. Young’s offerings, the cardomom & stem ginger one was my favourite, which I’m sure  had some fennel in, too, but I could quite easily eaten several more of the half-caramelised egg, the peppermint egg and the guinness truffles.

I did get some inside information that the Lidl egg was made by a specialist German Chocolatier and whilst I’m sure this knowledge did affect my judgement a little, I did really enjoy the malty flavour it had. Definitely a touch of the horlicks about that one.

The chocolate making demonstration was also pretty cool, with Kieran from Mayan Magic showing us how his home made chocolate making kit worked. The cocoa bean was quite tasty in it’s raw state and the raw chocolates produced were very good, indeed.

I had a good chat with the man from Gonzalez Byass, who was promoting their fine Sherry range. He also recommended what he thought was one of the best Spanish restaurants in London, El Faro, so it was nice to have someone in the know having the same opinion about a place as me.

Henrietta from the Rare Tea Company has now turned me into a tea snob, having introduced me to the Emperor’s Breakfast black tea that  was very quaffable without milk, let alone the Jasmine tea, which was divine.

Rather surprisingly, I found I didn’t get sick or encounter  chocolate fatigue at any stage, although I was quite diligent in refreshing my palate with the tipples on offer.

I was quite disappointed in not winning something from the prize draw at the end, but then was rather serendipitously was given one of the raw chocolate making kits by Kieran from Mayan Magic, when I went over to get one of his flyers after most people had left. That and the fact we also got a take out (which definitely got me out of a hole with Ms R, who wasn’t impressed I was leaving her holding the baby whilst going out chocolate tasting) made the evening most enjoyable.

Bring on the next event!

Articles on the event can be found here and here.