Easter Luxury Food and Drink Guide

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Indulging over this Easter holiday will feel even more special as lockdown eases, whether you are looking forward to the traditional fare or a more eggs-citing alternative.



From Easter eggs to luxury food and drinks, these options should help make it a long Bank Holiday to remember.

The luxury chocolate egg

Sink back into the sofa with exquisite Belgian chocolate by master chocolatiers Guylian. The Temptations Easter Egg has the famous seahorse logo imprinted on the chocolate egg and comes with a box of 11 mouth-watering praline seashell chocolates.



Guylian was created in 1967 when lovers Guy and Liliane combined their delicious praline recipe to create the seashells, now famous around the world.

This Easter egg is priced at £8 and available at stores including Sainsbury's, Morrison's and Waitrose. It even makes you feel less guilty as it features no foil, no plastic clam and 100% recyclable card packaging.
Chocolate alternatives to eggs

What came first, the chicken or the egg? Independent British chocolate company Montezuma's has hatched a cunning plan for its Easter Collection with a range of chunky chocolate, cheeky chicks.



There's delightful handmade marbled and speckled hens - Silkie, Orloff and Frizzle - that add a touch of humour to the season and taste extremely moreish.

They cover milk, dark or white chocolate between them and cost £9.50 each from the Montezuma's website , while the Mother Hen option includes a large speckled hen with milk and dark chocolate chicks and is priced at £20.

Among the range is also Peanut Butter Mini Eggs made from 100% cocoa dark chocolate.

What's more, all of the packaging is 100% recyclable, biodegradable or compostable too.
Have fun with a DIY food kit

Missing restaurants? Then try an upmarket DIY dining kit with a difference from Romulo Cafe and Restaurant in London. The distinguished restaurant offers a Finish at Home kit with a five course meal of Filipino fine dining.

Boxed up and packaged with clear instructions inside a beautifully illustrated envelope, it details how to exactly warm up, cook or assemble the array of food. This is now available nationally. It is mailed out every Monday and Thursday for next day delivery but a 48 hour pre-order is required.



Boasting gourmet food from the Philippines, Romulo has a strong reputation in London, where its restaurant is based in Kensington High Street. You can read a review of it on Weekend Notes here .

The kit comes with everything vacuum-packed and ready to heat up for meal including Salmon Sinigang,Fresh Vegetable Spring Roll, Chicken Sisig, Crispy Pork Hock (Crispy Pata) with Garlic Fried Rice, Stir Fried Bok Choy, and Ube Cheesecake for dessert. There's also home-baked Pandesal, the iconic Filipino bread roll in the pack too.



It all tastes divine and will allow you to recreate those times when you could dine out in a restaurant in style. A perfect exotic treat for Easter that will also bring the aroma of foreign holidays into your home.

The kit costs £70 from the Romulo website here .

For a kit that suits the whole family, try the Mon Dessert Easter selection.



Mon Dessert supply innovative dessert DIY kits, packed with simple to use instructions and pre-weighed ingredients. Its Easter-themed kits include Easter Bunny Cream Tart (£30), Hot Cross Bun Kit (£24) and the Easter Chick Macaron (£22).

If you get hooked, there are even monthly subscriptions so you can have a regular make it yourself session, ideal for the current times of lockdown restrictions. Find out more at the Mon Dessert website .

Mini bites

For those of you that prefer a cake to a chocolate bar, Cadbury's has come up with its range of Dairy Milk Mini Bites as an Easter alternative.



The range includes new Dairy Milk Brownie Bites, that are extra special as they are brownies topped with Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate.

Then there are Daily Milk Flapjack Bites and Milk Chocolate Cornflake Clusters, all priced at £1.80 a box from supermarkets including Tesco and Asda.
Gelato eggs

Londoners can get Gelato-filled chocolate eggs delivered from Gelatorino through website Cosaporto



Priced at £16, choose from a range of striking milk chocolate Easter egg halves that are filled with creamy gelato made using traditional artisanal techniques.

The hard bit is choosing which flavour ice cream from stracciatella, pistachio, gianduja, dark chocolate, zabajone, vanilla and hazelnut, all decorated with delicious nibbles.

If you are new to Cosaporto, you can get the first delivery free by using the code COSAPORTOFRIEND.
Vegan and healthier option chocolate

Scoundrel is a new luxury sugar-free dairy-free chocolate in milk, dark and milk chocolate flavours, available from early April at its Paleo Canteen website here .



They come in funky packaging and are made with sweetener erythritol as well as pure cocoa butter, so it is suitable for those that want to indulge while eating sugar-free,low carb, keto or vegan foods. Available to buy in bulk from £14.99.



Padstow store Buttermilk has created dairy-free Salted Caramel Cups that are free from gluten, palm oil and milk, so suitable for vegans. Sweet, tangy caramel bursts through for a decadent treat.

Supermarkets including Sainsbury's and Tesco are stocking Buttermilk Dairy-Free Salted Caramel Cups 100g bags that cost £2.99. The pouch is plastic-free and compostable too.

It is one of the company's dairy-free range that also includes Peanut Butter Crunch Bites, Vanilla Fudgy Bites and Choccy Truffles from the Buttermilk website .
Prosecco - with or without alcohol

Sparkle up your Easter with a glass of Prosecco from Bottega, that now includes a new non-alcoholic variety.



The Italian winery in Bibano di Godega has brought out Bottega 0 (zero) that realistically brings the essence of the sparkling wine for those that are refraining from alcohol. Ideal for if you are driving over to see family after lockdown and want to toast being reunited.

During the harvest, bunches of grapes are picked from the vineyard where there is a good balance between sugars and acidity. The grapes are then destemmed and softly pressed to produce a must that is stored in refrigerated tanks to prevent alcoholic fermentation from starting. After the addition of carbon dioxide, the product is filtered and bottled.

It's a pink sparkling drink that is priced at £9.50 and available in Harvey Nichols stores.



For the alcoholic version, enjoy the glamour of Bottega's famous Gold bottled range of Prosecco, also available at Harvey Nichols. There's even now a recipe book from the winery featuring 100 Prosecco Recipes of delicious Italian dishes that use the popular drink.
Spice up your Easter meal

While lamb is the Easter meal favourite, why not spice it up with gourmet spices to transform it into something more exotic?

Family-run company BoTree has brought out the Chef's Essential collection that is a beautifully-packaged set of eight single-origin spices, all ethically sourced.

Ideal to use in the kitchen yourself or as an Easter gift with a difference for anyone who loves to cook, these spices cover an array of exotic cuisines from Italian to Indian.

Suggestions from BoTree include making puff pastry cheese tarts with Nile Coriander Seeds, grilling lamb with Wild Mountain Cumin or seasoning roast veggies with Flowering Hyssop Thyme. They have more recipe ideas on their website here .

Featuring top-quality produce, the spices come from selected regions where the climate, soil and traditional know-how yield the finest spice crops. The company also makes a point of supporting smallholder farmers around the world.

The Chef's Essential Collection costs £34.95 and includes Black Urfa Chilli 50g, Nile Coriander Seeds 30g, Wild Mountain Cumin Seeds 50g, Buffalo Ginger 50g Turkish Oregano Buds 15g, Smoked Pimenton Paprika 50g, Flowering Hyssop Thyme 20g, New Harvest Turmeric 50g.
Gin o'clock

With more people meeting outdoors, Gin in a Tin is an ideal way to bring sophistication to al fresco socialising.

Sip on a G&T or cocktail from this beverage company that comes in a limited edition Easter-themed drinking vessel adorned with a mad march hare or stylish rooster from online marketplace BuyBritain.com .



Using classic dry botanicals, the Easter special gin has distinctive notes of coriander, lemon peel and cardamom, as well as many other botanicals centred around juniper berries to create the ultimate refreshing taste. It is a smooth crisp gin with juniper at the forefront, citrus notes of lemon and orange, finished with subtle notes of cardamom.

Gin in a Tin is priced at £35 in a beautiful, bespoke, limited edition Easter tin.



There's also Kintyre Botanical Gin for gin connoisseurs as it uses carefully selected botanicals that reflect Kintyre's unique coastal, pasture and woodland position.

It heralds from the east coast of the Kintyre peninsula where the Kintyre Gin distillery is nestled at the foot of Beinn an Tuirc, which translates from Gaelic as 'The Hill of the Wild Boar'. This is also the region that was famously described as Sir Paul McCartney's 'place of escapism', so you can imagine the rugged landscape.

There's a variety of options including Kintyre Pink Gin - uniquely distilled with Scottish raspberries and oats, giving it a delicate fruity flavour with a creamy finish, redolent of that most Scottish of desserts, Cranachan

Kintyre Orange & Coffee Liqueur has been distilled in collaboration with close friends from Argyll Coffee Roasters while Tarbet Legbiter Navy Strength is a navy strength spirit, bottled at 57% ABV. Gins are priced between £20 and £35 on the Kintyre Gin website here .

Not only does the distillery plant oak trees in their dedicated tree plantation to offset carbon emissions, they also power their gin through their own hydro-electric scheme.
A zestier version of ginger ale

If you're getting tired of the usual soft drinks, Ppinger, is a zesty new, slightly sparkling natural soft drink from Kyon.

Using the finest ginger extract, sourced from Peru and Costa Rica, the Ppinger combines ginger flavours with freshly squeezed lime, apple juice and elderflower concentrates mixed with water.



The Ppinger, is zestier than regular ginger ale that has more of a kick but is also more refreshing. It comes in recyclable packaging and is available from independent retailers and www.delishops.co.uk , priced at £2.50 for a 250ml bottle and £6.00 for a 750ml bottle.

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