The arrival of Easter has been associated with eggs for centuries, but it was a Bristol chocolate company that first came up with the bright idea to make them out of cocoa.
Until J S Fry and Sons created the very first hollow chocolate Easter egg in 1873, the custom in Britain was for people to give each other boiled and brightly painted hen’s eggs. A tradition believed to date back to Pagan times and the welcoming of spring, the eggs had become a symbol of the end of Lent in the Christian calendar.
Apparently solid chocolate eggs had already been made in Germany and France, but the experts at Fry’s hit on a surefire secret recipe to make them hollow inside. Their method involved mixing cocoa fat with cocoa powder and sugar to make a smooth paste that could be poured into moulds and would set firmly.
