Marc De Champagne Egg - M&S

Marc De Champagne Egg

Remember that old saying, "All that glitters is not gold" and so it would seem with this Easter Egg purchased from Marks and Spencer earlier today. Beware and read the label carefully before purchasing one of these colourful eggs...unlike me. 

At a quick glance you may be forgiven for actually thinking that you are buying a chocolate egg filled with marc de champagne truffles. When in actual fact you are buying a decorative piece of cardboard, tied with a turquoise bow, in the shape of an egg filled with marc de champagne truffles. 

This attractive and eye catching Faberge style egg stands about 6.5" or 16.5 cm high and is filled with 10 marc de champagne truffles, approx. 145 g, sealed within a plastic bag to stop the icing sugar going all over the place. This particular egg has been earmarked as being part of "The Collection" which as far as I can make out could apply to anything from denim jeans or a pair of slingbacks. So, just another nonsensical marketing ploy to make you think somebody has selected this item for its uniqueness and quality.   

Made in Ireland

I've never been a great fan of Marks and Spencer truffles and this offering is very much the same old, same old, sugary and overly sweet concoction that I have come to expect from them. Each truffle is well made and covered liberally in icing sugar, perhaps best eaten naked. The soft sweet ganache is en-robed in a fairly thick casing of milk chocolate. I suggest you cut the truffle in half and scoop out the ganache with your tongue. 

The marc de champagne is not overpowering and adds a slightly pleasant alcoholic flavour. If only Marks and Spencer could cut down on the sugar and increase the cocoa content of their truffles then this might be a fairly pleasant experience. However, after the sugar hit you are left with a gloopy and slightly acidic feeling as it slides down your throat. Not the nicest of experiences and on reflection I've had more enjoyable sore throats.

Marc De Champagne Truffles - 30% Cocoa

I was disappointed from the start with this egg especially on discovering that there was no actual chocolate egg for me to crack open! So, staying objective was a problem from the beginning. However, the egg is well presented as are the champagne truffles. For the cost of £9.00 you do get a lovely egg shaped box and 10 'gob stopper' size champagne truffles. 

However, I feel that I could have done better with my money and perhaps I should have gone with a Percy Pig! However, if M&S is not your thing then here are a couple of examples of Easter chocolates available on the internet and high street:

This year's Easter gifts Chococo-style from £9.50...

Or

Something with imagination from Hotel Chocolat from £7.00...

Marc De Champagne Truffles

No 1 husband, well let's be exact, my only husband, kindly purchased some champagne truffles from Marks and Spencer for me to review tonight. Alarm bells ringing. What has he done now?! Allegedly, nothing, it seems he's just being generous in his old age. Apparently, he decided not to buy them in London in case they were damaged before photos could be taken. Which is good thinking but strangely enough the price in Chelmsford's M&S store was more expensive than in Moorgate, London. Shock, horror!

Marc De Champagne Truffles

Packaging: Marks and Spencer you've spoiled us! An attractive looking box with the truffles held in a clear cello bag. Brown tissue paper ensures there is not too much movement in the box. The design for the packaging is reminiscent to their chocolate bars that I featured a few months ago. Well done to the marketing team for keeping the costs down and saving themselves a lot of stress and sleepless nights over the design. Show some imagination please! 

The Chocolate: A milk chocolate with a 31% cocoa content has been used to make these little babies. Ingredients include: sugar' dried whole milk, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, glucose syrup, invert sugar syrup, Marc de Champagne, Brandy and preservative E200. Hence why the shelf life is almost forever, well to be precise, 17/01/2012. For those of you new to chocolate, Marc de Champagne, is a colourless brandy that is produced by distilling the grape skins, seeds and stalks which are left from the pressing process at the first stage of champagne making. 


There is a thick coating of icing sugar over each of the truffles and the aroma is a mixture of brandy and sweet milk chocolate. The outer casing of chocolate is very sweet and there is not a lot of cocoa evident. The ganache centre is soft and sweet with a strong brandy taste as you'd expect. For me there is probably too much icing sugar as it makes the whole thing very sweet and slightly astringent on the back of my throat. However, the Marc de champagne is good and I like the overall mouth feel.


These are reasonable truffles even though they have a shelf life higher than some forms of radiation! There is also far too much sugar for my liking and cocoa content is a bit low. However, when you consider the price at £5.25 for 10 truffles/145g they are excellent value for money. Overall 6/10 for price and flavour. And by the way M&S you owe me 25p! Explain the price difference please!


An alternative - Traditional Marc de Champagne Truffles from Charbonnel et Walker are priced at £11.75 for 8 truffles/135g.