American artisan chocolatiers L.A. Burdick offers outstanding selections for Easter

By April MacIntyre Apr 14, 2011, 21:54 GMT

Burdick is one of our best chocolate houses in the entire country. Their master chef Michael Klug is a transplanted German who works alongside Larry Burdick, a Boston native, who has built a reputation as not only a superb chocolatier, but as an ethical businessman.

There are different levels of Easter candy you can purchase.

You can go the Wal-Mart route and buy Peeps and jelly beans made from high-fructose corn syrup in some Chinese factory, or, if you truly love and respect fine chocolate, better to check out American artisan chocolatier L.A. Burdick Chocolates of New England.

Burdick is one of our best chocolate houses in the entire country. Their master chef Michael Klug is a transplanted German who works alongside Larry Burdick, a Boston native, who has built a reputation as not only a superb chocolatier, but as an ethical businessman.

Burdick's is in business with the island nation of Grenada, and this arrangement allows cacao farmers to sell their crop direct so that they earn more money and have more control and resources to keep the farms organic and producing the best raw materials that Burdick's buys and uses in their handmade bonbons.

Easter Sunday is April 24, 2011. Easter is a time of many festivals celebrating Spring. Easter is also celebrated by Christians as the religious holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the son of God.

Many of the Easter traditions (and foods) are actually pagan in origin.

Some scholars, such as 8th-century English scholar St. Bede, believe that the word Easter comes from the Scandinavian "Ostra" and the Saxon "Eostre". Both are Goddesses of mythology signifying spring and fertility, and their festival was celebrated on the day of the vernal equinox.

These festivals celebrating spring, re-birth, and fertility involved rituals and symbols of eggs, chicks, and rabbits.

According to Burdick's, when the Saxons converted to Christianity and began celebrating the death and resurrection of Christ, it coincided with Eostre, so that's what the early church called its celebration, Eostre, or Easter, in modern English.

The Easter Egg, in pagan times, represented fertility and re-birth. The exchange or brightly-colored eggs in the springtime is a custom that was centuries old when Easter was first celebrated by Christians.

Today, children hunt for colored eggs and place them in Easter baskets, along with the chocolate "egg" candy, bunnies and chicks.

it was the Germans, then French, who "chocolatized" Easter, around the early 1800's.

According to Burdick's, the first chocolate eggs were solid, soon followed by hollow eggs. Although making hollow eggs at that time was very hard and they had to use a paste made from ground roasted Cacao beans.

By the turn of the 19th century, the discovery of the modern chocolate making process and improved mass manufacturing methods meant that the Chocolate Easter Egg was fast becoming the Easter Gift of choice in the UK and parts of Europe, and by the 1960's, it was well established worldwide.

L.A. Burdick Chocolate excels at the Easter chocolate and Easter candy making. For the Easter holiday, Larry and Michael have concocted a special chocolate egg, which, when broken open, is filled with approximately 15 assorted truffles.

The packaging is carefully wrapped in tissue with lovely seals and a nice easy to read gift card- photo by April MacIntyre ©M&C

Burdicks also bakes a delicious Easter bread, made with hints of dried-fruit, cardamon and vanilla. There are whimsical chocolate hand-piped bunnies, and an assortment of Marzipan eggs and more.

Monsters and Critics was fortunate to try the classic Burdick wooden box assortment with a gorgeous bunny ribbon and gold wax seal. The box was filled with five hand-piped white exterior dark interior chocolate bunnies with a chocolate hazelnut and orange flavored interior and almond ears, plus two sets of freshly made marzipan eggs and two sets of chocolate truffles packed in with the bunnies. An elegant and classy Easter gift to send to loved ones, important clients or die-hard fine chocolate lovers.

Another item we enjoyed and recommend is the egg carton of six Easter Crispy Eggs. Each egg has a crispy exterior that yields to a truffle-like rich interior of hazelnut, chocolate, and the darker eggs had a bit of dried cranberries and a wonderful crispy creamy finish. These six hand-painted eggs com in three flavors, and are packed on a bed of grass in a natural egg carton. Great gift for kids and chocoholics, as the dark chocolate eggs are out of this world. Dark chocolate eggs are flavored with pear-cranberry, the Milk chocolate eggs are flavored with mocha, and White chocolate eggs are flavored with orange-pistachio.

L.A.Burdick