EASTER SPECIAL
TEXT
ALEX ROBERTS
YUMMY
BUNNY
The best cocoa
beans come from
West Africa
The chocolate Easter bunnies are a fabulous standby
of the spring season across the world and when those
Easter Holiday’s start to roll around, expect your kids to
be clamouring for them.
Bunnies are an ancient symbol of
fertility in Christianity and chocolate
versions have been made trotted out
for the spring holiday season since
the 1800’s. Despite their symbolism,
the chocolate bunny only became
a commercial success during the
1940’s. This was because making
hollow shells was an effective way
of skimping on dwindling chocolate
supplies during the tough economic
times of World War II. The chocolate
bunny still looked great and was a
hit with kids, despite its clever cost
costing methods.
Even making a small rabbit out
of chocolate can be a steep task.
Yugna Shah runs an event planning
company that specialises in making
custom made chocolates to order.
She took time to sit with Yummy and
describe the incredible journey that
the chocolate to make the bunnies
must make, before it reaches us here
in Nairobi. “The best cocoa beans
come from West Africa”, Shah tells us
adding that, “Cocoa beans come in
really large pods and can grow to be
the size of a football”. Once picked,
cocoa beans are roasted and then
crushed down into pure liquid cocoa
butter. The butter is then shipped
overseas to chocolatiers in Europe
who have a huge worldwide demand
to fulfill.
The liquid cocoa butter is then
mixed with different ingredients
to yield different chocolatey
concoctions. This process is called
tempering, and it can be quite a
fickle process. “First, a good quality
chocolate, white, milk or dark,
should be tempered to the correct
temperature for each type,” explains
Shah. “If the chocolate is not
tempered at the correct temperature,
the likelihood of the complicated
bunny shape cracking is high.”
Chocolate bunnies tend to be made
with incredibly thin shells which
make handling and transporting
them a delicate business.
In order to achieve the precise
shape and width, the processed
chocolate is poured into a half bunny
mold where it waits to dry before
being flipped out onto a conveyor
belt. The bunnies are then pressed
together with another half shell
of chocolate and then wrapped in
aluminium. If the process sounds
delicate, it is. The hollow chocolate
bunnies have to be sorted by hand
in order to make sure there is no
breakage. It doesn’t end there.
Trucks filled with the freshly-made
bunnies transport them to Southern
European ports where they are
loaded on to shipping containers
headed for the Indian Ocean. When
they arrive at the Port of Mombasa
they must clear customs while
sitting in the hot coastarian sun and
then wait to get loaded onto trucks
that make their way to distribution
centers in Nairobi. If any melt along
the way the whole batch might get
discarded. The bunnies then find
their way onto grocery store and
chocolate shop shelves.
A chocolate bunny can make a
great Easter treat and can be hidden
around the house for young ones to
discover during an Easter egg hunt.
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