Easter Chocolate Tester? Sign Me Up!
April 10, 2015
All those chocolate Easter bunny and egg recipes didn't just fall from the sky. Did you know there are actually people employed to taste test them? What a job, right! 27-year-old Alex Emerson-White was busy taste testing Easter chocolates while you were out purchasing your Easter baskets!
What I would give to get paid for eating chocolate day-in and day-out! Alex works for Marks & Spencer as a chocolate product developer, and travels the world selecting the perfect ingredients to go into their confectionary, most of which is handmade in the U.K. and Ireland.
Among the store’s Easter chocolate assortment for 2015, Alex tested a 1.5kg Giant Golden Lattice Egg as well as a children’s favorite, Percy the Pig Egg. She remarked that her friends are all jealous of her job, and she gets asked frequently for free samples.
Alex said: "It varies in terms of week-to-week but I can eat 50 or 60 pieces of chocolate, it all adds up to about five kilos.” That’s the equivalent of 100 Mars Bars. Or 147-ish Cadbury Creme Eggs. "I go to the gym before work four times a week to keep fit and healthy” she added. Source: mirror.co.uk
So, besides taste testing chocolate, what does Alex do for Marks and Spencer? With her food science degree from the University of Leeds, Alex works alongside a buyer and technologist to come up with delicious new products, as well as improving existing products if they need it.
She’s responsible for keeping up with the latest food trends, sometimes attending cookery schools, eating at new restaurants, browsing food markets, talking to leading chefs, etc. She makes sure that there’s nothing the company is missing out on, and that they’re always ahead of the next big trend. Source: Interview from the University of Leeds
Marks & Spencer focused on creating their Limited Edition Giant Golden Lattice Egg for this year. It’s been in the works for years, but still they can only produce so many because of the egg’s intricate design and the time it takes to complete them. It’s really a beautiful design that is made to also taste divine.
Twelve skilled chocolatiers are trained to work solely on this egg, which weighs 1.5kg and is handmade and decorated. Only 7,500 were created for this year.
Alex is now planning for Easter 2016 chocolate trends.
Photo: "finger licking good" by Lars Plougmann is licensed under CC BY SA 2.0 /cropped from original
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