Fortnum & Mason have created a ‘carbon-neutral’ Easter egg - transported by horse and cart

The chocolate is transported from the Caribbean in an engineless sailboat

(Fortnum & Mason)

Luxury retailer Fortnum & Mason have created the perfect guilt-free Easter treat with the release of their Sailboat Chocolate Easter Egg.

The 150g 85 per cent dark chocolate egg comes from Fortnum’s Sailboat chocolate. The brand says it is produced on the Caribbean island of Grenada by a small group of cocoa farmers whose model means they have created the first “Tree to Bar” chocolate this century.

The food merchant has created the new egg from the Sailboat chocolate, which, as the name suggests, is transported from Grenada using as few carbon emissions as possible.

The result means its journey to the UK includes a horse and cart, an engineless sailboat and electric vans as Fortnum's “aims to be carbon neutral”.

Bars of chocolate are then brought to a solar-powered factory in Ireland’s Mourne Mountains, where it’s tempered and packaged up.

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Conventional methods of shipping are responsible for approximately 2.5 per cent of the world’s global carbon emissions, and that doesn’t factor in the emissions of making the products they ship, to begin with.

Estimates suggest the chocolate industry is responsible for 2.1 million tonnes of greenhouse emissions per year.

Fortnum & Mason’s Sailboat chocolate egg uses sustainably-sourced chocolate from producers and factory workers who are paid double the rate for equivalent jobs.

Its high cocoa content means the chocolate egg is vegan and nestled inside you will find some coca tea husks - a by-product of the chocolate-making process. These can be stepped in hot water to produce delicious cocoa tea.

The egg costs £30 and its complex flavours are described as “fresh fig, bold cocoa and rich aromas of tobacco and leather”. It’s available to buy online.