A brand in the UK called Clarence Court started producing a range of eggs (maybe a decade ago?) that have an intensely orange yolk [1] and this became a real differentiator, in some ways an indicator of quality. I know when an egg is Clarence Court in a restaurant for instance (and have confirmed numerous times). They are also delicious eating.
The effect is so profound that supermarket own brands have now also started producing similarly richly-orange-yolked eggs.
I noticed the supermarkets producing copycats and became suspicious of the method by which they achieved the colour. There's something qualitatively different about the darkened yolk in the Clarence Court eggs, and it makes me wonder about additives, I guess they're just adding caretinoids to the feed.
Yes! I completely agree. The yolks of Clarence Court-alikes just don’t feel as “rich”, whatever that means, and I can readily tell the difference when having yolk-heavy food like egg soldiers, for example.
"I can readily tell the difference between Clarence court eggs and copycats..." is an extract from 'Middle Class British Problems' if ever I heard one! :)
In the US there is a brand called Happy Egg with a dark orange yolk. They are my preferred brand now, because who wants to buy unhappy eggs? They are the only one I can find with dark orange yolk.
Happy Egg Co. eggs are my favorite! So much so that I emailed them during the early pandemic thanking them for making such amazing eggs.
Have you tried the Heritage breed and their other lines of eggs? I’ve found the cheaper eggs have the same dark orange yolk but the flavor of the Heritage breed eggs is absolutely divine. It’s ruined other eggs for me.
Interestingly Vital Farms used to have eggs that tasted great but perhaps as they got more popular and sourced eggs from more places, their eggs quality dropped and I stopped buying them.
Happy egg are my favorite as well. I have to say though, I tried their organic line and the yolks are indeed not as orange and a bit more runny. I actually buy the standard line for this reason
The effect is so profound that supermarket own brands have now also started producing similarly richly-orange-yolked eggs.
[1] https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EAe_TN_WsAAyQ9-.jpg:large