There is a growing demand in medical device development for reliable test materials that can be used to replace native tissue or better simulate the human organ applicable to the final use. This demand is driven partially through a desire to use consistent and stable materials for testing and development (real tissue has only a very short shelf life!) and through a wish to reduce the use of actual tissue, in light of the ethical concerns surrounding that use. Commercially-available synthetic tissue materials may look realistic but lack many of the nuanced responses that natural tissues possess. Here, one of our clients was in search of more representative synthetic tissue phantoms as surgical training materials. Specifically, the ability to cut and char during electrosurgical intervention was conventionally only obtainable using natural tissues. In this case study, we describe the development of our “e-tissue” hydrogel formulation design to char under bipolar and monopolar electrosurgical intervention in a manner consistent with that observed in real-life use.