Taste Test: Easter Eggs and sweet Easter treats

Flat bunny eggs £5 from Cocopod, Petts Wood

Kent is not overflowing with chocolatiers, so it is nice to get your hands on something made locally – and you don’t get much more local to News Shopper. The lovely sisters at Cocopod have prepared a range of beautiful Easter treats, including personalised hollow eggs and decorate-your-own flat eggs.
We tried the flat eggs with printed bunnies. It was cutely packaged while the chocolate was deliciously creamy, had a great snap and was the perfect texture.

Novelty – 4 (It’s local AND cute)

Taste – 4

Price – 2

Overall - 4

Stas Chocolatier small Easter Egg, £4.50 from Polhill

Made in Erith by brothers Peter and Philip Stas, this egg was elegant, creamy, had a great snap and a thickness which meant it melted on the tongue.

The chocolatiers make a whole range of pretty eggs - embellished with dashes like this one, or butterflies or sweets – in white, dark or milk chocolate and in sizes ranging from this cute £4.50 egg all the way up to a giant wheel-it-home £28-er.

Novelty – 5 (Beautiful and, again, bonus points for being local)

Taste – 4

Price – 3

Overall – 4.5

Favorina Easter Bunny Chocolate assortment, £1.79 (Lidl)

A foil-wrapped hollow chocolate bunny at Easter is as quintessentially Easter as a  foil-wrapped hollow chocolate Santa at Christmas. While there are hundreds around, and you can pay whatever you want for them, this one is a good bet for a cheap treat. The chocolate isn't of the highest quality but the shapes are well rendered and it comes with a whole load of little eggs and cute bunnies, perfect for hiding in an Easter Egg hunt.

Novelty - 2

Taste - 2

Price - 4

Overall - 3

Thorntons Fudge Brownie Easter Egg, £14.99

It may be the most egg-spensive Easter ova on our list, but it also ranks as one of the nicest things I've ever put in my mouth. The thick dark chocolate base is bitter, making the pleasure last longer because you won't want to scoff it all at once, while the nuggets of crumbly brownie, crunchy nut, creamy white chocolate and soft, sweet fudge all contrast yet compliment each other.decadently.

Novelty - 4 (one for grown-ups)

Taste - 5* (This egg blows the scale)

Price - 2 (It's a lot of egg for your money)

Overall - 5

Finest Belgian Chocolate and Valencia Orange Oil Egg, £3 (Tesco)

 

It's Finest Medley of eggs (a stretch for us at £25) has taken all the plaudits, but you can still get a lot of egg for a lot less at Tesco. This range - which also includes mint, white chocolate and strawberry and coffee varieties - look and taste stunning while keeping costs right down.
With a little dash of colour, the eggs look smart and grown up while the creamy smooth Belgian chocolate is offset with an authentic orange tang and the whole thing is studded with chewy bits of orange.
A real jaffa.

Novelty - 3 Tastefully elevated above plain

Taste - 4

Price - 3

Overall - 4

Chokablok King of Eggs, American Dreamcake Egg, £10 (Tesco)

This egg looks the part and, just like you would expect from America, it is big, bold and gorgeously unsubtle. The sickly sweet white chocolate is so think in places that you’ll have trouble snapping it (a good thing) laced with crunchy biscuit and the front is overdressed with dark chocolate and little balls and squidgy bits, like a gaudy princess prom dress. It’s gleefully decadent but, for me, too over-the-top and the decorations fail to stand apart from the sweet base.

Novelty – 4 – It looks stunning

Taste – 2.5

Price – 3.5

Overall – 3

Moser Roth Easter Egg and Chocolates, £2.99 (Aldi)

For the price, this is outstanding. The chocolate egg is well rendered and creamy and the chocolates are classic flavours, though it is all a bit basic.

Novelty – 2

Taster – 3.5

Price – 5

Overall – 3.5

Thorntons’ Cookies and Cream Squegg, £5.49

Thorntons' Squegg - a squashed Easter egg - is something that sounds fun on paper but the actual experience of getting one leaves you feeling as flat as the chocolate itself. There's no doubt it's a tasty confection with delicious creamy white chocolate topped with pieces of crunchy cookie. But it's still just a slab of fancy chocolate, lacking the necessary Easter excitement that only comes from a proper egg.

Novelty - 5

Taste - 4

Price - 3

Overall - 3

Wild Chocolate Animals, £3 (Tesco)

You can’t beat the taste of a good old-fashioned Easter egg and this goes down nicely with a cup of tea. The coloured stripe and two chocolate coin-size discs make up the feet of a baby tiger, which is a nice touch for the kids. A bargain buy for your little one - original, quirky, tasty - and it’s always nice to avoid the massive brand names.

Novelty - 4

Taste - 5

Price - 4

Overall - 4

Dairy Fine Beanie Eggs, 99p (Aldi)

Perfect for Easter egg hunts, these little fellas look as appealing as they taste. Rather than just a standard hollow egg, these are filled with teenie tiny smartie treats. Kids will undoubtedly go crazy for them. We just can’t quite figure out the best way of tucking in – break it in half and eat the smarties or nibble the top and pour them in your gob?

Novelty – 4

Taste – 3

Price – 4

Overall – 3.5

Cadbury Egg ‘n’ Spoon, £3.99

Whether you’ve got the smooth, creamy milky mousse centre or the sweet, buzz-inducing chocolate mousse centre, these are a real treat. These the total package – tasty and a cute concept, with a novelty which doesn’t wear off. Knocking the top off and going to town with the spoon never gets old, even if your hands do end up covered in chocolate. You’ll be forced into sharing, though. The four in a box is too many for one sitting and they’re so cool they won’t be around long enough for a second tilt.

Novelty – 5

Taste – 3.5

Price – 3

Overall – 4

Favorina Decorated Easter Hen, £2.99 (Lidl)

What more could you want than a proud chocolate cock straddling a basket of eggs? Decapitating it is all too tempting – and tasty – and the white chocolate plume of feathers on the behind is thick and delicious. It is colourful so will appeal to kids and also cheap so would be ideal. The chocolate crumbles a little too easily for my tastes so there is potential waste but the flavour made me swoon a little. Or maybe that was just the sight of the headless cock.

Taste – 4

Novelty – 5

Price – 4

Overall - 4

Cadbury Mini Eggs Egg, RRP £8.15 (but you’re bound to get a better deal)

Where would we be without Cadbury? The Cadbury Easter Egg is the benchmark for all Easter Eggs, and the Mini Eggs version could well be the best variety. You get a large egg (and it’s a classic) plus a bag of irresistible mini eggs, which are surely a must at Easter anyway. The packaging is tasteful with a little ribbon.

Novelty – 2 (you’ve seen it all before)

Taste – 4

Price – 3

Overall - 4

Favorina Easter Figures, 99p (Lidl)

Not too sure why Ladybirds are Eastery, but these little foil wrapped nuggets are a decent treat. The chocolate’s not the best, but they’re reasonable for sharing.

Novelty – 3 (cute albeit confusing)

Taste – 2

Price – 3

Overall - 3

Favorina Chocolate Easter Bunny, £1.19 (Lidl)

Lidl’s chocolate bunny caters for a parent with dozens of kids to buy for. With that in mind it’s much the same as the eggs of Cadbury’s or Mars, but in chocolate terms the German supermarket’s rabbit is disappointing. It’s reasonably smooth and creamy, but brings about an odd after taste that lingers of additives. For a nice Easter treat, paying extra for something with more to it would be a better option.

Novelty – 2

Taste – 1

Price – 3

Overall - 2

Cadbury Marvellous Creations Easter Eggs and bars, RRP £6.15 (though you can pick up deals nearly everywhere)

If you’re going to choose this egg, then it’s probably a fan of the Marvellous Creations sub-brand. This comes with two bars- a crunchy cookie and nut, and jelly popping candy shells. The latter looks innocuous enough and has a sweet range of textures and a juicy jelly. It depends how you feel about popping candy, I guess.

Novelty – 2.5 (Sadly loses points for being the basis of all Easter eggs)

Taste – 3

Price – 4 (with a deal)

Overall – 3