Mini Eggs vs. Eggies vs. M&M’s Eggs

Here it is, the ultimate Easter chocolate showdown.  It’s the battle of the small, egg-shaped chocolates; whoever wins, we lose.  Or something, I don’t know.  They’re all chocolate, so I guess whoever wins, we also win.

It’s Cadbury (Mini Eggs) versus Hershey (Eggies) versus Mars (M&M’s Eggs).  Apparently there’s also an egg-shaped version of Smarties, so I guess I could have thrown Nestle into the mix, but you have to draw the line somewhere.

Mini Eggs vs. Eggies vs. M&M's Eggs

The results of this smackdown probably won’t surprise you.  Mini Eggs are the original and the best, though Eggies come surprisingly close.  If I tasted them both blind, I don’t know that I’d be able to tell the difference.  Aside from the size (Mini Eggs are slightly smaller), they’re mostly interchangeable.

It’s honestly kind of weird how similar they taste.  They both have a delicate candy shell encasing creamy, vanilla-infused milk chocolate.  It’s a tasty combo.  It’s also pretty obvious that Eggies are trying very hard to ape the flavour of Mini Eggs, because the chocolate tastes much less like standard Hershey, and more like what you’d expect from Cadbury.

Mini Eggs vs. Eggies vs. M&M's Eggs

Meanwhile, M&M’s are off in the corner doing their own thing.  They taste absolutely nothing like the other two.  They’re just M&M’s in a different shape, with a glossy exterior, a thick candy coating, and that very distinctive M&M’s chocolate flavour.  I like M&M’s, but these are easily my least favourite of the bunch; something about the different shape and different candy-to-chocolate ratio completely throws off what makes plain M&M’s so tasty.  They’re too sweet, the shell is too aggressively crunchy, and they’re just kind of a bummer to eat.  They’re clearly inferior to regular M&M’s, and clearly inferior to the other two in this showdown.

As for Eggies versus Mini Eggs?  It’s basically a coin toss, but if I have to pick, I’ll go with Mini Eggs; I think the quality of the chocolate is ever-so-slightly better.  But they’re both delicious, so either way you can’t go wrong.

Mini Eggs
3.5 out of 4

Manufactured by: Cadbury
Nutritional info (1 package, 33 grams): 170 calories, 8 grams of fat (5 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 5 mg cholesterol, 25 mg sodium, 23 grams of carbohydrates, 22 grams of sugar, 0 grams of fibre, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, milk ingredients, modified palm and modified vegetable oil, unsweetened chocolate, cocoa butter, gum arabic, soy lecithin, natural and artificial flavour, colour (with tartrazine).

Eggies
3.5 out of 4

Manufactured by: Hershey
Nutritional info (12 pieces, 40 grams): 180 calories, 8 grams of fat (5 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 5 mg cholesterol, 35 mg sodium, 28 grams of carbohydrates, 27 grams of sugar, 1 gram of fibre, 3 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate [sugar, milk ingredients, cocoa butter, unsweetened chocolate, lecithin (soy), polyglycerol polyricinoleate, natural flavour], sugar, corn starch, gum acacia, titanium dioxide, artificial flavour, tartrazine, indigotine, allura red.

M&M’s Eggs
2 out of 4

Manufactured by: Mars
Nutritional info (1/4 cup, 42 grams): 200 calories, 8 grams of fat (5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 5 mg cholesterol, 30 mg sodium, 29 grams of carbohydrates, 26 grams of sugar, 1 gram of fibre, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa mass, milk ingredients, cocoa butter, lactose, soy lecithin, salt, artificial flavour, flavour), sugar, cornstarch, corn syrup, tapioca dextrin, colour (with tartrazine), carnauba wax, modified coconut oil and / or modified palm oil (medium chain triglycerides), gum acacia.

Ferrero Hazelnut Eggs – A Delicious Easter Treat

Do you like Ferrero Rocher?  If you do, I can pretty much guarantee you’ll like Ferrero Hazelnut Eggs.  If you don’t, you’re a straight-up maniac and I’m going to have to insist that you drive yourself to your local police station so that you can be put away for life.  You are not to be trusted out in the world.

For everyone else, Ferrero Hazelnut Eggs are delicious, though they’re basically like a less hazelnutty version of Ferrero Rocher, so they can’t help but feel like a bit of a downgrade.

Ferrero Hazelnut Eggs

Like Ferrero Rocher, these eggs feature a milk chocolate and wafer exterior encasing a creamy chocolate/hazelnut centre.  This is an objectively delicious combo, with a great contrast between crispy and creamy, so it pretty much goes without saying that these things are extremely tasty.  But I missed the chopped hazelnuts that you get on the outside of a Ferrero Rocher, not to mention the whole hazelnut within.

The outer layer of milk chocolate is a bit more generous here, which is nice, but the whole thing is probably a tad sweeter than it needs to be.

Ferrero Hazelnut Eggs

If I had the choice I doubt I’d ever pick one of these over a Ferrero Rocher, which makes them feel a bit redundant, but it’s hard to deny that they’re delicious.

3.5 out of 4

Manufactured by: Ferrero
Nutritional info (3 eggs, 30 grams): 170 calories, 11 grams of fat (6 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 5 mg of cholesterol, 25 mg of sodium, 15 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fibre, 14 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, milk powder, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, soy and/or sunflower lecithin, vanillin), modified palm oil, sugar, hazelnuts, whey powder, cocoa, tapioca starch, wheat flour, milk powder, soy and/or sunflower lecithin, skim milk powder, salt, tara gum, vanillin, sodium bicarbonate.

Cadbury Creme Egg – An Easter Classic

Easter is actually still a while off – it’s not until April 19th this year – but I guess that’s close enough for Cadbury, as the seasonal Creme Eggs are starting to hit the shelves.

Cadbury Creme Egg

Cadbury Creme Eggs are sweet; extremely sweet. As a kid, despite my love for all things sugary, Creme Eggs’ overwhelming sweetness was just a bit too much for me. I’ve since come to appreciate the Creme Egg, though its status as a once-a-year seasonal item is probably for the best, as it’s really not the kind of thing you want to eat on a regular basis (or at least I don’t).

Cadbury Creme Egg

As you can see from the picture above, Cadbury Creme Eggs can be a bit tricky to eat; the very soft centre combined with the relatively hard chocolate makes these things prone to crumble and fall apart, creating a bit of a mess. The filling is quite sticky, so you really need to be careful when you’re eating one. As for the taste: the chocolate is typical Cadbury milk chocolate – sweet, and fairly creamy. The fondant filling is essentially just soft, creamy sugar. It is what it is; you probably already have an opinion on whether you like these things, or if they’re just too sweet for you. I like them, but now that I’ve had one, I think I can wait until Easter 2010 to have another.

3 out of 4

Manufactured by: Cadbury
Calories (39 g egg): 170

Kinder Surprise – A Tasty Chocolate Egg with a Toy Inside

I recently found out that Kinder Surprise isn’t available in the U.S. thanks to a rule about food items containing non-food items inside of them.This strikes me as kind of sad. Growing up, Kinder Surprises were always the thing that I looked forward to the most every Easter. My parents would always get my brother and I about a dozen eggs each. Eating the chocolate eggs while assembling all the little toys was an Easter morning tradition I always treasured.

Kinder Surprise

The nice thing about Kinder Surprise – aside from the toy inside – is that the chocolate egg is actually good. This may seem obvious, but considering the questionable quality of most of the ubiquitous chocolate bunnies you see around the holiday, it’s not exactly a given as far as Easter candy is concerned. However, Kinder Surprise is manufactured by Ferrero, makers of quality stuff like Ferrero Rocher and Nutella – so it’s no surprise that it’s tasty.

Kinder Surprise is basically just a chocolate egg, featuring milk chocolate lined with white chocolate. It’s sweet without being too sweet, and is really creamy with a fairly pronounced milky taste. If you’re normally on the fence about white chocolate then this is probably the treat for you, as it tastes mildly of white chocolate while still maintaining its milk chocolate taste.

Kinder Surprise

As you can see here, every Kinder Surprise comes with a toy, this one being some kind of strange alien creature inside of a saxophone. I have no idea what it’s supposed to do, if anything. That’s the exciting thing about the toy inside a Kinder Surprise; you never know what you’re going to get.  Sometimes it’s good, but then sometimes… it’s a weird creature inside a saxaphone.  It’s a crapshoot.  It’s fun.

3.5 out of 4

Manufactured by: Ferrero
Calories (20 g egg): 110