With row upon row of foil-wrapped eggs glinting at you in the shops, finding the perfect chocolate Easter gift can be tricky. If you're a bit overwhelmed by the choice, a new survey released by the Good Housekeeping Institute yesterday could help.
With row upon row of foil-wrapped eggs glinting at you in the shops, finding the perfect chocolate Easter gift can be tricky.
However, if you're a bit overwhelmed by the choice this year - most big supermarkets have about 50 different kinds of egg to pick from - a new survey released by the Good Housekeeping Institute yesterday could help.
More than 20 chocolate experts and tasters, who ate their way through 33 different eggs for the survey, have revealed the best value eggs on sale this year.
Tesco's own-brand Belgian triple chocolate egg came top of the pile with a score of 78 out of a possible 100. The egg, which is priced at £8.99, was judged on its appearance, taste, packaging and value. Despite a comparatively low price - some of the eggs cost more than £20 - it was named Best Overall Buy by the judging panel.
Trisha Schofield, head of consumer testing at the Good Housekeeping Institute, said the results proved that consumers do not need to spend a lot of money to get a good quality egg this Easter.
"If you can't decide which type of chocolate you like best, this hand-crafted egg has a little of each," she said. "It's great to see that in these tough financial times, consumers don't have to shell out a fortune to get a great quality, tasty Easter egg for a loved one."
Other eggs that scored highly included Marks & Spencer Surprise Egg, priced at £4.99, and the Love Toffee Egg from Thorntons, which costs £12. Green & Black's organic butterscotch egg took top prize in the Best Egg for Less Than £5 category, while Galaxy's Minstrels egg won the Most Generous Egg title.
Of course it's one thing selecting the best eggs on sale this year, but do we know what actually makes a good Easter egg? Is it all about taste, packaging and those extra bags of sweets inside, or do we now demand something a little more original?
Sara Cunnew, product developer at Scottish chocolatiers Kshocolat, believes taste is the most important factor. "Using good quality chocolate in our eggs is really important to us," she explains.
"Some companies charge a lot of money for eggs when the chocolate isn't very good and you get less of it in the egg than you would do in a single bar of chocolate - that's not a good egg.
"We use the same chocolate in our most popular bars to make many of our eggs, so that our customers aren't getting lesser quality ingredients just because it's Easter."
Kshocolat, who have a store in Buchanan Galleries in Glasgow, have produced a series of eggs for Easter, including a square egg, a dark chocolate, orange and cardamom egg, and a white chocolate, lemon and pepper egg.
On top of that, stores such as Marks & Spencer are selling giant chocolate animals, while chocolate shop Thorntons continues to offer its personalised egg-icing service.
It's all original, if not inexpensive stuff, but do consumers really want fancy Easter eggs, or are they happy to stick to the safe milk chocolate option?
"Our most popular egg is the square milk chocolate egg at the moment," says Ms Cunnew.
"The British public tend to favour milk chocolate - they always have - but we don't really see ourselves as being in the same market as most big-brand eggs.
"We make eggs for adults to give to each other rather than their children. The more unusual eggs are for people who are looking for something a bit different.
"People don't want to be too risky when buying a gift for someone, so even if they would like something more exotic, we find they stick to milk chocolate to be safe."
The Herald's panel weighs in
- Tesco Belgian Triple Chocolate Egg
Price: £9.35
Appearance: Thick white chocolate with milk and dark chocolate panels at the front, tied with a pink ribbon. "It's really bonnie," says Elizabeth. "Very nicely presented," agrees Stephen. "Very arty, but very feminine." 5/5
Taste: Most of our testers found it too sweet. "It tastes like condensed milk," says Ken. "I don't think you could eat very much of it." 3/5
Value: "It's quite chunky, but there is nothing inside or with it so I think it's over-priced," says Marisa. 2/5
- Marks & Spencer Surprise egg with white chocolate strawberries
Price: £4.99
Appearance: Loses points on presentation. "Looks a bit cheap," says Stephen. "I loathe the cardboard band at the base," says Elizabeth. 1/5
Taste: A mixed response to the strawberries. "They look like emu droppings," says Stephen. However, the chocolate was well-received with two out of four testers proclaiming it as their favourite. "It's just a really nice, rich taste, which isn't too sweet," says Elizabeth. 4/5
Value: "It looks far cheaper than it is, but once you break into it you realise it is good quality," says Marisa. 3/5
- Galaxy Minstrels egg.
Price: £5.29
Appearance: "It's a bog standard egg. Would only appeal to someone who was a Minstrels fanatic," says Elizabeth. 2/5
Taste: "It's that familiar Galaxy chocolate taste but the egg feels a bit thin and stingy," says Marisa. 3/5
Value: Comes with two large packets of sweets. The testers agreed it was fairly good value but nothing special. "The packaging misses the mark with kids and if a guy bought it for his girlfriend I don't think she'd be very impressed," says Ken. 4/5
- Kshocolat: The Square Egg £8
Appearance: An eye-catching cube-shaped egg in an uber-stylish box. "Definitely more stylish than the others," says Stephen. "Very stylish, but then that's possibly missing the point of Easter eggs," says Elizabeth. 4/5
Taste: The egg is milk chocolate with a hint of vanilla and comes with two packets of chocolate-covered toffee and honeycomb. "The chocolate has a slight aftertaste which is a bit off-putting," says Ken. 3/5
Value: Another fairly expensive egg but the chocolate is good quality. 3/5
- Thorntons' Love Toffee egg.
Price: £12
Appearance: A huge toffee-infused milk chocolate egg with two bags of toffees. "The packaging is a bit industrial-looking with all that clear plastic," says Marisa. "The fact that you can get a name written in icing is, I guess, part of the appeal," says Stephen. 2/5
Taste: Two of the four testers said this was their favourite chocolate. "Crumbly and very sweet," says Stephen. "Very easy to eat," says Ken. "You could demolish the entire thing while watching an old film". 4/5
Value: "It is expensive, but then an entire family could probably feast on it and there are two big bags of toffee thrown in," says Marisa. 4/5
