Consumer-Easter eggs

Four days to go until we can tear that beautiful foil from our favourite chocolate. If you haven’t picked up your favourite Easter egg, then don’t delay as shelves are really starting to empty. But what is the real price of these seasonal chocolate treats? Irish Country Living hit the supermarkets to find out.

Start Small

If you’re looking for the best value from your Easter egg purchase, then our advice is to go small. Many of the supermarkets have three for €5 offers on the miniature Easter eggs, working out at €1.66 each which is fantastic value. However, the very best price that Irish Country Living found in this range was in Tesco, where the small Cadbury’s Buttons and Freddo Easter eggs were just €1.25.

With the Buttons Easter egg weighing in at 101g, that means that your chocolate is working out at 1c/gram of chocolate. Let’s compare that with the Cadburys Dairy Milk giant egg, which we found at the steep price of €15 in SuperValu. The chocolate in this admittedly impressive and attractive box is working out at three times the price, at nearly 3c/gram of chocolate. You might be thinking, what’s the difference of a cent or two, but in real terms it means you’re paying three times more for your chocolate because of the fancy boxes.

This isn’t just limited to Cadbury’s. Those smooth bars of Galaxy work out at 2c/gram of chocolate. But when you look at the Galaxy Luxury egg, which comes with the egg and four bars of chocolate, you’re paying 3c/gram of chocolate with that extra charge going towards all the extra plastic and packaging.

Shop around

However, it is Easter and if you are intent on splurging on a little bit of luxury, then be sure to shop around. As mentioned, we found the Cadbury’s Dairy Milk giant egg at €15 in SuperValu, but it was €13 in Dunnes and as low as €12 in Tesco. Also there is good news in that prices have also come down since last year when we conducted our check. But as the prices have decreased, so too has the size of the egg. In 2014, the large Cream Egg Easter egg that we surveyed weighed in at 532g.

This year, that same egg was 492g. However, we’ll take the slightly smaller Easter egg any day, because while we were forking out €16 in Dunnes Stores last year, we found it for €13 in the same store this year and even cheaper in Tesco at €12. This means that you’re paying 2c/gram of chocolate today compared with 3c/gram last year.

Speciality Chocolate

Easter may be that one time of year that you indulge in some speciality chocolate. So what luxury chocolate brands will give you your money’s worth?

At €12, the Thorntons gift egg with an assortment of chocolates really offers good value, working out at 4c/gram of chocolate.

The Butlers small egg at €13 is also a reasonable buy at 5c/gram.

Similarly, although the Lily O’Brien’s range appears more expensive at €15 for the Sticky Toffee Easter egg, when you break it down, it still works out 4c/gram. Given that this chocolate once again comes in as the highest scored in our taste test, it is arguably money well spent.

Three Eggs Set to Impress

With dark chocolate, white chocolate and Guinness truffles, that is an egg that would impress any lover of the black stuff. The luscious chocolate ganache is flavoured with the classic taste of Guinness and set in a creamy white chocolate shell. Best of all, this unique egg is made at Lir Chocolates in Navan, Co Meath.

Price: €16.99

• Chocolate assorted eggs

Simply can’t decide which egg to try? We’re loving the range of mini eggs that you can find at Marks & Spencer’s. These hand-decorated milk, dark and white chocolate eggs with raspberry, pistachio and butterscotch will make an impressive present, but there is a danger you’ll end up eating them yourself.

Price: €17.99

• Tesco Finest Belgian chocolate medley

The Good Housekeeping Easter Egg awards sample up to 200 eggs in the quest to find the best. This year, they named the Tesco Finest Belgian Milk Chocolate hand-decorated Painters Palette Easter egg as the Best for Sharing. It is decorated using a selection of colours to replicate a painter’s palette and although it is sold right across the UK, it is another creation of Lir Chocolates in Navan. Be warned, this is the third year Tesco Finest has scooped one of these awards and the winning egg always sells out fast.

Price: €18.99

EASTER EGG TASTE TEST RESULTS

1 Lily O’Briens (355g – €14.99)

Once again, for the second year running, Lily O’Brien’s comes in first place. The chocolate in the egg itself was much thinner than some of the other contenders, but our tasters loved its light, luxurious flavour.

2 Lindt Lindor (215g – €7.99)

Lindt lost out on first place by just one point, but it was also a real favourite among our tasters. Many commented that the chocolate was smooth and although they didn’t know the identity of the chocolate, they felt it was expensive and very good quality.

3 Cadbury’s Dairy Milk (515g – €12)

Coming in third place was the old favourite, Cadbury’s chocolate. For our testers, this was the egg that was most identifiable, “that taste of childhood” one taster exclaimed. The familiarity of the chocolate definitely earned it points, although it was considered quite sweet.

4 Malteasers (294g – €13.59)

Fourth place goes to the Malteasers Easter egg. The colour put off a few tasters from the start as it didn’t look as rich as the other samples. Although some commented that it had a nice lingering aftertaste, others said it was a bit too bitter for their liking.

5 Aldi Choceur Secrets Easter Egg (350g – €4.99)

This egg definitely looked more substantial than the rest, in the sense that the chocolate was much chunkier than the other samples. However, it wasn’t a big hit with our tasters. They said it was extremely sweet and quite heavy.

6 Marks & Spencer Sculptured Column Egg (265g – €17.99)

We were very surprised that this Marks & Spencer Easter egg, which worked out to be the most expensive, came in last. It was certainly the most impressive looking and with its balls of truffles infused into the egg, we expected it to be a key contender.

The tasters didn’t see all this packaging though. The test was conducted on the chocolate alone and unfortunately the taste didn’t measure up. Most of our tasters said it tasted very different and rich. Perhaps, we’re just creatures of habit when it comes to this annual treat and we appreciate familiar tastes.