First off I hope you all had a nice relaxing Easter weekend, and aren’t feeling too sick now from scoffing too many chocolate Easter Eggs. Today I thought I’d reminisce a little about Easter Eggs past (and present) that have stuck in my mind for one reason or another. So without further ado, let’s get the egg rolling…
Yorkie Egg – I used to love Yorkie chocolate as a child due to it’s seemingly massive chunk size. The current advertising campaign for Yorkie is “Not for Girls”, but the bar as always been advertised in a similar manner. I remember the old TV adverts featuring an array of burly 18 Wheeler Truck drivers, who needed a big bar to keep them satisfied whilst driving their lorry across country.
Stemming from the TV adverts came the idea of packaging the Yorkie Easter Egg as a big truck. The cardboard box was made in the shape of a truck, with the egg being hauled along on the back. Another year they took this a step further and made the cardboard box into a cement mixing lorry, with the egg being the big rotatey mixing chamber on the back.
Cadbury’s Creme Eggs – These were originally launched in 1971, and are still a firm favourite today. To be honest I’m surprised they’ve been around for so long, as I wasn’t around in 1971 yet I seem to remember them being launched when I was little. Obviously not, this fact came from Cadbury’s own website so it must be true.
The Creme Egg is a miracle of chocolate making as far as I’m concerned. Every time I bite into one and see the two colours of fondant (white and yolk) it makes me smile. I remember wishing every year that they would make a big one, the size of one of the more traditional hollow chocolate eggs, but I think it’s probably a good idea that they don’t – it would be quite sickly I’m sure.
Of course these days they’ve spoiled the idea of them a bit. I’m pretty sure that Cadbury’s Creme Eggs never used to be available until around a month or so before Easter, but they are now in the shops on Boxing Day. The trouble here is that by the time Easter comes round you might be buying a Creme Egg that was manufactured a while ago, and the fondant has gone all fluffy inside, which spoils the taste somewhat.
Toblerone Egg – The Toblerone eggs of the 1980’s always seemed to be better value than the other eggs available. Even in the 1980’s the normal chocolate bar branded Easter Egg consisted of a hollow chocolate egg and two chocolate bars. The Toblerone package followed suit, but also had a number of Toblerone mini eggs stashed inside the hollow egg. Yum!
Chocolate Buttons and Smarties Eggs – If you’re Aunts and Uncles gave you an Easter Egg, then chances are it would be one or the other of these. These were the only varieties normally available in a slightly smaller size, which made perfect sense since these particular sweets have always been aimed at the very young. Here the package consisted of a slightly smaller than usual hollow chocolate egg, and inside a small plastic packet of Buttons or Smarties. For some reason the Chocolate Buttons always seemed to come in a translucent brown plastic bag.
Hollow Eggs That Weren’t Stuck Together! – I’m am almost positive that the practice of sticking the two halfs of a hollow chocolate egg started to come in during the 1980’s. This is one of my pet hates and I don’t know why Easter Egg manufacturers do it. It’s always nearly impossible to cleanly separate the two halves, even using a knife, and you end up smashing the egg into splinters and spraying little pieces of chocolate shrapnel everywhere.