01 Apr Into the Melting Pot: A short and sweet history of the Chocolate Egg
As you break into your first Easter egg of 2021, take time to read this bite-size history of the iconic product.
Tweaked by innovation over nearly two-and-a-half centuries, it’s also never strayed too far from its original form.
The 19th Century
Fry’s of Bristol cracked the formula for the first British chocolate Easter egg in 1873. Solid chocolate eggs were already being nibbled by Europe’s elite, but Fry’s was the first to make them hollow.
Rival Cadbury followed two years later with a dark chocolate egg with a smooth shell, filled with sugar-coated chocolate drops, which were called ‘dragees’. In the years that followed, Cadbury led the Easter egg charge, and by 1893 there were 19 different Easter creations coming out of their Birmingham factory.
The 20th Century
Rowntree came a little late to the party, launching its first Easter egg in 1904. Just a year later, the launch in 1905 Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Chocolate changed the Easter egg market forever.
During the 1900s, chocolate eggs became available to the masses. No longer a luxury item for the privileged few. They appeared in a wider range of retail outlets. Just a few years after the end of wartime rationing, Easter eggs became more widely available and this only increased with the advent of supermarkets in the 1960s.
One of the most successful seasonal product launches, Cadbury Crème Egg was invented in all its sticky glory in 1971. Made by filling two hollow sides with fondant and then closing them quickly, Crème Eggs became a phenomenal success. Today, around 200 million of the sticky confections are sold each year, despite only being distributed from January to Easter.
The 21st Century
While Easter eggs may not have appeared to have changed much in the past two decades, it’s actually been a time of important innovation.
The past few years alone has seen confectioners cracking the formula for eggs that those with food intolerances can also enjoy. With dairy, gluten and sugar free options, now everyone can enjoy the Sunday morning bunny bonanza.
Vegetarian and vegan eggs are also key players on the supermarket shelves this year. Between 2015 and 2016 demand doubled and has continued to grow ever since, in line with the explosion in meat-free living.
Another egg-lephant in the room that will no longer be silenced is the questioning of packaging. Easter treats have long been swathed in layers of plastic and foil, but that is fast becoming unacceptable to the conscientious shopper. This year, for example, Waitrose has nearly halved the single-use plastic on all its own brand Easter eggs and confectionery.
For those tucking into an egg this Easter, there is more choice than ever before. It’s worth retailers getting it right – despite our year-round love of chocolate, sales at Easter add up to 10% of the nation’s annual chocolate spend.
Photo by RODNAE Productions from Pexels