One of the best Easter candies is the Cadbury Creme Egg, a classic staple that has been
around for decades.
So what's the story behind them?
Take a look at all of the things you never knew about Cadbury Creme Eggs.
If you're a Cadbury Creme Egg superfan, then you probably already know that Cadbury is
a company based in the United Kingdom, and Cadbury Creme Eggs are extremely popular there.
One reason for that might be because there is actually a difference between the Cadbury
Creme Eggs you find in America, and those you find in the U.K.
The New York Times explains that, for one thing, chocolate made in Britain has a higher
fat content.
The first ingredient in British Cadbury Dairy Milk is milk, but if you look at an American-made
Cadbury bar, the first ingredient is sugar.
Sugar might be sweet and delicious, but it's the milk that's going to give chocolate that
extra creamy taste.
The Times author tasted both bars, and found the British bars were indeed better, writing,
"The British Dairy Milk was slightly fudgier, allowing for a creamier taste and texture.
The American Dairy Milk bar left a less pleasing coating and somewhat of a stale aftertaste."
So does that mean you should stop buying American-made Cadbury eggs and only buy ones made in the
U.K.? Maybe, but unfortunately, you can't do that unless you travel abroad.
The sale of British-made Cadbury Creme Eggs is actually banned in the United States, and
while you're in America, you can only buy American-made Cadbury chocolate.
Disagreements between British Cadbury importers and America's Hershey Company began in 2015.
Basically, Hershey has the rights to the Cadbury Creme Egg recipe and can make their own American
version in the States, and didn't want British importers bringing in the good stuff to compete
with their American version.
The British agreed to stop importing candies that would compete with Hershey's, and sadly,
that included Cadbury Creme Eggs.
So, yes, you can thank Hershey's for the fact that you won't be able to find real, British
Creme Eggs anywhere in the States, along with any other truly authentic Cadbury products.
According to the New York Times, it didn't go over well with fans of the tried-and-true
originals.
Have you ever wondered what, exactly, the creme inside even is?
The white and yellow mix, so carefully put together to look like the white and yolk of
an actual egg, almost doesn't look natural.
That's because it kind of isn't.
According to Huffington Post, it's just liquid fondant, and that's the stuff used to make
really cool designs on cakes and other baked goods.
It's also the same liquidy goodness you'll see on the inside of chocolate-covered cherry
cordials.
Fondant is typically made with only three ingredients: water, granulated sugar, and
corn syrup, but for Cadbury Creme Eggs, it's also dyed with food coloring to look like
the inside of an egg.
So, yes, when you eat a Cadbury Creme Egg, you are essentially just eating a chocolate
shell filled with liquid sugar.
Healthy?
No.
Delicious?
Yes!
"I think tonight's gonna be my night!”
If you've ever studied the inside of a Cadbury Creme Egg, you'll know that they look pretty
cool: the mix of white and yellow creme inside really does resemble an actual egg.
So how do they put these together?
It's more complicated than just filling two pieces of hollow chocolate with creme.
The Daily Mail spoke to Cadbury executive Tony Bilsborough, who said,
"The process of making the creme egg was a Eureka moment and is not done in the way that
most Easter eggs are formed."
Basically, here's how it goes down: Liquid milk chocolate is poured into a half egg shape
where it is then leveled.
Immediately afterwards, a blob of white fondant goes on the still-melted chocolate, and then
a smaller blob of orange fondant is added to that.
The other side of the egg is just chocolate and white fondant.
While both sides are still liquid and melted, they get molded together.
Even though the inner filling and outside shell are all liquid at the same time, they
don't mix together because the fondant is more dense than the chocolate... or is it
Easter magic?
The year 2015 wasn't just the year that Hershey forced British Cadbury candy out of the United
States, it was also the year one company made a major change to their recipe that sent fans
reeling.
In the U.K., the Sun reported that the company's owner, Kraft Foods, quietly changed the recipe
for Cadbury Creme Eggs.
They stopped using Cadbury's dairy milk for the outer shell and started using something
described as a "standard cocoa mix chocolate."
Insane, right?
A spokesman for Mondelez, Kraft's confectionary division, told the Sun,
"It's no longer dairy milk.
It's similar, but not exactly dairy milk.
We tested the new one with consumers.
It was found to be the best one for the Creme Egg, which is why we've used it this year."
The switch was just adding insult to injury, because the company had already changed standard
boxes of six Cadbury Creme Eggs to five-packs without lowering the price.
Combine the two, and they had extremely angry fans on their hands.
The backlash was real, and some even started a Change.org petition to switch back to the
old recipe.
While loyal fans condemned the new, not-so-smooth texture of the remodeled eggs, Mondelez continued
to defend their decision in a not-so-diplomatic way, pointing out:
"The Creme Egg has never been called the Cadbury's Dairy Milk Creme Egg."
Anger about the change to the U.K. Cadbury Creme Egg recipe was heard around the world,
as furious fans took to social media to announce their disapproval.
But it was also seen in profit.
The Independent reported that after the change in the recipe went public, Cadbury's Easter
eggs sales fell by over $13 million, with Creme Eggs accounting for nearly $8 million
of that loss.
Still, one spokesperson for Cadbury, Claire Low, insisted that the recipe change was not
the reason sales dropped.
Low told the Independent that they were attributing their losses to the fact that the Easter season
was shorter, saying,
"It was two weeks shorter in 2015 than 2014 so it's hard to compare like for like."
Sound unlikely?
The Telegraph thought so, publishing an article shortly afterwards and saying the recipe change
was one of the reasons Cadbury had fallen out of many Easter baskets.
Cadbury as a company is very successful, and they owe a lot of that to Cadbury Creme Eggs.
According to Cadbury World, the U.K. company makes approximately 500 million Cadbury Creme
Eggs each year, more than one million every day, and they export over a third of them.
And no, none of those are coming to the U.S.
With that many Creme Eggs being made, that means that there are roughly enough candy
eggs for every person in Britain to enjoy three and a half Cadbury Creme Eggs each year,
according to the company itself.
So how many eggs is 500 million, exactly?
Laid end to end, Cadbury says it's enough eggs to stretch from Cadbury's hometown of
Bournville, England to Sydney, Australia.
That's a lot of Creme Eggs!
It should come as no surprise to anyone that Cadbury Creme Eggs are not good for you by
any stretch of the imagination, but it's pretty shocking when you look at just how unhealthy
they are.
The ingredients include milk chocolate, sugar, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, artificial
color, artificial flavor, calcium chloride, and a small amount of egg whites.
Sugar, corn syrup, and high fructose corn syrup are all the same thing, basically: sugar.
So, yes, you're eating a lot of sugar in one little egg.
Look at it this way.
The American Heart Association suggests limiting your daily sugar intake to just 25 grams for
women and 36 grams for men.
That little Cadbury Creme Egg contains a whopping 26 grams of sugar, so there's your daily sugar.
Still not convinced?
If you eat three of the eggs in one day, you'll be ingesting the amount of sugar a physician
would use during an oral glucose tolerance test to determine if you have diabetes.
There's a little bit of irony here, too.
Cadbury's was founded by John Cadbury in 1824, and he built the company based on his family's
Quaker principles.
Alcohol was seen as one of the world's evils, and Cadbury offered tea and coffee along with
his chocolate, and it was meant to be a healthier, more socially responsible alternative to booze.
The real, authentic Cadbury Creme Eggs are a seasonal treat, and are only meant to be
sold during part of the year: the Easter season.
Because the Creme Egg is so popular and beloved, it's easy to wonder why Cadbury wouldn't want
to capitalize on that as much as possible.
"These eggs show up in January like newly signed gym memberships or movie theaters full
of films that will never win Oscars.
But why?"
Cadbury's Tony Bilborough told BBC Radio 5 live's Breakfast that although the company
had once tried year-long sales, it hadn't worked out like they had hoped.
He explained,
"There's something special about Creme Egg season […] We long for it in those long,
eggless days of summer and autumn."
In short, part of the Creme Egg's success is made, in part, by the fact we just can't
get one all the time.
But you may have noticed that you sometimes see Cadbury Creme Eggs available during other
times of the year, like the limited edition Halloween "Screme" Egg.
Cadbury Creme Eggs being sold outside of that pocket of time between the Christmas holidays
and Easter are likely just the American version of the candy.
Doesn't sound so bad to be enjoying the copycat version now, does it?
When it comes to eating Cadbury Creme Eggs, people don't just unwrap them and take a bite.
There are actually tons of creative and interesting ways you can enjoy a Cadbury Creme Egg, and
one notable and innovative way to eat them is referred to as the "eggspresso."
Love Cadbury Eggs?
Love coffee?
If you answered yes to both questions, you'll need to try the eggpresso.
It's essentially an espresso poured into a hollow chocolate Cadbury egg, and when the
hot coffee hits the egg, the chocolate melts and mixes with the espresso to become almost
like a little latte.
The eggspresso trend started in Australia and New Zealand, and took off on social media.
It just goes to show that sometimes, social media can be used for good.
If you were wondering just how popular Cadbury actually is in the U.K, here's your answer:
there is a Cadbury World you can go to, like the British version of Hershey Park or Disney
World.
It's basically a theme park focused on all things Cadbury, and there is so much to do
there aside from just eating chocolate, although you'll do plenty of that.
Some activities include getting the full Chocolatier Experience, where you can learn everything
you need to know about how to make chocolate.
You can have afternoon tea at the Cadbury Cafe, where you can enjoy exclusive recipes,
and then go shopping at the world's biggest Cadbury shop, where you'll definitely get
your chocolate fix.
There are also lots of exhibits and events where you can learn more about the history
of Cadbury and chocolate as a whole, and 3D experiences, like a virtual ride on a rollercoaster.
Jealous yet?
That's not the only Creme Egg-themed paradise that's popped up.
In 2016, a massive Creme Egg cafe showed up on the street of London's Soho.
It featured traditional menu items like toasties and tray bakes all with a Creme Egg twist,
and Dublin's d one them one better.
Their Creme Egg cafe is much, much more regular; it's reappeared for several years, and it's
just as delicious.
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