Americans give the UK a bad rap for their food, but honestly, we should be thanking them. The Brits have given the world the culinary traditions of afternoon tea and Sunday roast, not to mention lots of sweet and savory (or should I say savoury?) pies and tarts. And of course, let’s not forget the Great British Bake Off. But the greatest British food export of them all is Easter eggs.
What Are They?
British Easter eggs are hollow milk chocolate shells wrapped in foil and packaged with the coordinating chocolate bar, from the chocolate malt ball Malteasers to the honeycomb Crunchie bar to the plain milk chocolate buttons. Cracking open the egg and breaking off pieces of the shell is a quintessential Easter activity, and there’s an Easter egg for everyone, because there are dozens of varieties and sizes.
The best Easter eggs are from the brands Cadbury, where you can choose from Dairy Milk, Flake, Buttons, Roses, Crunchie or Twirl, and Mars. The highlights include Malteasers, Galaxy, Minstrels and Celebrations.
British is Best (when it comes to accents and chocolate)
You may be thinking, okay, chocolate is great, but what makes these different from an American chocolate Easter eggs other than shape? Please, if you have never tried British chocolate before, haul yourself over to the international section of your grocery store and buy yourself a bar of plain Dairy Milk or Galaxy, and be ready to feel cheated that Hershey is allowed to sell its waxy bars under the label chocolate. Make sure, if you choose a Cadbury bar, to check the label! Confusingly, Hershey has the rights to manufacture the Cadbury sold in the US, but trust me, it’s an inferior product. Imported Cadbury is much, much better.
Even this mass-produced chocolate sold in grocery stores and newsagents all over Britain and Ireland is delicious. It’s much creamier than American candy bars and has many more variations than any American candy bar. Try a Curly Wurly, a Crunchie, even a British Kit-Kat. You cannot go wrong (unless you pick a fruit-and-nut Dairy Milk Bar).
(Look, the family Easter bunny gave me a sneak peek at some of the eggs arriving in our baskets on Sunday!)
So You Think You Want an Authentic Easter Egg…
If you want to get your hands on an Easter egg, it’s not too late. If you live in an area with lots of Irish or British people, your local grocery store probably has a section that’s bursting with across-the-pond junk food and marked-up Easter eggs. Tea and Sympathy and Myers of Keswick are two British expat-run shops in NYC (coincidentally both in the West Village) that carry Easter eggs this time of year. Of course, Amazon and many other online specialty stores sell them too. If all else fails, make friends with someone who has Irish or English family in preparation for next Easter, and make sure they can bring you back some delicious Easter treats.
America can keep its sickly Peeps and jelly beans. Give me all the Cadbury eggs. Well, not the sickly sweet creme eggs. Britain can keep those.