How Do You Eat Yours? 5 Facts About Cadbury Creme Eggs

Springtime for some is all about spring showers, cool mornings and warm afternoons. For others, it’s about Easter, and celebrating it with family.

For die-hard chocolate fans, it’s a time for egg hunting. Specifically, chocolate eggs.

For hundreds of years the tradition of hiding eggs for children has been practiced all over the western world.

It wasn’t until relatively recently, in the late 19^th Century, that Easter eggs started to be made out of Chocolate.

One company was at the forefront of this bold new venture, and they would come to be known as Cadbury.

There is one Cadbury chocolate egg that in particular that has captivated the hearts of kids around the world, and that egg is the Cadbury Creme egg.

So what’s so special about this humble egg? Let’s take a closer look at the delicious details!

Creme eggs weren’t always made by Cadbury.

The first chocolate eggs to appear on the market were produced by a company called J.S. Fry of Bristol in 1873.

In 1919, they merged with Cadbury but their brands were kept separate.

Cadbury produced their products such as Cadbury Dairy Milk under their name, and Fry’s kept selling their products under their name.

It wasn’t until 1963 that Fry’s released what we know today to be the Cadbury Creme Egg.

Initially branded as the Fry’s Creme Egg, it wasn’t until 1971 when the brands were completely merged that it came under Cadbury’s brand, and became known as the Cadbury Creme Egg.

Cadbury Creme Eggs are the most famous Easter eggs in the UK.

A leading market research group called Yougov found that while Cadbury Creme Eggs are only the 48^th most popular confectionery in general, they were the most famous in the UK.

The eggs were so famous in fact, that in 2019 Yougov surveyed 3,584 adults from the UK and asked them how they eat their Cadbury Creme Eggs.

5% of those surveyed said they eat it all in one go, while the majority said they eat their eggs in several bites.

A surprising 28% of people surveyed said they like to bite the tops off their eggs and eat the gooey insides with their tongues before finishing off the chocolate shell!

Cadbury Creme Eggs are one of the UK’s best-selling confectioneries.

Cadbury Creme Eggs are only sold in the UK during a very specific period of the year, from New Year’s Day until Easter. This wasn’t always the case though.

For a short period of time in the 1980’s the eggs were sold year-round, but due to a lack of demand their availability was reduced to the current months.

While the eggs are only on supermarket shelves for such a short period of the year, they sure are popular!

They’re the best selling confectionery in the UK between the 1^st of January and Easter, with more than 200 million eggs selling every year!

If you think that’s crazy, get this – annually there are more than 500 million produced worldwide!

No, you’re not just imagining it – Cadbury Creme Eggs have changed!

If you’re wondering why you just don’t like the eggs as much as you used to, wonder no more.

Back in 2015 the British Cadbury Company announced that they were making some changes to the eggs.

The chocolate in Cadbury Creme Eggs was originally the company’s trademark Cadbury Dairy Milk, but in 2015 the formula was changed and they started using standard cocoa mix for their chocolate.

To add insult to injury, Cadbury also reduced the number of Creme Eggs in a packet from 6 down to 5.

This was met with about as much public outrage as you would expect. As a result, analysts said that Cadbury had potentially lost at least $12 million USD worth of sales!

Cadbury Creme Eggs produced in the US are quite different to UK eggs.

Until 1988, all Cadbury Creme Eggs were made equal, and the world was in a good place.

On that fateful year though, The Hershey Company acquired the rights to manufacture Cadbury products in the US.

From 1988 onwards, all Cadbury products in the US, including the famous Creme Egg, were made to a slightly different recipe.

If you take a close look at the packaging, you can notice it straight away in the ingredients section.

In products made in the UK, the first ingredient listed is milk.

In US-made products, the first ingredient is sugar.

This difference really is noticeable, too – the majority of consumers who try eggs produced in both countries say the UK egg is far superior!

Although Cadbury Creme Eggs have undergone a number of changes over the years, they still remain one of the most popular Easter eggs available.

Is it thanks to incredibly catchy marketing by the Cadbury Company, such as the 2007 TV advertisement with a gorilla drumming to Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight”?