The views expressed in this Opinion article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Narcity Media.
The shelves at grocery stores in Canada are currently filled with fun Easter treats, and so I decided to pit some of the classic Easter egg candies against each other to find out which of them is the ultimate holiday snack.
I love chocolate and I've done a few taste tests on milk chocolate, dark chocolate and even Quality Street treats in the past, so I was excited to see what Easter sweets would be like.
For this test, I picked up treats at my local No Frills in the west end of Toronto and I opted for various forms of mini eggs. For scoring, I'll give each candy a rating out of five in terms of how likely I am to buy it again, and more than one item has been put firmly on the list of "do not repurchase."
Hershey Eggies
Hershey Eggies.
Hershey's Eggies are the main competitor to Cadbury Mini Eggs and it's been a minute since I've had them.
At No Frills, I found a bag of assorted Hershey's Eggies that had the original candies as well as Whooper and Reese's options, which I brought home and separated so I could rank each of them individually.
For the Hershey's Eggies originals, I was not impressed. The chocolate is very weird tasting, the candy shell is just a little bit too hard on the teeth and it left a weird, unpleasant aftertaste in my mouth that didn't dissipate even after I had some water.
These candies are a no for me.
Rating: 1/5
Nestle Assorted Hide Me Eggs
Nestle Assorted Hide Me Eggs.
I was intrigued by the variety of mini eggs that came in the assorted bag from Nestle: Smarties, Kit Kat, Aero, Coffee Crisp and Rolo, but most of them are a miss.
The eggs themselves are quite hard to bite into, even though they don't have a candy shell, and the chocolate is pretty mediocre. While the Rolo and Smartie egg are on the "meh" side, the Kit Kat egg tastes like the stalest leftovers from Halloween, the Aero is much too sweet and the Coffee Crisp has the most aggressive coffee flavour I think I've ever encountered outside of a cup of coffee, and not in a good way.
That being said, I think kids would be into it, but for adults, it's not a great experience.
Rating: 2/5
Hershey's Reese Eggies
Hershey's Reese Eggies.
Also a part of the Hershey's variety pack are these Reese's treats.
I absolutely love the combination of peanut butter and chocolate so I was keen on trying these... but it turns out they're just peanut butter, which I was surprised by.
I'm not necessarily mad at a candy shell containing peanut butter — it just threw me for a loop that there was no chocolate involved in this egg, hence it's lower rating.
Rating: 2.5
Lindor Mini Eggs
Lindor Mini Eggs.
These Lindor Mini Eggs are certainly familiar in taste, but they are just a touch too sweet. I enjoyed that the inside had the softness that's signature to Lindor as all of the other chocolates up until this point were quite hard and I found myself enjoying the texture of this treat more than the others.
I don't think these are anything super special, but you know what you're getting into with these and no one would be mad if they were gifted a baggie of these for the holiday.
Rating: 3/5
Hershey's Whoopers Eggies
Hershey's Whoopers Eggies.
Hershey's Whoopers Eggies were a total surprise to me as I had no idea what malted chocolate was before trying these little treats.
The texture inside of these are super fun: crunchy, a little crumbly and just totally different than anything else on this list.
That being said, they're not very chocolate forward, and while I did enjoy the malted flavour, I think that having more than a handful of these would make you feel a bit ill — but I'd still reach for a few more!
Rating: 3.5
Kinder Mini Eggs
Kinder Mini Eggs.
I don't often get to eat hazelnut products since my partner has an allergy to those nuts, so these Kinder Mini Eggs were a fun little treat for me.
It has the milk and white chocolate shell typical of Kinder, which is delicious, and the soft hazelnut filling has little flecks of something crunchy that I assume is bits of nut.
Overall, the taste is great and the texture is super pleasing.
Rating: 4.5/5
Cadbury Mini Eggs
Cadbury Mini Eggs.
And in undisputed first place, I'm giving it to Cadbury Mini Eggs. I went into this taste test already knowing that I like these treats and so I made sure to try these last in order to give everything else a chance first.
As it turns out, Cadbury just reigns supreme and absolutely blew the rest of the competition out of the way.
Unlike the Hershey's candies, the candy shell of Cadbury has a nice, thin, crispy shell that isn't hard to bite through and the crunch adds a fun snappiness to the chocolate. The chocolate itself is pleasant and not as overly sweet as the Lindor options.
Everything about this treat is dleightful, and it's the bag that my partner and I polished off first — and I'll absolutely be buying another bag before these disappear for the season.
Rating: 5/5
While you're stocking up on Easter candy, you might want to pick up a bar or two of dark and milk chocolate to keep on hand to soothe any cravings for sweets that may arise.
If you're trying to stick to a budget, buying store brand items is always a good idea, but not all house brand chocolate bars are created equal.
For both types of chocolate, I rated Metro's Irresistible bars above the store brands found at Walmart, No Frills and FreshCo, so that might be something to keep in mind while making your selection at the store!
Happy snacking, folks!