Moneywise puts its chocolate tasting eggs-pertise to the test with a bumper 17 eggs from nine supermarkets to egg-valuate
How we scored the test
Brits are set to splash out £24.41 each on chocolates, gifts and entertainment this Easter, according to research from price comparison site Finder.com. As a nation, this equates to spending a combined total of £892.6 million on Easter-centric festivities.
As such, Moneywise thought it was only right to get cracking on our own test to find out the most egg-cellant eggs on the market.
Putting the deft tasting skills of 14 staff from Moneywise and Money Observer (our sister magazine) into use, we scored each egg between one and 10 for looks, and between one and 10 for taste – with 10 being the best score in both cases.
Looks were judged based on suitability for a gift, presentation and novelty. Taste was judged on the basis of flavour, consistency and sweetness.
Nine supermarkets – Aldi, Asda, Co-op, Iceland, Lidl, M&S, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and Waitrose –submitted an own-brand egg in our £5 and under category.
While all of the supermarkets listed above, bar Sainsbury’s, submitted an own-brand egg in our £5 and over category. Sainsbury’s instead sent us its exclusive Godiva egg.
£5 and under: The winner revealed
The winner of the more affordable price category was the Iceland Luxury Milk & Dark Chocolate Egg With Bronzed Chocolate Malted Decorations (pictured above). The egg scored highly for taste, coming first, and achieved third place based on looks alone. However, the price was at the top end of this category coming in at £5 and weighing 240g. The egg’s caramel flavouring was unanimously popular, as were the embedded crunchy biscuit balls.
A notable performer in this category was the Aldi Fairtrade Moser Roth Single Origin Easter Egg. It scored well for taste, coming in second place, but it came middle of the road for looks, despite a fetching edible mural of an elephant. The egg would have perhaps performed better if it was a whole egg, with some tasters commenting that they were disappointed you only got half an egg.
Coming in last place was Sainsbury’s Easter Bunny Family. Tasters commented that the inclusion of a pack of Easter bunnies instead of eggs worked against its looks score. The flavour, however, scored bottom too. But the Easter Bunny Family was the cheapest in this category at £2.50, which perhaps reflects in its score.
| £5 and under | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall ranking | Retailer and egg | Price | Weight | Ranking on looks alone | Ranking on taste alone |
| 1 | Iceland's Luxury Milk Chocolate Egg With Bronzed Chocolate Malted Decorations | £5 | 240g | 3 | 1 |
| 2 | Co-op Milk Chocolate Salted Caramel Brownie Egg | £5 | 200g | 1 | 4 |
| 3 | Aldi Fairtrade Moser Roth Single Origin Easter Egg | £4.99 | 180g | 4 | 2 |
| 4 | Asda Smash Egg | £5 | 330g | 6 | 3 |
| 5 | M&S Chocolate Button Egg | £4 | 180g | 2 | 6 |
| 6 | Lidl Deluxe Cornish Fudge Easter Egg | £3.49 | 200g | 5 | 5 |
| 7 | Tesco Rainbow the Unicorn | £3.50 | 200g | 7 | 7 |
| 8 | Sainsbury's Easter Bunny Family | £2.50 | 184g | 8 | 8 |
Over £5: The top spot goes to…
The winner of the premium eggs category was the Aldi Specially Selected Exquisite Imperial Egg weighing in at £8.99 and 265g. This egg truly had a premium look and feel to the packaging garnering a very strong score for looks. Controversially however, it came only seventh for taste.
The outstanding performer for taste was the Tesco Finest Caramelized [sic] Hazelnut Egg costing £8 and weighing 240g. While it ranked poorly for looks, this is the one you’ll want to gorge on with its delightful caramelised hazelnut flavour.
Second place went to the Asda Extra Special Belgian Milk Chocolate & Salted Caramel Easter Egg costing £7 and weighing 290g. This egg scored highly in terms of looks and taste.
Bottom of the premium egg pile was a gargantuan entrant from Lidl – its Deluxe Dusk Falls Hand Decorated Easter Egg by Our Master Chocolatiers weighed in at a scale-busting 600g for a cost of £9.99. If you have a crowd of egg-craving kids, this egg-cellent value for money egg might be the one for you, weighing more than double other similarly-priced eggs in this category. But don’t count on tasty chocolate as this egg came last for taste.
| Over £5 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall ranking | Retailer and egg | Price | Weight | Ranking on looks alone | Ranking on taste alone |
| 1 | Aldi Specially Selected Exquisite Imperial Egg | £8.99 | 265g | 1 | 7 |
| 2 | Asda Extra Special Belgian Milk Chocolate & Salted Caramel Easter Egg | £7 | 290g | 3 | 2 |
| 3 | Co-op Irresistible Single Origin Ecuadorian Milk Chocolate Gem, with rich Cornish sea salted caramel truffles | £7 | 300g | 2 | 4 |
| 4 | Tesco Finest Caramelized [sic] Hazelnut Egg | £8 | 240g | 7 | 1 |
| 5 | Sainsbury's Exclusive Godiva Belgian Chocolate Egg - A decadent Belgian milk chocolate egg with 13 delicious gold wrapped mini white chocolate & praline filled eggs | £14 | 255g | 4 | 3 |
| 6 | Waitrose Dark Chocolate Avocado Easter Egg | £8 | 250g | 5 | 6 |
| 7 | Iceland's Smooth Milk Chocolate Egg With Sparkling Bronze Lustre With Prosecco Truffles | £12 | 440g | 8 | 5 |
| 8 | M&S Single Origin Dark Chocolate Cocoa Pod, Hand Decorated | £10 | 180g | 6 | 8 |
| 9 | Lidl Deluxe Dusk Falls Hand Decorated Easter Egg by Our Master Chocolatiers | £9.99 | 600g | 9 | 9 |
Trends for 2018: Prices on the rise
Comparing this year’s haul of eggs to last year’s, one trend emerges – prices are on the rise. The supermarkets invited to participate this year all sent higher value premium eggs compared to last year’s test. In last year’s test, our categories were under £2 and between £2-£8. This time round, the cheapest product offered was £2.50, while the most expensive rose to a punchy £14. Both of those were from Sainsbury’s.
What’s also interesting, is that 2017 was the year in which the phenomenon of “shrinkflation” came to the fore. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), 2,529 different consumer products decreased in size and weight between 2012 and 2017. This means that while you don’t pay a higher price, you receive less for your money.
Chocolate manufacturers, such as Mondelez, have admitted to cutting the size of their products – in its case, Terry’s Chocolate Oranges and Toblerone.
Maike Currie, investment director for personal investing at Fidelity International comments: “Inflation is returning to the system. If a treat gets smaller but the price stays the same that’s ultimately a form of inflation because you’re paying more for each bite. A few factors could be at play here - the pound falling in the wake of the Brexit vote pushed up the cost of imported products and manufacturers have to cover the costs.
“In the case of chocolate, it’s also worth noting that because of climate change the price of cocoa has shot up. In countries like the Ivory Coast and Ghana which produce more than half of the world’s chocolate, rising temperatures are threatening the world’s chocolate-growing areas. Some even worry that chocolate could be ‘extinct’ in a few years.
“This is bad news for consumers who face paltry wage growth, rising prices and shrinking products.”
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