It's no secret that the team at MyVoucherCodes love a bit of chocolate. With this in mind, we were more than happy to egg-experiment on ten of the most popular Easter eggs to find out which egg gives you more chocolate for your money compared to packaging – and can reveal that Cadbury Crunchie comes out on top.
Our Top Findings
- Cadbury’s Crunchie offers more chocolate for your money
- Maltesers Teasers offers the least chocolate for money
- Shoppers spend more than 50p on packaging on £3 Easter eggs
How much chocolate do you get for your money?
We happily cracked open eggs from four major confectioners, namely Cadbury, Nestle, Mars and Terry’s, to find out how much chocolate you actually get compared to packaging when it comes to medium sized Easter eggs.
Although packaged in smaller boxes, two of Cadbury’s £3 Easter eggs came out on top, with the Crunchie egg offering 81.24% of chocolate and 18.76% of packaging – costing you 56pence in cardboard packaging.
While the Cadbury Crème Egg offered slightly less chocolate at 81.14% and 18.86% packaging – with the consumer paying 57 pence for the cardboard packaging.
The egg with the least amount of chocolate when compared with packaging was Mars’ Maltesers Teaser £3 egg, which offered 73.9% of chocolate and 26.1% of packaging – which means you are paying 78 pence for the cardboard packaging.
How the Easter Eggs ranked from most to least chocolate
| Biggest Percentage of Chocolate | Percentage of Chocolate | Percentage of Packaging | Cost of Packaging |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cadbury Crunchie | 81.24% | 18.76% | 56p |
| Cadbury Creme Egg | 81.14% | 18.86% | 57p |
| Terry's Chocolate Orange | 80.6% | 19.4% | 58p |
| Cadbury Wispa | 80% | 20% | 60p |
| Celebrations | 78.1% | 21.9% | 66p |
| Smarties | 75.97% | 24.03 | 72p |
| Peppermint Aero | 75.89% | 24.11% | 72p |
| Galaxy Minstrels | 75.61% | 24.39% | 73p |
| KitKat Chunky | 75.30% | 24.7% | 74p |
| Maltesers Teasers | 73.9% | 26.1% | 78p |
How much waste do Easter Eggs produce?
It’s estimated that around 80 to 90** million Easter eggs are sold in the UK every year, creating more than 8000 tonnes of waste. So, in the interests of saving money and working out which egg provides the most chocolate for our money, our researchers got cracking, unpacking and weighing ten £3 Easter eggs.
What is interesting is that shelf appeal might sway people to buy the bigger packaged eggs, such as the Malteser or Minstrels egg, as when you look at them on the shelf you would think you are getting more product for your money. Yet, when we worked out how much chocolate you were getting compared with packaging, you can see that they often come at the bottom of our chocolate chart.
What is clear from our research is that cardboard packaging forms a large part of an Easter egg, whether it be by weight or by cost, especially when you consider that even for the most chocolatey of our £3 eggs, you are still paying 56 pence of that £3 for the cardboard it is packed in.
For many we realise that a percentage point more of chocolate here or there might not make a difference to which egg you buy this Easter, but what it does show is that bigger definitely doesn’t mean more value for money when it comes to Easter eggs. Also, that you are throwing away, or hopefully recycling, more than 50 pence in packaging, as soon as you open an Easter egg – so maybe consider a packaging free egg this easter, to save money and the environment
*Methodology: On March 21st 2024, MyVoucherCodes bought ten £3 Easter eggs from Tesco from four confectionary brands. It weighed the eggs as sold on the shelf, then measured the boxes, weighed the chocolate egg and chocolate included in its wrapping, and then weighed the cardboard boxes. It then compared the weight ratio of chocolate and wrapping with cardboard packaging to work out which Easter egg had the most chocolate compared with cardboard packaging. **www.gwp.co.uk
