Why ARE we shelling out so much for Easter eggs? Thanks to soaring production costs they’re selling for up to £25 this year – but which one is best value for money?
Ah, Easter: a time for gorging on hot cross buns, roasting a leg of lamb and – if you’re planning on buying any supermarket chocolate eggs – taking out a second mortgage.
Egg-flation is rampant, with some seasonal treats costing almost 50 per cent more than they did last year.
Not only that, but the size of the eggs inside those brightly coloured boxes is shrinking, so you’re paying more per gram of chocolate.
The average cost of an Easter egg is now £3.27, up 9 per cent on last year, and some are priced as high as £14 per 100g.
A combination of high cocoa prices nine months ago when manufacturers were planning their stock, spiralling electricity costs and a hefty transportation bill to cover the eggs’ bulky packaging has led to the spike.
So which Easter eggs comprise more cardboard than chocolate? SARAH RAINEY calculates the worst offenders to avoid putting in your trolley this weekend…
Pictured: Sarah Rainey tries a range adult Easter eggs
LUXURY ADULT EGGS
Toblerone The Edgy
Egg Extra Large Milk Chocolate Easter Egg
Price: £15.50 for 286g.
Contains: One hollow milk chocolate egg containing honey and almond nougat pieces, with four miniature wrapped Toblerone chocolates.
With its eye-catching triangular box, this egg has been around since 2023 (when it cost just £12). It’s also shrunk in size since last year, when it weighed 298g.
Cost per 100g: £5.42
Lindt XL Milk Chocolate Egg with Lindor Milk Truffles
Price: £22 for 348g chocolate.
Contains: One extra-large hollow Swiss chocolate egg, plus 15 melt-in-the-middle truffles.
Once an affordable take on premium chocolate, Lindt & Sprungli hiked prices by 19 per cent last year, passing on higher cocoa costs to customers. Its milk chocolate egg contains just 30 per cent cocoa solids, as well as cocoa butter, sugar, milk powder, emulsifier and flavouring.
Cost per 100g: £6.32
M&S Collection Single
Origin Dark Chocolate Egg
Price: £12 for 200g chocolate.
CONTAINS: A single, hollow dark chocolate egg on its own.
Made from 85 per cent cocoa, using responsibly-sourced cocoa mass, this is intense chocolate. It’s one of the cheaper options at M&S, where own-brand treats range up to £20 for a 485g egg.
Cost per 100g: £6
Ferrero Rocher Golden Milk Chocolate and Hazelnut Egg
Price: £24.99 for 175g.
Contains: A hollow milk chocolate egg dotted with crunchy hazelnut pieces, plus six Ferrero Rocher chocolates.
Sold at Selfridges, this egg seems extortionate (you’ll find it reduced at Waitrose and Sainsbury’s). The Italian chocolate is 42 per cent cocoa solids, but the Ferrero Rochers themselves contain palm oil, making them a controversial choice. You can also buy a box of 16 for just £7.
Cost per 100g: £14.28
NOVELTY KIDS’ EGGS
Smarties Dinosaur Milk Chocolate Easter Egg
PRICE: £7 for 226g.
CONTAINS: A chocolate egg and two tubes of Smarties.
Adding the dinosaur theme seems a clever marketing move to increase the price. Even better value is a regular Smarties egg, weighing 188g and containing one tube of sweets, which costs just £3.50 at Waitrose.
Pictured: Smarties Dinosaur Milk Chocolate Easter Egg
Cost per 100g: £3.10
M&Ms Milk Chocolate and Peanut
Extra-Large Egg
PRICE: £7 for 210g.
CONTAINS: One hollow milk chocolate egg, plus two 45g bags of M&Ms
chocolates – one peanut and one plain.
Part of the Mars Wrigley group, M&Ms have been increasing in price since last Easter and this ‘extra-large’ egg is anything but: the wrapped chocolate egg inside is far smaller than the brightly coloured box suggests.
Cost per 100g: £3.33
Pictured: M&Ms Milk Chocolate and Peanut
Rowntree’s Randoms Incredible Easter Egg
PRICE: £14 for 380g
CONTAINS: A hollow milk chocolate egg studded with fruit-flavoured jellies and
marshmallows, as well as a sharing bag of Rowntree’s Randoms jelly sweets.
The egg is so packed full of sweets that the packaging warns a serving comprises just one-fifteenth chocolate. It’s a
pricey option: a 150g bag of the sweets on their own costs £1.10 from Morrisons.
Cost per 100g: £3.68
Kinder Surprise Giant Easter Egg
PRICE: £17.85 for 220g.
CONTAINS: One large milk chocolate Kinder egg, containing a plastic egg
which itself includes the pieces of a toy Harry Potter figurine to build yourself.
The Italian manufacturer specialises in milk-heavy chocolate with a thin shell.
This egg contains just 32 per cent cocoa solids and high concentrations of milk powder, butter and vanilla flavouring. With a three-pack of the 20g surprise eggs costing just £1.30 at Ocado, the price is heavily inflated.
Cost per 100g: £8.11
SEASONAL SHAPES
Kinder Milk Chocolate Easter Mini Figures
PRICE: £3.45 for 90g.
CONTAINS: Six 15g hollow shapes made from Kinder milk chocolate, with foil wrapping to resemble spring farm animals.
Described as ‘a perfect basket-filler for your little ones,’ this Easter selection is still heavy on packaging and light on chocolate.
Cost per 100g: £3.83
M&S Charlie the Chick
PRICE: £2 for 30g.
CONTAINS: A novelty Easter chick made from Belgian milk chocolate.
This hollow chick has been part of M&S’s Easter offering for a decade. The chocolate contains 31 per cent cocoa solids and is made with sugar, milk, cocoa butter, vanilla flavouring and paprika extract (to give that bright orange hue to the beak).
Pictured: M&S Charlie the Chick
Cost per 100g: 6.67
Hotel Chocolat Milk Chocolate Big City Easter Bunny
PRICE: £11.95 for 150g.
CONTAINS: A large, hollow bunny-shaped chocolate – no bars or gimmicks included.
Made from Hotel Chocolat’s responsibly-sourced cocoa beans, this bunny contains 40 per cent cocoa solids.
It comes in a transparent tube so you can see what you’re getting. But it’s not a bargain; the retailer is among those accused of increasing prices while shrinking its chocolate.
Pictured: Hotel Chocolat Milk Chocolate Big City Easter Bunny
Cost per 100g: £7.97
Miniature Lindt Gold Bunny
PRICE: 85p for 10g.
CONTAINS: One wrapped bunny, made from Swiss milk chocolate.
The iconic treat has been around since 1952, with a staggering 150million churned out every year. But prices have spiralled.
A 100g bunny now costs £5, a 200g bunny £8.50 and the huge 1kg version will set you back £75. But this tiny version, weighing just 10g, is by far the most expensive per bite.
Pictured: Miniature Lindt Gold Bunny
Cost per 100g: £8.50
TREAT BAGS & BOXES
Cadbury Crème Eggs Multipack
PRICE: £4.25 for 200g
CONTAINS: Five foil-wrapped chocolate eggs, filled with a gooey fondant.
An Easter tradition since 1963, the size and price of the eggs has been hotly debated. In 2015, Cadbury caused chaos by reducing the number of eggs in a multipack from six to five, with only a minimal decrease in price.
Pictured: Cadbury Crème Eggs Multipack
Cost per 100g: £2.13
Maltesers Milk Chocolate Mini Bunnies
PRICE: £2.30 for 59g.
CONTAINS: Five Maltesers bunnies.
The bunnies also come in a bigger size, which is either sold individually (80p for one 29g bunny) or in packs of five (£3.50). But the bag of these miniature ones is disappointing: most of the contents is plastic packaging.
Cost per 100g: £3.90
Pictured: Maltesers Milk Chocolate Mini Bunnies
Cadbury Mini Eggs
PRICE: £2 for 74g.
CONTAINS: About 23 milk chocolate eggs with a crispy shell coating.
The treats are so popular, shoppers have clamoured for them to be sold all year. But this year they’ve been hit by both shrinkflation (pack sizes have shrunk from 80g in 2025 to just 74g) and price rises, with a 105 per cent increase on pre-Covid prices.
You can now buy a family-sized bag (£6.20 for 256g) and an extra-large sharing bag (£22 for 1kg). For comparison, a Cadbury Mini Eggs bar weighs 110g and costs £2.
Cost per 100g: £2.70
Pictured: Cadbury Mini Eggs
Moo Free Caramel Mini Eggs
PRICE: £3.75 for 88g.
CONTAINS: Eight caramel-filled vegan chocolate eggs.
A dairy-free option, these contain cocoa mass and cocoa butter so are susceptible to the same price hikes as regular chocolate. A Moo Free chocolate bar will set you back £2.78 for 80g.
Cost per 100g: £4.26