Best Easter eggs 2023: From classic kids’ favourites to luxury and vegan chocolate treats

It’s hard to find anything not to like about this Hotel Chocolat egg. It comes in a stylish matte tin and it looks premium in the line up among most other eggs. Inside are two halves of a medium-sized egg. One half is “cheesecake-inspired chocolate” – which is chocolate with marscapone-flavoured salted caramel running through it. This side is tangy and sweet at the same time, and we found it hard to resist. If you like that cheesecake taste, this is going to hit the spot for you.

The other half of the egg is brownie-inspired chocolate, with pecan praline mixed through it. We were less of a fan of this side, but we did like having two different styles of chocolate in one egg.

Housed between the two halves is a selection of Hotel Chocolat’s patisserie chocolates – including millionaire’s shortbread, caramel cheesecake macarons and a delicious truffle. After our extensive testing, we think this is the crème de la crème of Easter eggs.

It’s hard to think of a more classic chocolate Easter egg than this Lindt option. It’s got everything you want from a mid-to-upper range Easter egg. The egg itself is made of Lindt’s trademark milk chocolate, which is rich and creamy. It’s a big Easter egg – one of the largest we tried – so it’s going to last you a little while (unless you have extreme sugar cravings).

Inside the gold packaging – which is in itself fairly giant – are melt-in-your-mouth milk, dark and white chocolate Lindor truffles. Any adult is going to be delighted with this egg on Easter Sunday.

This is a luxury Easter egg (with a price tag to match) for those who really want to push the boat out at Easter. If you’re looking to splash the cash on someone special, this egg is the way to go.

The outer later is gianduja – a blend of chocolate with hazelnut paste. And these hazelnuts aren’t just any hazelnut, they’re Piedmont hazelnuts, which are considered to be the best in the world. Below this layer is an embedded layer of crumbly gluten-free biscuits that are made with hazelnut flour. While the inner layer is the finest dark chocolate. It’s like rocky road, but so extra and OTT.

The taste is beautiful, with the rich, toasted taste of hazelnut against dark chocolate. Honestly, it’s total decadence – if you’re looking for something high-end, this is the egg for you.

Receiving a Fortnum & Mason’s Easter egg is always going to be a treat. This egg boasts the retailer’s trademark traditional rose and violet creams inside. The box is thick and premium, the egg inside is snappably thin and made of dark chocolate of the very best quality. The creams themselves are crunchily sweet, with grown-up floral tastes that are going to evoke childhood memories of confectionary.

We think this is a great egg to give to those who are discerning or hard to impress (or both). From the first glance to the last bite, this egg is a special affair.

Blonde chocolate is having a moment. If you’re not in the know, blonde chocolate is caramelised white chocolate, and it’s absolutely delicious – not as sweet and sickly as white chocolate, a bit nutty and, well, caramelised. Waitrose is always good for hopping on a food trend and, with this egg, it’s outdone itself.

The No.1 range is always a winner, in our eyes, and this egg comes with style and substance. The packaging in pared back – grey with a window through to an unfoiled blonde egg. The egg is large, and tastes absolutely delicious. There’s a crunch from feuilletine wafer, salt in the chocolate to add interest, and it melts pleasingly on the tongue, leaving a subtle and not-too-sweet taste.

The milk chocolate and salted caramel truffles hidden under the egg number just four, and were inhaled quickly – the liquid centres offering up a sweet and savoury hit. This is a sophisticated egg, perfect for foodies and those who want something a bit out of the ordinary.

We were dubious about a coffee-flavoured Easter egg, but we’re not too proud to hold our hands up and admit we were wrong. This egg is just an egg, and the packaging isn’t wildly exciting. No window to see what you’re getting and no extras hidden away.

However, the egg itself is large and the outside is hand decorated with white chocolate and cocoa nibs. We liked this extra dimension, and the egg tasted absolutely delicious. The chocolate itself is pleasingly sweet – neither too sophisticated nor cheap tasting. The coffee really comes through, making it taste like a delicious tiramisu in egg form. There’s no hint of bitterness, just a base, earthy aftertaste of coffee that we loved.

We don’t know how they’ve done it, but Marks and Spencer has created a huge Easter treat that tastes like chocolate and hot cross bun at the same time. Fans of a fruity chocolate bar are going to love this non-egg egg.

It’s actually in the shape of a hot cross bun, complete with white-chocolate cross and embossed currants on the side. The chocolate is lightly spiced with those hot-cross-bun flavours and has raisins and jelly orange pieces infused throughout the thick shell. We hugely enjoyed the novelty of this ‘egg’, and reckon it’d bring a smile to any recipient’s face.

When our six-year-old tester laid their eyes on this egg, they let out an involuntary gasp. Which is really what you want when presenting your child with their egg on Easter Sunday. The white chocolate brings maximum sweetness – it was too sweet for us but the kids loved it.

The packaging is bold and bright, with illustrations that are going to draw in kids. There’s also a photo of the egg on the outside. It’s a white chocolate egg, with a pink middle that has rainbow sweets set into it. There’s no foil or plastic in the packaging either, which will please budding eco-warriors. Surely any kid is going to be delighted with this sweet and colourful Easter egg.

This purse-friendly egg looks impressive. Perfect if you’re shelling out for loads of Easter eggs for kids, friends, etc. It comes in a box, so looks giftable, and is wrapped in foil – but there’s no plastic in the packaging. Inside is a small-to-medium-sized Cadbury’s Dairy Milk egg. Creamy, sweet and rich, Dairy Milk is always a crowd-pleaser.

Break in to the egg and there are a handful of little dismembered Freddo heads ready to be devoured. Our mini-testers were more than happy with this Easter egg, proving you don’t have to fork out a fortune to keep the little sugar-fiends happy.

Peanut butter and chocolate is a winning combination that us Brits don’t use enough, in our humble opinion. So, we were delighted to discover Aldi has a peanut butter egg in its Dairyfine range this year. This egg is incredibly sweet, and, OK, it’s not going to be the best-quality milk chocolate, but we liked it for the no-frills joy it brought us.

The egg itself is salted milk chocolate with crushed peanuts embedded in it. This complements the peanut-butter eggs found inside. They’re incredibly rich – one or two is enough per sitting, but this means the egg will last you until at least after your roast lamb is served on Easter Sunday.

We are huge fans of mint chocolate, so we were delighted with this After Eight egg. So many of the ‘flavoured’ eggs we came across were just milk chocolate shells with flavoured-chocolate extras. Not so with this option, though – the egg actually tastes like After Eights.

We know mint chocolate isn’t for everyone, but if it’s your idea of heaven, do yourself a favour and grab this egg. It’s dark chocolate, with a cool mint running through it, and it’s a big ol’ egg too – we were impressed.

The packaging features classic After Eight style – green and grown up. There’s also a box of After Eights under the egg – pretty generous, considering the price tag.

Dairy Milk is the classic British milk chocolate, right? It’s the perfect mix of creamy and sweet, in our opinion. So, we were delighted that, this year, Cadbury is doing a “chunk” giant Dairy Milk egg.

The egg is thick – probably the thickest in this round-up (we had to recruit help to smash it open) – and it’s made from perfect Dairy Milk chocolate (it’s not been reformulated or watered down for Easter). Inside is a little bag of solid Dairy Milk chocolates – you’re definitely getting your milk chocolate fix here. This is a perfect egg for those who, like us, enjoy the less-fancy end of milk chocolate too.

M&S; has dubbed this egg as “simply the zest”. For fans of chocolate-orange, this egg is going to really hit the spot. The medium-size egg is made of orange-flavoured chocolate, with orange-flavoured jelly and mini candy-coated chocolate nibs running through it. The result is a taste that’s much more zesty and fruity than others we tried.

The chocolate isn’t at all waxy like some flavoured chocolates can be. The texture is melt-in-your-mouth smooth and silky, in fact. While there are no extras in this egg, we don’t think it needs it, as it’s pretty rich on its own. At £5, it’s an absolute bargain.

This Daylesford egg has a lot going for it. It’s hand-painted with a meadow scene of bee-friendly flowers around the outside, making it absolutely gorgeous to look at before you dig in. It’s just as delightful to eat, too.

The cocoa used in this egg is sourced from carefully managed biodiverse ecosystems where farmers get paid fairly, so it’s a guilt-free indulgence. And the chocolate is delicious. The shell is very thick – there’s a layer of white and a layer of milk chocolate. Together, they are crisp, full of flavour, and melt beautifully.

As soon as we cracked into this egg’s thick shell, the whole room filled with the heady scent of quality chocolate. Although there are loads of vegan-friendly eggs available, we think this one is particularly good.

The packaging is fun and bright, so kids would be happy to receive it too. The chocolate inside is pretty dark, but that’s tempered by the salted-caramel flavour. It has a subtle crunch and is just divine. We love this egg because, as well as being vegan, it’s palm-oil-, gluten- and soya-free and the packaging doesn’t contain any single-use plastics.

So, look, this egg isn’t a chocolate egg. The packaging is amazing – a hand-painted hard wooden case with a beautiful design, all the way from Kashmir in India. Inside are 12 salted-caramel truffles. These aren’t the kind that pop in your mouth, instead, they are chewy, and the perfect balance of sweet and salty. The chocolates are vegan and organic, made using coconut oil.

This egg is a beautiful gift for those that love something nice to look at, and appreciate a keepsake too. The inside is lined with a soft velvet, and the container can be kept and used for storing other treats or trinkets.

With so many vegan Easter eggs available, this year more than ever shows those with a plant-based diet don’t have to miss out on Easter treats. This, from high-end chocolatier Melt, is our luxury vegan pick. The egg comes in a fancy cardboard box, and looks premium and sophisticated.

Inside is an egg decorated to look like a strawberry. Before you scroll on, thinking this sounds too sickly, let us stop you by quickly saying the chocolate is actually dark and rich, but yes, there is a subtle taste of strawberry. This is thanks to the upper-most layer being flavoured chocolate – but this layer is quite thin. Under that is a 70 per cent cocoa solids dark chocolate that snaps beautifully and tastes insanely good.