Cadbury Creme Egg

A Cadbury Creme Egg is a chocolate-like confection produced in the shape of an egg, originating from the British chocolatier Cadbury. The product consists of a thick chocolate-like shell containing an enzymatically-derived sweet white and yellow filling that resembles fondant. The filling mimics the albumen and yolk of a soft boiled egg from a fowl such as a chicken or goose. The Creme Egg is the best selling confectionery item between New Year's Day and Easter in the UK, with annual sales in excess of 200 million and a brand value of approximately £55 million.[3] However, in 2016 sales plummeted after the controversial decision to change the recipe from the original Dairy Milk chocolate to a cheaper substitute, with reports of a loss of more than £6m in sales.[4]

Cadbury's Creme Egg

A Hershey's USA creme egg (left) and a Cadbury UK creme egg (right)
Product typeConfectionery
OwnerCadbury UK
CountryUnited Kingdom
Introduced1963 (1963)[1] (renamed Cadbury Creme Egg in 1971)
Related brandsList of Cadbury products
MarketsWorld
Cadbury Creme Egg
A whole and split egg, showing the white and yellow creme filling
Typeartificial
Place of originEngland
Region or stateWest Midlands
Invented1963[1]
Main ingredientsSugar, glucose syrup, invert sugar syrup, palm oil, industrial-grade cocoa mass
VariationsScreme Egg (Halloween UK), Battered Creme Egg (Fish and Chips shops, UK), Creme Egg McFlurry (McDonald's UK), Creme Egg Twisted Bar (Cadbury, UK)
Food energy
(per 40 g serving)
177 kcal (741 kJ)[2]
Nutritional value
(per 40 g serving)
Protein g
Fat6.1 g
Carbohydrate29 g

Creme Eggs are produced by Cadbury in the UK, by The Hershey Company in the United States, and by Cadbury Adams in Canada. They are sold by Mondelez International in all markets except the US, where The Hershey Company has the local marketing rights. At the Bournville factory in Birmingham, in the UK, they are manufactured at a rate of 1.5 million per day. The Creme Egg was also previously manufactured in New Zealand but, since 2009, they are imported from the UK. A YouGov poll saw the Creme Egg ranked the most famous confectionary in the UK.[5]

While filled eggs were first manufactured by the Cadbury Brothers in 1923, the Creme Egg in its current form was introduced in 1963.[1] Initially sold as Fry's Creme Eggs (incorporating the Fry's brand), they were renamed "Cadbury's Creme Eggs" in 1971.[6]

Product specification

Packaging

Creme eggs are usually sold individually but are also available in boxes containing a varying quantity of eggs depending on the country the packaging is intended for. The foil wrapping of the eggs was traditionally green, red, yellow and blue in colour in the United Kingdom and Ireland, though green was removed and purple replaced blue early in the 21st century. In the United States, some green is incorporated into the design, which previously featured the product's mascot—the Creme Egg Chick. As of 2015, the packaging in Canada has turned into a 34g, purple, red and yellow soft plastic shell.

New packaging introduced in Canada (2015).

Availability

Creme eggs are available annually between 1 January and Easter Day.[7][8] In the UK in the 1980s, Cadbury made Creme Eggs available year-round but sales dropped and they returned to seasonal availability.[9] In 2018, white chocolate versions of the Creme Eggs were made available. These eggs were not given a wrapper that clearly marked them as white chocolate eggs and were mixed in with the normal Creme Eggs in the United Kingdom.[10] Individuals who discovered an egg would win money via a ticket that had a code printed on it inside of the wrapper.[10]

Manufacture in New Zealand

Creme Eggs were manufactured in New Zealand at the Cadbury factory in Dunedin from 1983 to 2009. Cadbury in New Zealand and Australia went through a restructuring process, with most Cadbury products previously produced in New Zealand being manufactured instead at Cadbury factories in Australia. The Dunedin plant later received a $69 million upgrade to specialise in boxed products such as Cadbury Roses, and Creme Eggs were no longer produced there. The result of the changes meant that Creme Eggs were instead imported from the United Kingdom. The change has also seen the range of Creme Eggs available for sale decreased.[1] The size also dropped from 40g to 39g in this time. The response from New Zealanders has not been positive. Complaints have included the filling not being as runny as the New Zealand version.[11]

Manufacturing process

Cadbury Creme Eggs are manufactured as two half-eggs synthesized from chocolate that is subsequently formed into to two half shells, each of which is filled with a white fondant, then topped with a smaller amount of yellow fondant, with the egg being filled in such a way that the fondant colours mimic egg yolk and egg white. Both halves are then quickly joined together and cooled, the chocolate-like substance bonding together in the process. The solid eggs are removed from the moulds and wrapped in foil.[12] The filling, to be more precise, is inverted sugar syrup, produced by processing the fondant with invertase.[13][14]

In 2015, the traditional Dairy Milk shell of the eggs was replaced with a cocoa based shell.[15]

Varieties
A whole and split caramel egg

Cadbury has introduced many variants to the original Creme Egg, including:

  • Border Creme Eggs. The first variant, wrapped in various colours of tartan foil and containing chocolate fondant. Introduced as "Fry's Border Creme Eggs" in 1970, rebranded as "Cadbury Border Creme Eggs" in 1974 and discontinued in 1981.
  • Mini Creme Eggs (bite-sized Creme Eggs)
  • Caramel Eggs (chocolate egg with a caramel filling), launched in 1994[16]
  • Caramilk Egg (Canadian market only)
  • Mini Caramel Eggs (bite-sized Caramel Eggs)
  • Chocolate Creme Eggs (chocolate fondant filling), introduced in 1999
  • Orange Creme Eggs (Creme Eggs with a hint of orange flavour)
  • 'Berry' Creme Eggs (magenta wrapper and pink fondant, sold circa 1987 in Australia)
  • Mint Creme Eggs (green "yolk" and mint flavour chocolate)
  • Dairy Milk with Creme Egg bars
  • Creme Egg Fondant in a Narrow Cardboard Tube (limited edition)
  • Creme Egg ice cream with a fondant sauce in milk chocolate
  • Dream Eggs (New Zealand). White chocolate with white chocolate fondant filling. Discontinued in 2010.[1]
  • Cadbury McFlurry (British, Irish, Canadian and Australian McDonald's only) McFlurry soft serve mix with Creme Egg & chocolate filling. In the UK, it is currently released as part of McDonald's' Monopoly promotions.
  • Creme Egg Twisted (Britain, Ireland, Australia and Canada) Available all year round. It was introduced to Australia in 2010 but was quickly discontinued.
  • Holiday Ornament Creme Egg
  • Mad About Chocolate Egg (Australia and New Zealand). Purple wrapper, milk chocolate with chocolate fudge filling. Discontinued in 2010.[1]
  • Creme Egg Pots Of Joy - melted Cadbury milk chocolate with a fondant layer
  • Screme Egg Pots Of Joy - melted Cadbury milk chocolate but with a layer of Screme Egg fondant
  • Creme Egg Layers Of Joy - A layered sharing dessert with Cadbury milk chocolate, chocolate mousse, chocolate chip cookie and fondant dessert with a creamy topping.
  • Peppermint Egg (New Zealand). Discontinued in 2010.[1]
  • Giant Creme Eggs, a thick chocolate shell with white and caramel fondant filling. Manufactured in North America. Discontinued in 2006.
  • Creme Egg Splats - fried egg shaped pieces of milk chocolate filled with fondant.
  • Screme Egg - traditional milk chocolate shell with a white and green fondant center - available for Halloween[17]
  • Screme Egg Minis - Mini version of the Screme Egg - available for Halloween[18]
  • Fudgee-O Egg (Canada). Introduced at the start of 2015. Filled with a fudge creme centre.
  • Oreo Cream Egg (Canada). Introduced in 2016. Filled with a white cream centre containing Oreo cookie crumbs.
  • Ghost Egg - Same as normal Creme Egg, but without the "yolk".
  • White Chocolate Creme Egg - Creme Egg, but with white chocolate replacing the milk chocolate. Released in 2018 as part of a UK promotion.[19]
  • Golden Creme Egg - Creme Egg, but with golden-coloured chocolate. Released in 2021 as part of the 50th Anniversary of the product under Cadbury's ownership.

Other products

  • Jaffa Egg – Manufactured in New Zealand, Dark chocolate with orange filling
  • Marble Egg – Manufactured in New Zealand, Dairy Milk and Dream Chocolate swirled together
  • Caramilk Egg – Manufactured in New Zealand, a mixture of caramel and white chocolate with a creamy centre of the same flavour.
  • Chips Ahoy! Egg – Manufactured in Canada, Introduced in 2017. Filled with a chocolate chip cookie dough centre.

Changes to product

During an interview in a 2007 episode of Late Night with Conan O'Brien, actor B. J. Novak drew attention to the fact that American market Cadbury Creme Eggs had decreased in size, despite the official Cadbury website stating otherwise.[20] American Creme Eggs at the time weighed 34 g and contained 150 calories.[21] Before 2006, the eggs marketed by Hershey were identical to the UK version, weighing 39 g and containing 170 calories.[22][23]

In 2015, the British Cadbury company under the American Mondelēz International conglomerate announced that it had changed the formula of the Cadbury Creme Egg by replacing its Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate with "standard cocoa mix chocolate". It had also reduced the packaging from 6 eggs to 5 with a less than proportionate decrease in price.[24][25][26] This resulted in a large number of complaints from consumers.[27] Analysts at IRI found that Cadbury lost more than $12 million in Creme Egg sales in the UK.[28]

Advertising

The Creme Egg has been marketed in the UK and Ireland with the question "How do you eat yours?" and in New Zealand with the slogan "Don't get caught with egg on your face". Australia and New Zealand have also used a variation of the UK question, using the slogan "How do you do it?" Over the years, there have been several major Cadbury's Creme Egg campaigns.

Man standing by Creme Egg Car
  • c 1970s: "Shopkeeper" campaign in which a boy asks for 6000 Cadbury Creme Eggs.
  • "Irresistibly" campaign showing characters prepared to do something unusual for a Creme Egg, similar to the "What would you do for a Klondike bar?" campaign .
  • Early 80's: "Can't Resist Them."
  • 1985: The "How Do You Eat Yours?" campaign begins.
  • Mid 80's-Present: "Nobunny Knows Easter Better than Cadbury"
  • 1985–1996: "Don't get caught with egg on your face" [29]
  • 1990–1993: The first television campaign to use the "How Do You Eat Yours?" theme, featuring the zodiac signs.
  • 1994–1996: Spitting Image characters continued "How Do You Eat Yours?"
  • 1997–1999: Matt Lucas, with the catchphrase "I've seen the future, and it's egg shaped!"
  • 2000–2003: The "Pointing Finger"
  • 2004: The "Roadshow" finger
  • 2005: "Licky, Sticky, Happy"
  • 2006–2007: "Eat It Your Way"
  • 2008–2009: "Here Today, Goo Tomorrow"
  • 2008–2009: "Unleash the Goo"
  • 2009: "Release the Goo"
  • 2010: "You'll Miss Me When I'm Gone"
  • 2011: "Goo Dares Wins"
  • 2011: "Get Your Goo On!"
  • 2012: "Gooing For Gold"
  • 2012: "It's Goo Time"
  • 2013–2016: "Have a fling with a Creme Egg"
  • 2017–2019: "It's Hunting Season"
  • 2020–Present: "Creme Egg Eatertainment"
  • 2021: "50 Goolden Years"

In North America, Creme Eggs are advertised on television with a small white rabbit called the Cadbury Bunny (alluding to the Easter Bunny) which clucks like a chicken. Ads for caramel eggs use a larger gold-coloured rabbit which also clucks, and chocolate eggs use a large brown rabbit which clucks in a deep voice. The advertisements use the slogan "Nobunny knows Easter better than him", spoken by TV personality Mason Adams. The adverts have continued to air nearly unchanged into the high definition era, though currently the ad image is slightly zoomed to fill the screen. The majority of rabbits used in the Cadbury commercials are Flemish Giants.

In the UK, around the year 2000, selected stores were provided standalone paperboard cutouts of something resembling a "love tester". The shopper would press a button in the centre and a "spinner" (a series of LED lights) would select at random a way of eating the Creme Egg, e.g. "with chips". These were withdrawn within a year. There are also the "Creme Egg Cars" which are, as the name suggest, ovular vehicles painted to look like Creme Eggs. They are driven to various places to advertise the eggs but are based mainly at the Cadbury factory in Bournville. Five "Creme Egg Cars" were built from Bedford Rascal chassis. The headlights are taken from a Citroën 2CV.[30]

For the 2009 season, advertising in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Canada consisted of stopmotion adverts in the "Here Today, Goo Tomorrow" campaign which comprised a Creme Egg stripping itself of its wrapper and then breaking its own shell, usually with household appliances and equipment, while making various 'goo' sounds, and a 'relieved' noise when finally able to break its shell. The Cadbury's Creme Egg website featured games where the player had to prevent the egg from finding a way to release its goo.

Crème de la Creme Egg Café in Soho, London

A similar advertising campaign in 2010 featured animated Creme Eggs destroying themselves in large numbers, such as gathering together at a cinema before bombarding into each other to release all of the eggs' goo, and another which featured eggs being destroyed by mouse traps.

Olympic Games

In 2012, Cadbury parodied the Olympic Games by using Creme Eggs instead of athletes. The first advert was 31 seconds long and consists of an Opening Ceremony, performed by stripped and packed Creme Eggs. Each other advert contained a Creme Egg trying to ‘release the goo’ whilst in an Olympic event. An online game was created by Cadbury, so the public could play the ‘Goo Games’. Six events were available to play and each of them was shown as a cartoon sketch. It took place between 1 January to 4 April 2012.

Creme Egg Café

In 2016, Cadbury opened a pop-up café titled "Crème de la Creme Egg Café" in London.[31] Tickets for the café sold out within an hour of being published online.[32] The café on Greek Street, Soho, was open every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 22 January to 6 March 2016.

Creme Egg Camp

In 2018, Cadbury opened a pop-up camp. The camp in Last Days of Shoreditch, Old Street was open every Thursday to Sunday from 19 January, to 18 February 2018 [33]

References
  1. "FAQ's – NZ Product Changes". Cadbury New Zealand. Archived from the original on 24 July 2011. Retrieved 16 April 2011.
  2. "Creme Egg". www.cadbury.co.uk. Retrieved 19 January 2018.
  3. "Cadbury UK brand information". United Kingdom: Cadbury. Archived from the original on 28 January 2011. Retrieved 16 April 2011.
  4. "Cadbury loses more than £6m in Creme Egg sales after changing recipe". United Kingdom: The Telegraph. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
  5. "The most famous confectionaries in the UK". YouGov. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
  6. “1971: Cadbury’s Creme Egg is launched”. Cadbury.co.uk. Retrieved 17 May 2019
  7. "Kraft Foods brand information". Archived from the original on 25 June 2011. Retrieved 16 April 2011.
  8. "Creme Egg". Cadbury. 15 January 2009. Archived from the original on 28 January 2011. Retrieved 1 February 2012.
  9. "Campaign article on short sales season". United Kingdom: Campaign Magazine. Retrieved 27 April 2011.
  10. "The first white Cadbury's Creme Egg has been found". Good Housekeeping. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  11. "Creme Egg fans say UK imports no yolk". New Zealand Herald. 14 February 2010.
  12. Cadbury Creme Egg from the Cadbury website
  13. Cadbury website. Retrieved April 10, 2015.
  14. LaBau, Elizabeth. What is Invertase? About.com. Retrieved 10 April 2015.
  15. Wallop, Harry (21 March 2016). "The many ways Cadbury is losing its magic". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 6 May 2018.
  16. "Cadbury UK Easter Egg Information" (PDF). United Kingdom: Cadbury. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 September 2011. Retrieved 27 April 2011.
  17. "Hershey's Screme Egg Information". United States: Hershey's. Retrieved 1 November 2014.
  18. "Cadbury Screme Egg Minis Information". United Kingdom: Cadbury. Retrieved 1 November 2014.
  19. "Here's How to Identify a White Chocolate Cadbury Creme Egg Without Unwrapping It". The Daily Meal. Retrieved 6 May 2018.
  20. "Archive.org: Cadbury Creme Egg FAQ". Archive.org. Archived from the original on 28 March 2006. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
  21. "The Hershey Company product information". Retrieved 16 April 2011.
  22. "Hershey's Cadbury Creme Egg, Original nutrition information". dietfacts.com. Archived from the original on 10 July 2011. Retrieved 21 February 2010.
  23. "Cadbury Creme Egg – 39g". United Kingdom: Cadbury. Archived from the original on 25 October 2007. Retrieved 22 April 2009.
  24. Adam Gabbatt. "Shellshock! Cadbury comes clean on Creme Egg chocolate change". The Guardian.
  25. "Cadbury's changes the Creme Egg recipe". Belfast Telegraph.
  26. Levi Winchester. "Cadbury's US owners accused of 'ruining Easter' after changing Creme Egg shell chocolate Daily Express". Daily Express.
  27. "Shock as Cadbury's changes the Creme Egg recipe". The New Zealand Herald.
  28. "This is why you don't mess with people's chocolate". news.com.au. News Limited. 13 January 2016. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  29. "Cadbury Creme Eggs Ad (1985 ad, 1992 Version)". YouTube. Retrieved 1 February 2012.
  30. "The stig does the creme egg car!!". YouTube. Retrieved 23 March 2010.
  31. "Cracking news! A Creme Egg café is coming to Soho". Time Out London. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
  32. "Cadbury Crème de la Creme Egg Cafe". Eventbrite. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
  33. "Creme Egg Camp". Eventbrite. Retrieved 19 January 2018.
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