Thursday, April 12, 2012

An Overpriced, Basic Chocolate; Cadbury Caramel Eggs Are Not Worth Picking Up!


The Good: Tastes fine, Stores well
The Bad: Not at all nutritious, Vastly overpriced even after Easter!
The Basics: Cadbury Caramel Eggs are not worth buying or stocking up on, despite being made of generally good ingredients.


Despite my love for Cadbury Crème Eggs, not all of the spin-offs of the delightful candy work as well as Cadbury and Hershey’s might want. I realized this when I realized I had reviewed both the Cadbury Crème Eggs (reviewed here!) and the Cadbury Chocolate Eggs (reviewed here!), but not the Cadbury Caramel Eggs. The Caramel Eggs are a real letdown, both comparatively and objectively.

I try not to let price be the sole determining factor for any of the products I review, but with the Cadbury Caramel Eggs, it is hard not to harp on how overpriced these are. So many companies make chocolate and caramel candies and the hope that Cadbury would do a high-class version only leads to a serious feeling of being let down with the Cadbury Caramel Eggs.

Basics

Cadbury Caramel Eggs are a seasonal candy available around Easter, manufactured by Hershey in Canada, whatwith Hershey having a license from British chocolatiers Cadbury UK Limited. Each egg is an oblate spheroid one and three-quarter inches tall by one and a quarter inches in diameter at its thickest point. Cadbury Caramel Eggs are, as their name implies, egg-shaped and each one comes individually wrapped in a foil wrapper. Cadbury Caramel Eggs are sold individually at prices that range from $.50/ea. to $.99/ea., depending on where one finds them. Seriously, there seems to be no consistent manufacturer's suggested retail price. The Caramel Eggs have been produced for at least the last five straight years, so for some reason Hershey’s seems willing to stick with them!

Cadbury Caramel Eggs are an egg comprised of milk chocolate surrounding a caramel center that is a little more fluid than standard caramel. The shell is about an eighth of an inch thick and completely covers the thick caramel center.

Ease Of Preparation

These are candy, so preparing them is as simple as opening the box and then opening one of the foil wrappers around the actual Cadbury Caramel Egg one wishes to eat. There is no special way to unwrap or eat Cadbury Caramel Eggs, though sometimes the Cadbury Caramel Eggs are not sealed perfectly and their caramel center leaks out, sticking to the foil. This can make it harder to unwrap the egg, but a good thumbnail takes care of all of the foil and leaves one prepared to devour or savor this seasonal treat.

Taste

Unlike the standard Cadbury Crème Eggs, I tend to enjoy the Cadbury Caramel Eggs fresh, when I bother to pick them up at all. Frozen and thawed, these eggs lose much of their flavor. But fresh, unwrapping the Caramel Eggs, reveals a strong, milk chocolate aroma.

Cadbury Caramel Eggs are exactly what the name implies. The shell is a fairly soft milk chocolate and the center is a fluid caramel. The milk chocolate coating is comparatively soft and very sweet. The sweetness is accented by the dry, almost flavorless caramel. These eggs are not sweet on the inside and the chocolate contrasts with the flavor more than it compliments it in any way. Instead of being a delightful treat, these caramel eggs are bland. The caramel is caramel, the chocolate has a mass-produced, slightly waxy, flavor to it that is atypical of Cadbury products. It is not an unpleasant flavor, but it is an indistinct one.

Nutrition

Cadbury Caramel Eggs are candy, so it is tough to look at these for something nutritious and then blame them for not being healthy. Cadbury Caramel Eggs are expensive, with few benefits, though they are not terrible in their ingredients. The primary ingredients are milk chocolate, corn syrup, and high fructose corn syrup. There is nothing unpronounable in these candies, which I appreciate.

A serving of Cadbury Caramel Eggs is considered one egg. From one egg, one consumes 170 calories, seventy of those calories being from fat. There is less than five milligrams of cholesterol, a noticeable amount (45 mg) of sodium, and there are no vitamins in these. There is 4% of one's daily calcium, but this is hardly enough to justify gorging oneself on them!

Honestly, these are candy and anyone looking to them for actual nutrition has forgotten the magic of the Easter bunny and how some things in life should simply be enjoyed! These are not Vegan-compliant, nor are they recommended for anyone with a nut allergy as they are produced on the same equipment that peanuts (and tree nuts) pass over. They are, not marked as kosher, nor gluten-free.

Storage/Clean-up

Lately, I have only bought these eggs on clearance and I am pretty much done with doing even that. Without freezing these, which eliminates what little flavor they have, they ought to be kept at room temperature out of sunlight, lest they melt and make a real mess. The box I bought on after-Easter clearance expires in July of 2012.

As for cleanup, throw the wrappers in the garbage and you've taken care of cleanup! Outside that, there is no real cleanup needed, unless one is eating them in a hot environment. In that case, it is likely one would need to wash their hands. If Cadbury Caramel Eggs melt into most fabrics, they will stain, both for the chocolate coating and the caramel center. For that style of cleanup, be sure to consult a fabric guide for whatever you stained.

Overall

Cadbury Caramel Eggs come once a year, but can safely be passed by even when they are available.

For other Hershey’s chocolate reviews, please check out:
Reese’s Crispy Crunchy
Peanut Butter Whoppers
Irish Crème Hershey’s Kisses

3/10

For other food and drink reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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