Every Easter I get kind of dazed by the sheer multitude of chocolate Easter bunnies beckoning to me from the store shelves. They’re all pretty and shiny, and I can hear them calling, “Pick me! Pick me!” But which one to choose?
Well, this year I embarked on the Bite A Bunny experiment. I did a taste test to decide, once and for all, what the best bunny choices are. So I didn’t get totally overwhelmed by the bountiful bunnies, I had some simple rules: stick to milk chocolate, go for hollow bunnies where possible, and only choose bunnies that are readily available to the average shopper. I came up with seven contestants. All bunnies were hollow, except where noted.
Here they are, in order from worst to best.
Palmer: How do you feel about coconut-flavored cardboard? Yeah, it’s not my favorite thing either, and that’s what you get with this bunny. OK, make that really sweet, coconut-flavored cardboard. And the texture? Not creamy at all. Palmer chocolates are ubiquitous at Easter so they should know better! I get that this is a very inexpensive little guy, but this bunny left me wondering “Dude, where’s my chocolate?” Definitely the worst bunny in the experiment.
Zachary (solid): Zachary was a step up from Palmer. The bunny is quite big and glints pleasingly from its box. Again, we’re in very sweet territory and again, there was a strong coconut flavor. What’s up with that? But Zach gets more points than Palmer for actually having some chocolate flavor. One extraneous note: Cadbury, Dove, and Zachary made me put my cranky pants on for having so much extra plastic packaging with no recycling symbols. Come on people! You’re making our lives sweeter, how about treating the planet sweetly too?
Russell Stover: The thing I dig about Russell Stover is that they are consistent. You know what you’re getting when you buy their chocolates. This bunny reminded me of the Russell Stover samplers I ate as a kid and that made me smile. You can rely on these bunnies to give you that Russell Stover taste. The chocolate is earthy, sweet, and only has a little of that coconut flavor I kept finding in the first two bunnies.
Superior: Well, this bunny is aptly named because, of these first four bunnies, it was by far the most superior of the bunch! The Superior bunny was my big surprise in all the bunnies I tried. It’s in the ballpark of a Dove or Cadbury chocolate in terms of quality. The chocolate is nice and creamy and, hoorah, actually tastes like chocolate! The flavor wasn’t hijacked by the sugar either – there’s just enough sweetness to enhance the chocolate, without overwhelming it.
Dove: It always surprises me how expensive Dove chocolates taste and this bunny was no exception. I think it’s the creaminess – Doves have a really nice texture that I associate with expensive chocolates. My only issue with this bunny was that I got a hint of coconut on the finish. It didn’t ruin the bunny, but I could have lived without it. Overall, this is a nice luxurious-tasting bunny. Also, Dove gets extra points for having the coolest-looking bunny. A fairy bunny with neat, butterfly-colored wings? Awesome.
Cadbury (solid): Like Russell Stover, you can count on Cadbury to be consistent. As I’ve stated previously, I LOVE Cadbury chocolates so this bunny made me do the happy dance. The chocolate is creamy and earthy – I think Cadbury’s milk chocolate is closer to a dark chocolate taste on the chocolate spectrum. It’s still milk chocolate, but it’s got an earthiness and richness I associate more with dark chocolates. It’s also got a good sweet-to-chocolate ratio, with a just a hint of a sour cream taste. This bunny tied with the Lindt bunny as “Best Bunny.”
Lindt: If you like chocolate, you will love this bunny. The chocolate here differs hugely from all the other bunnies in the experiment because of one thing: honey. I swear the chocolate tastes like they used honey instead of sugar to sweeten it. You get a nice, smooth caramel flavor on the finish, too. Of all the bunnies, this was by far the creamiest. Depending on my mood, I’d go for this or the Cadbury bunny as best overall. For more Lindt Easter goodness, check out Nico’s review of the Lindt chocolate carrots.
So there you have it. Indulge in your own Bite A Bunny experiment and let us know what you think!
Visit the Chocolate Easter Bunnies Online:
Buy Chocolate Easter Bunnies Online:
- at Candy Crate
- at Amazon.com
- at Chocolate.com
Awesome roundup. I’ve never had the Zachary or Superior solid chocolates. I do love the look of the Dove bunny, just because it’s such a cool looking changeup from the ordinary.
April 8th, 2009 at 9:55 amHey,
if you’re interested in a new sugary topic, ben and jerrys just launched a new flavour called CHOCMAC made of chocolate vanilla icre-cream with macadamia nuts, themselves covered in chocolate fudge! I have pics if you want they’ll make you crave for some hehe
also a cute anecdote, an artist showed his love to ben and jerrys new flavour by curving little statues of ben and jerry and a cow … so if you want to blog out of it I can send you pics of that too !
tell me what you think and email me at indial@cakegroup.com
thanks
April 8th, 2009 at 10:19 amindia
Mmm… Lindt chocolate is my favourite too! Thanks for your in-depth review. (I wonder what it is with cheap chocolte and coconut?)
April 8th, 2009 at 12:25 pmLOVE Lindt and Cadbury both. I haven’t tried their Easter bunnies though. You’ve made me want to run out and buy one of each! Tell the truth…you didn’t stop at just one bite on those two did you???? :)
The cheaper chocolates give you that coconut flavor because they use coconut oil in place of at least part of the cocoa butter that is found in good chocolate. BLECH!
April 8th, 2009 at 1:11 pmI totally agree about the Lindt and Russell Stover – the latter used to be my bunny of choice till I found the Lindt. Your obviously excellent taste makes me want to want to try the Dove also.
But the Cadbury – the problem is that it is SOLID. To me, it’s not a bunny unless it’s hollow – that texture and experience is just different, and you can’t get it at any other time of year. EXCEPT: Lindt also makes a chocolate reindeer at Christmas which is clearly just their bunny disguised with antlers.
April 8th, 2009 at 2:08 pmwhere’s the Hershey or Hershey’s Bliss bunny review??? COME ON!!!!!!!!!!
April 1st, 2012 at 6:00 pm