Saturday, February 18, 2012

Cadbury Creme Eggs-- US vs UK


I recently received some Cadbury Creme eggs from the UK for the family to try. Believe it or not, I am not a fan of the US Cadbury Creme eggs- they are just too sweet for me but given the fact that so many of the chocolates made in the UK are superior in taste to their US equivalent, I thought we should give these a shot.




I enlisted the help of two willing participants (the children) and prepared for a blind taste test.
First, I compared the physical attributes of the creme eggs.

Initial inspection revealed that the UK egg (on the left) was slightly larger than the US egg (on the right).












Removal of the wrapper allowed for further comparison


The US egg had a darker chocolate appearance. The design on both eggs was the same.





Careful slicing revealed that the UK egg had a thicker chocolate shell and the 'creme' inside appeared to be thicker than that of the US egg. The 'creme' from the US egg oozed out onto my cutting board while that in the UK egg stayed in the egg.











Ingredients differed slightly-
US- Milk chocolate (sugar, milk, chocolate, cocoa butter, milk fat, nonfat milk, soy lecithin, natural and artificial flavors) Sugar, Corn syrup, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Contains 2% or less of artificial color (yellow 6), artificial flavor, calcium chloride, egg whites
UK- Milk chocolate (milk, sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, vegetable fat, emulsifiers (E442, E476, soya lecithin) Flavourings) Fondant (47%)(Sugar, glucose syrup, invert sugar syrup, dried egg white, flavouring, color (paprika extract))

Nutrition info-
US- serving = 1 egg, 150 calories, 6 g fat (4 g saturated fat), <5 mg cholesterol, 15 mg sodium, 24 g carbohydrates (20 g sugar), 2 g protein

UK- 1 egg= 175 calories, 6.3 g fat (3.9 saturated fat), cholesterol not listed, 0.05 g sodium (50 mg) 28.5 g carbohydrates (25.9 g sugar), 1.6 g protein

I recently read that in chocolate taste testing it is often the last piece that people like the most, so I was sure that each child...errr tester, did not taste the same one last. (One had UK last and one had US last)

The winner................................................................

The UK egg!!

As a scientist I felt it was necessary for me to also taste the eggs to see if there was a difference and honestly.....they were both so sweet it was hard to tell the difference. There was a difference in the chocolate and that was probably what pushed the UK egg over the top but the icky sweet creme inside was just that...icky sweet. Creme eggs are still not for me, regardless of their origin!

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