Cadbury Creme Egg
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Cadbury Creme Egg is a brand of chocolate egg produced by Cadbury Schweppes in the United Kingdom, and under license by The Hershey Company in the United States. The egg has a thick milk chocolate "shell", with a white and yellow fondant filling designed to resemble the yolk and albumen of an egg.
Creme eggs are usually sold individually, but are also available in packets of three, four, six, and twelve, and in boxes of eight, fifteen, twenty-four and forty-eight. The foil wrapping of the eggs was traditionally red, yellow and blue in colour in the United Kingdom and Ireland, though 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. The brand has proven to be extremely popular worldwide, and in the UK, Ireland and Canada, Creme Eggs are the best selling confectionery item between January 1 and Easter, with annual sales in excess of 200 million items and a brand value of approximately £45 million.[1]
While filled eggs were first manufactured by the Cadbury Brothers in the early 1920s, the Creme Egg in its current form was not released until 1971. The eggs are manufactured at the Bournville factory in Birmingham at the rate of 1.5 million per day, and also at other Cadbury factories in countries such as New Zealand.
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[edit] Product specification
When first introduced in Britain, the original Cadbury Creme Egg weighed 40 grams (1.4 oz) and contained 171.6 Calories.[1][citation needed] Cadbury Creme Eggs sold in the UK and Canada have remained at this size, but those sold by Hershey's in the United States have decreased in size since their introduction - before 2006 they are listed with a weight of 39 grams,[2] while today they are listed at 34 grams.
During an interview on the April 4th, 2007 episode of Late Night with Conan O' Brien, actor B. J. Novak drew attention to the fact that American market Cadbury Creme Eggs have decreased in size from previous years, despite the claim on the Cadbury's website FAQ that the eggs were not getting smaller, but rather, "you've just grown up!"[3] The site has since been updated to clarify that only American eggs have altered in size.[1]
Over the years, Cadbury has introduced a number of products related to the original Creme Egg, including:
- Mini Creme Eggs (bite-sized Creme Eggs)
- Caramel Eggs (soft caramel filling)
- Mini Caramel Eggs (bite-sized Caramel Eggs)
- Chocolate Creme Eggs (chocolate fondant filling)
- Orange Creme Eggs (Creme Eggs with a hint of orange flavor)
- Mint Creme Eggs (green "yolk" and mint flavor 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 (white chocolate with white chocolate fondant filling)
- Cadbury McFlurry (British and Canadian McDonalds Only) McFlurry soft serve mix with Creme Egg & chocolate filling.
- Creme Egg Twisted
[edit] Manufacture
Cadbury Creme Egg is manufactured by making a chocolate shell in a half-egg shaped mould, which is then filled with white fondant and a dab of yellow fondant to simulate the yolk. Two mould halves are closed very quickly and cooled to allow the chocolate to set. When the moulds are opened, the eggs fall onto a conveyor which transports them, first to the foiling machines and then to the finished packing.
– Cadbury Schweppes plc, [4]'
[edit] Advertising
In recent times, the creme egg has been marketed in the UK and Ireland with the question "How do you eat yours?" and in Australia with the slogan "Don't get caught with egg on your face". Australia has 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.
- "Shopkeeper" campaign of the 1970s 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 in America.
- 1985: The "How Do You Eat Yours?" campaign begins.
- 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" campaign.
- 2004: The "Roadshow" finger campaign
- 2004-2007: The "How Do You Eat Yours?" campaign
- 2008: "Here Today, Goo Tomorrow" campaign
In North America, Creme Eggs are advertised on television with a small white rabbit called the Cadbury Bunny (alluding to the Easter Bunny) who clucks like a chicken. Ads for caramel eggs use a larger gold-colored 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 majority of rabbits used in the Cadbury commercials are Flemish Giants.[citation needed]
In the UK, around the year 2000, selected stores were provided stand alone cardboard cutout 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.
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b c The Cadbury Schweppes Creme Egg Fact Sheet. Cadbury Schweppes.
- ^ Hershey's Cadbury Creme Egg, Original nutrition information. dietfacts.com.
- ^ The Cadbury Schweppes Creme Egg Fact Sheet (archived). Cadbury Schweppes, via the Internet Archive.
- ^ Cadbury Creme Egg
