Rumours are rife that Mini Eggs are being discontinued - so we've set the record straight.
They're the little drops of joy that we reach for during the Easter festivities, providing a nice switch-up in-between munching your classic kid's Easter eggs. Tasty milk chocolate with a crunchy shell finished in a sweet pastel shade - there's really not much to dislike about the Cadbury classics, which is why rumours of them being scrapped feel particularly devastating.
Fans were dealt a blow in 2019 when they learned that packets of Mini Eggs were shrinking in size. Further outrage was shared online in 2021 as people struggled to find Mini Eggs on supermarket shelves. This led to many bakers having to decorate a number of Mini Egg recipes with Terry's Chocolate Orange pieces instead (the travesty). Two years on, is the end really nigh for the popular treats? We share what we know.
Are Mini Eggs being discontinued?
No, Cadbury's classic Mini Eggs are not being discontinued in the UK. Whilst the popular milk chocolate variety is safe, sadly the company did decide to scrap their Royal Dark Mini Eggs in 2019.
According to NunuChocolate: "Cadbury had no choice but to discontinue the product in 2019 due to declining sales and changing consumer preferences."
Deeply saddened to finish my last bag of Cadbury Dark Chocolate Mini Eggs. I should’ve bought more than 5 bags! pic.twitter.com/JcDG1eRve0May 23, 2019
The move certainly upset some fans with a penchant for the dark chocolate offering. So much so that one outraged consumer Virginia Trible launched a petition online.
"Dark chocolate mini eggs were better than milk chocolate mini eggs. Cadbury’s royal dark mini eggs were discontinued and should be brought back. Sign this petition to help bring the good old days back!" reads the petition page.
However, the dark chocolate variety was only available in the US, so hasn't affected chocolate lovers in the UK.
Happily, Cadbury's has launched a new flavour of Mini Eggs for Easter 2024. Cadbury Mini Eggs Orange (£1.50 at Tesco) are on sale now, priced at £1.50 per 80g bag, and our Shopping Editor, Heidi Scrimgeour, is hooked. "Honestly, I didn't think anything could be done to improve the Mini Egg, which is basically the perfect chocolate treat," she says. "And then Cadbury went and added orange-flavoured chocolate to the inside of those delicious crunchy shells, and I'm utterly addicted and already dreading their disappearance from supermarket shelves when Easter is over."
Mini Eggs - supply issues
Whilst Cadbury's are still producing everyone's favourite pint-sized Easter treats, some retailers did say that they struggled to stock Mini Eggs in stores back in April 2022.
At the time, business owner Goran Raven - who owns a Budgens store in Essex - told ConvenienceStore.co.uk that many in his trade had been frustrated at the short supply of mini eggs.
"My biggest bugbear is that we haven’t been able to get Mini Eggs since February," he said. "I spoke to 15 different retailers at a trade show and none of them have had Mini Eggs for several weeks.
"We got the goods in just after Christmas. They sold out and we’ve not been able to replace them. The Mini Egg bars and shell eggs are all over the place, but the 80g bags, you can’t find them."
Similar business owners in the West Midlands and further afield in Northern Ireland also moaned about a lack of Mini Eggs. "There’s a shortage of all things Easter - Mini Eggs and Creme Eggs," said Ballymena-based business owner Eugene Diamond.
Only the hard hitting subjects here but is there a national shortage of single packs of mini eggs? 3 shops in town have totally sold out. I'm rattling here 😬February 5, 2022
It wasn't just store owners that were aware of the mini egg shortage, with several fans of the chocolate treat taking to social media to share their woes.
"Is there a shortage of mini eggs? We’ve had to use a Terry’s chocolate Orange alternative this weekend to maintain adequate levels of Easter baked filth," tweeted @WakelinsCoffee shop, back in April 2022.
Around the same time, Twitter user Brett Bonnell also expressed how the shortage was affecting him. "What a travesty… This will be the first time in at least a decade that I haven’t had numerous bags of Mini Eggs," he wrote. "I actually haven’t had any this year and that is not by choice. I just haven’t found any. Was there a shortage that I didn’t know about?"
At the time, Mondelez International who manufacture Cadbury Mini Eggs, insisted that there wasn't a problem. "Cadbury Mini Eggs plays a key role in the seasonal occasion, as one of the nation’s favourite Easter brands," said the firm. "We’re pleased to confirm that there are no production challenges or shortages of Cadbury Mini Eggs at present."
Thus far, it looks safe to say that the same situation won't be a problem this Easter.
