Easter eggs-travaganza

Price Watch Conor Pope

Green and Black's Dark Chocolate Egg

€5.30 for 110g, €48 per kg

Highs: This is an organic, fair-trade egg and, because it is made with very good quality dark chocolate, it is presumably better for you than some of the alternatives. Whatever about its right-on credentials and its wholesome properties, it has a lovely bitter-sweet taste. The egg is nice and compact and the packaging is very simple.

Lows: Except for the plastic - the company's eco-friendly position is eroded somewhat by the presence of a hard plastic case used to keep the egg upright. And one person's compact is another person's too small. While it is comparatively cheap, it is depressing to realise how much you're paying to eat this in egg form - a 100g bar of the same chocolate sells for just €2.85. The absence of any goodies is also a bit disappointing.

Verdict: Great tasting and better for you

Star rating: ****

Lindt Gold Bunny Luxury Egg

€17.99 for 250g, €71.96 per kg

Highs: It is brash and gold and absolutely huge, making it more like a US rapper's medallion than a humble Easter egg. The chocolate is very good quality and the box offers all sorts of interesting (well, vaguely so) facts about Easter-related issues. The cutesy bunny rabbit family made up of a mammy with a little bell round her neck and her four babies that sits under the egg is a novel (if slightly disturbing) way of offering extra chocolate.

Lows: It's impossible to say what the rabbit family actually tasted like as we simply didn't have the heart to eat them. There is far too much packaging and it is very, very expensive.

Verdict: It's all about the bling.

Star rating: ***

Fabergé Egg in Gift Box

€12.80 for 100g, €128 per kg

Highs: If you don't want to be too obvious this Easter, but still want to mark the occasion, this might work. It will make a good present for someone who appreciates chocolate but doesn't want to gorge themselves on it. The small and nicely patterned metal egg opens to reveal five extremely high-end truffle chocolate eggs within. It comes in a classy-looking silver-coloured box and is the most expensive looking of the eggs reviewed.

Lows: Which is handy because gram for gram this is the most expensive of the eggs reviewed by a massive margin - each of the little eggs, about half the size of a crème egg, costs €2.56, so you'd better make sure you savour every single mouthful. And while the tin is nice, it's hard to imagine it serving any function once the chocolates are eaten.

Verdict: Unusual but pricey.

Star rating: ***

Thornton's Classics

€11.25 for 265g, €42.45 per kg

Highs: This egg looks very impressive and the 10 assorted chocolates in a tray underneath the egg are lovely, with the exception of the Turkish Delight, obviously. The box carries descriptions of the chocolates, which takes away the element of surprise that might lead to you inadvertently eating the Turkish Delight. This egg isn't as expensive as it looks and we could have had someone's name written on it in white chocolaty lettering if we'd had the time or the inclination.

Lows: While it is undoubtedly good quality, the chocolate egg is a bit dull and the whole ensemble looks kind of old fashioned (another word is probably classic to be fair).

Verdict: A proper present.

Star rating: ****

AND FOR THE KIDS...

Thornton's Milk Chocolate Easter Bunny

€8 for 250g, €32 per kg

Highs: This very well made and presented bunny has considerable novelty value and the chocolate tastes pretty good too. In fact, it almost seems like a shame to eat it, but eat it we must. The chocolate is very thick and quite substantial and made with 30 per cent cocoa solids but it is more about the presentation than the chocolate, in truth. This egg gets bonus points for proving that it's possible to keep the thing upright without having to resort to industrial strength plastic packaging.

Lows: It's hard to know how to eat it - we started at the ears - and, without wanting to indulge in gender stereotyping, it is a bit too cutesy and probably not best given to a boy.

Verdict: Cutesy and tasty.

Star rating: *****

Marks & Spencer Cheeky Chick

€7.49 for 230g, €32.56 per kg

Highs: According to the packaging, this odd-looking bird is "visiting its country cousins" - or at least it was until we intercepted it and ate it. This chick's target audience is presumably very young girls who will probably love it right down to the pink sugary sunglasses on its head and the little red mobile phone that it's carrying in its breast pocket.

Lows: Everyone else, however, might not be so easily impressed. This is made with an unholy combination of incredibly sweet, vile-tasting white chocolate and even sweeter and more vile-tasting pink sugar paste. The feet - one of which fell off in a most unsettling way while we were biting the head off this chocolate chicken - looked like plastic, and they tasted only marginally better.

Verdict: Terrifying unless you're tiny.

Star rating: **

Toblerone

€8.99 for 285g, €31.54 per kg

Highs: It's nice to see this duty-free favourite reinventing itself in the shape of an egg. This good-sized box will gladden the heart of the grumpiest of children. Alongside the egg are 18 chunks of Toblerone in five flavours. (Who would have known that Toblerone came in five different flavours?) The individually wrapped pieces all taste excellent, with the dark chocolate one deserving of special praise.

Lows: It has to be said that the actual egg is extraordinarily dull and quite thin. Its case wasn't helped much when it exploded, scattering shards of chocolate all over the place, as we tried to (gently) prise it open.

Verdict: A good egg.

Star rating: ***

Cadbury's Dairy Milk Fruit & Nut

€5.99 for 275g, €21.78 per kg

Highs: The egg is made not with ordinary chocolate, as is the case with all the other brands, but with fruit-and-nut chocolate, which makes it satisfyingly misshapen and lumpy when cracked open. It is also quite substantial and it's hard to imagine anyone getting through much of it in a single sitting. It tastes very familiar and is easy to lay your hands on if you're searching for a last-minute present. It's also commendably cheap and very reliable.

Lows: Initially we expected that the treats would be actually in the egg, so the disappointment upon finding that the two bars of fruit and nut merely sat on top of the egg, was ever greater. It is also a slightly dull choice.

Verdict: Cheap, safe option.

Star rating: ***