Value For Money: Adults’ Easter Eggs

This week, Value for Moneysamples five varieties of adults' easter eggs

*****Excellent ***** Great *** Fine ** Below Par * Awful

Celtic Milk Chocolate Egg and Mints, €11.50 for 260g,

€44.23 per kg

Highs:If you like mint chocolate then this Irish-made egg is definitely the one for you. The 16 foil-wrapped chocolate mints which accompany the egg are wonderfully zingy and as refreshing as any chocolate could hope to be. It rivals the better-known Green Blacks option with its organic nature and total reliance on fair trade ingredients. The chocolate had a pleasing toffee flavour and was nice if nothing special. It was also the second cheapest of the options we reviewed.

Lows:In truth, we were not mad about the packaging and felt that the washed-out lime colour made the whole affair look a bit drab and a bit cheap – something you're not generally speaking looking for in a present.

Verdict:Top notch for mint lovers

Star rating: ***

Green & Blacks, €8.29 for 180g, €46.05 per kg

Highs:It's hard not to like Green & Blacks with all the organic feel-goodness going on. This egg looks upmarket without being too flash and comes with a little gift tag wishing the recipient a happy and green Easter – this year the company has removed the plastic from its packaging, allowing it to make more of its greenness. The chocolate is wonderfully creamy – although if you don't like it dark, this will not be for you as it is decidedly bitter. While it is by no means the best dark chocolate in the world, it is very good.

Lows:It is nice to get a little extra with our egg as it makes the high price paid that little bit more palatable. A 100g bar of the chocolate costs €2.83, incidentally, making this egg nearly twice the price of the regular chocolate.

Verdict:Pricey but nice

Star rating:***

Ferrero Rocher Deluxe Milk Chocolate Egg, €14.99 for 275g, €54.50 per kg

Highs:They might be the most expensive of the Easter eggs we reviewed and the company who made it might well have been responsible for the most ridiculous marketing campaign the world has ever seen, but Pricewatch still has a soft spot for the hazelnutty flavours of Ferrero Rocher. We were delighted to discover that not only did we get eight individual chocolates, but the egg was also heavily flecked with pieces of hazelnut-flavoured Croquante, and was, according to one taster, "a whole lot nicer than the chocolates". It also scored well for having less plastic packaging than we expected.

Lows:But can we ever forgive them for the "Monsieur, with these Rocher you're really spoiling us" line? Probably not.

Verdict:We loved it despite ourselves

Star rating: ****

Lily O’Brien’s Milk Chocolate Egg, 12.99 for 285g, €45.57 per kg

Highs:Wrapped in flaming pink foil, this certainly creates an impression, although if you were to give it to a man of your acquaintance he may take offence. It is cheerful and very tasty. The honeycomb bits in the egg are lovely – if you like Crunchies, this will be right up your street. When we managed to extract the egg from the pot – no easy task thanks to the Clingfilm-sticky tape combo – we got three very unremarkable truffles for our trouble.

Lows:This very thin egg was too easy to accidentally break – although we do accept that we can't have it both ways and complain about too much packaging on the one hand and too little on the other. Speaking of packaging, this was sitting on a cheap-looking plastic pot that was utterly useless.

Verdict:Very tasty but fragile

Star rating: ****

Lindt Lindor, €8.99 for 215g, €41.81 per kg

Highs:This stylish-looking chocolate egg scores highly in the presentation stakes and the chocolate isn't half bad either. It was the cheapest of the products reviewed and at 45 per cent cocoa solid, was also the richest. The best thing about this, however, is the gorgeous assortment of bite-sized, foil-covered eggs.

Lows:When you take this out of the box, prepare for disappointment as there is a lot of empty space in the plastic case. The main egg was not enormous, and the number of mini-eggs was also slightly disappointing; although, had there been many more, we might eventually have got sick of them – or just sick, as they are very rich and very sweet. The price is somewhat out of line with the actual weight of chocolate we got, although that is a problem shared by most Easter eggs.

Verdict:Not much to complain about

Star rating: ***