Are you going to be handing over more cash for less Easter egg this year? You’ll need to have your wits about you to bag a bargain – or at least not get ripped off – as the surging cost of cocoa has pushed up the price of popular Easter eggs from many big brands, and some have shrunk, too.
But the consumer group Which? says there are still plenty of ways to get a good deal on Easter chocolate.
Check the weight
Easter eggs typically come in boxes, and it can be hard to see what you are getting for your money. To get the best value, the key thing is to look at the unit prices – those little figures showing you the cost per 100g – and the small print telling you what’s inside.
This is especially important if you are putting them into an online shopping basket, as some retailers are marking eggs as “medium” that others describe as “small”.
Among the fanciest eggs, there are some eye-popping per-gram prices. One of the priciest by weight is Pump Street Chocolate’s 180g Madagascar Milk 58% Chocolate Easter Egg costing £44. That works out at £24 per 100g. Fortnum & Mason’s 227g Handmade Milk & Dark Chocolate Easter Egg, costing £50, works out at £22 per 100g. The research on this was done by the digital PR agency JBH.
Shop around
That may sound obvious, but with some popular eggs the price differentials are a lot bigger than you may think.
Take the Milkybar white chocolate small Easter egg (72g). Up until a few days ago, Asda was selling this and a number of other smaller eggs for 98p each as part of its Rollback price cuts campaign. A the time of writing, Asda was offering it for £1.48, while at Poundland it was £1.25. At Tesco and Morrisons you would pay £1.50, and at Ocado £2.
“Check and compare Easter egg prices using Trolley.co.uk or the Google shopping tool to avoid paying over the odds,” says Reena Sewraz, the retail editor at Which?
She adds that the consumer group often finds Aldi and Lidl cheaper than other supermarkets, “but Asda might be a better option for a bigger choice of branded eggs”.
Use your loyalty card
If you are buying your eggs at the supermarket, you may find your loyalty card can cut the cost – in some cases dramatically. As you may expect, Tesco and Sainsbury’s are dangling some potentially big savings in front of their Clubcard and Nectar cardholders.
But again – particularly if you are spending quite a lot – you need to shop around and compare prices. Some of these loyalty scheme “price cuts” may not be as good as they first appear.
We went shopping for the Ferrero Rocher’s Golden Easter milk chocolate and hazelnut egg. It’s 250g in weight and comes with six Ferrero Rocher chocs. The Tesco we visited said the price was £17.50, reduced to £12 for Clubcard holders, which sounded like a chunky reduction. But then we went to a Sainsbury’s, and it said the price was £16, reduced to £10.75 for Nectar scheme members.
However, Asda was offering the egg for £9.98 – down from £11.98, said the website, courtesy of the Rollback scheme. Ocado was selling it for £12.42 (“Save 29%, was £17.50,” said the website). Waitrose had it on offer for £12.50, while Morrisons and Iceland were selling the egg for £14 and £12.
Meanwhile, when we looked, both Tesco Clubcard and Sainsbury’s Nectar members could get a 100g Lindt Gold Bunny – complete with red ribbon and little bell – for £3.50 instead of the usual £4.25. However, Asda was selling the milk chocolate bunny for £3.48, and Iceland, Waitrose and Ocado were among the retailers offering it for £3.50.
Alternatively, Tesco has its own 100g Easter chocolate bunny that is arguably not as aesthetically pleasing as Lindt’s, but is a lot kinder on the wallet: £1.50, reduced to £1 if you have a Clubcard.
Make use of multibuy offers
If you are buying for a few people, some retailers are doing multibuy deals on Easter eggs which could work out cheaper.
For example, when we looked this week, with a number of its eggs costing £4.98 each, Asda was running a “2 for £8.98” offer (a theoretical 98p saving when you buy two). And for many of its eggs costing £3.48 for one, it was doing “4 for £11.96” (a theoretical £1.96 saving).
Iceland is among the other retailers offering multibuy deals on some Easter eggs.
Be organised if buying online
Whether you are sending eggs to someone else or have a delivery to distribute (via the Easter bunny or otherwise), buying early will mean avoiding the priciest postage and packing costs.
At Hotel Chocolat, next-day delivery is £1 more than standard, costing £4.95 for one item or £5.95 for two or more.
At Cadbury, standard delivery to most of the UK costs £3.99 and takes three to four working days. A one- to two-working days option is £5.95, next-day delivery is £6.95, with items delivered Tuesday to Friday, and weekend delivery is £8.95.
Hold out until the last minute …
“If you can, hold out until Easter Sunday, when many of the eggs are likely to be reduced,” says Sewraz.
Equally, it is possible that if people are not buying or shops have too much stock, some retailers may start discounting over the next few days.
But waiting until the last minute could be risky: if you have a particular egg you want to buy, it might sell out before next Sunday.
… or beyond
There will definitely be some chunky price reductions after the Easter weekend as retailers offload unsold eggs and other stock.
“If you’ve missed the early deals and want the cheapest price for your eggs, the best deals can be found on the Tuesday after the Easter weekend,” says Anita Naik, at the website VoucherCodes.co.uk. “Over the past few years we’ve spotted eggs on the shelves or as little as 50p on this day, offering the best bang for your buck if you’re willing to wait.”
But of course, this isn’t like buying up cheap cards and wrapping paper just after Christmas – any choccy bargains will have to be eaten well before Easter 2026.
Make your own
If you find the commercialisation of Easter a turnoff and hate all the over-the-top packaging, you could try making your own chocolate eggs.
“Why not include the kids in a DIY baking activity, making your own eggs by melting down ordinary chocolate and adding festive toppings,” says Naik.
She says that this week, Aldi was selling a 120g bag of giant milk chocolate buttons for 99p, which can easily be melted down and placed into egg moulds. “Hobbycraft are selling egg moulds for as little as £2,” she adds (you can snag an extra 10% off via VoucherCodes.co.uk).
“If you don’t have time to pick up egg moulds, you can even use a balloon to make an Easter egg. Just search ‘balloon chocolate Easter egg’ on YouTube to find out how to do it,” Nail says.
Alternatively, the Guardian has published a number of guides on how to make a chocolate Easter egg.
Buy a bar of chocolate
It takes the magic out of it, but if you are buying for a chocolate fan and want the most cocoa for your cash, steering clear of the Easter aisle is likely to be your best bet.
Despite the price rises, there are still some cheap deals around: this week, Asda and Lidl were offering 100g bars of chocolate (milk and dark) for 59p each. The Asda chocolate is Rainforest Alliance-certified, while Lidl’s is Fairtrade.
That said, when it published its findings at the end of March, Which? said the biggest price rises it had uncovered involved “non-Easter chocolate”, including some budget own-brand bars. One example it quoted was a 200g bar of Asda fruit and nut milk chocolate, which the consumer group said had gone up from £1.33 to £2.30 in the space of a year, an increase of 73%.
* All prices correct at the time of writing
