Behind this iconic, adorably ‘elegant’ foil façade lies a singularly disappointing chocolate experience. There’s a reason you’re not reaching for Red Tulip chocolate any time other than Easter; it’s a wholly hollow experience made noteworthy only for its eye-rollingly brain-smashing sweetness. While haters complain that the Creme Egg is ‘too sweet’, after a mystifying recipe change in the early 2010s these coy bunnies now induce sugar hallucinations after only a bite, despite being filled with nothing but shattered childhood memories. There’s even a change.org petition to get parent company Cadbury to change the recipe back.

It’s hard to imagine, as a kid, anything more exciting at Easter than a toy packaged in chocolate. Beneath those thin double-layers of decent milk and white chocolate lie an almost-impenetrable plastic egg that conceals a build-it-yourself knick-knack. Sadly, it’s usually the kind of disappointing Christmas cracker-level novelty that ultimately ends up – along with its sizeable plastic shell – headed straight for landfill.

The first time you saw this giant ball wrapped in gold foil and nestled in a brown paper cup, we’re betting you imagined thick masses of chocolate and hazelnut layered around a giant hazelnut, like a giant version of its O.G. counterpart. At least, that’s what we did. The reality isn’t quite that grand, but just as delicious; peeling back the foil reveals a giant, hollow globe of delicious hazelnut-dotted chocolate (the plastic ball of years-past is gone, thankfully).

As kids, easter wasn’t easter without scoring a Humpty Dumpty egg that we could rattle like castanets until it was ‘accidentally’ dropped on the concrete by dad. Cadbury, who bought Humpty egg originators Red Tulip in 2013, have taken custody of the kicks-wearing, beanie-filled, funky chocolate king, and replaced the sickly Red Tulip chocolate with their own. These days, Mr Dumpty is an actual snack, not just a musical instrument.

Bunnies, despite their Easter ubiquity and undeniable cuteness, are an introduced blight on the Australian landscape, causing irreparable damage to our native flora and fauna. Among the native animals endangered by rabbits are the even-more-adorable bilbies, whose existence is threatened by urbanisation and introduced pests. In 1999 the simmering idea of replacing chocolate bunnies with bilbies gained widespread attention when Darrell Lea released theirs nationally, donating a percentage of the profits to Save The Bilby efforts. Cadbury joined the movement in the 2010s, but diminishing public interest has seen the small chocolate mammal all but discontinued, mimicking the real-world fate of its mammalian counterpart. That’s why we’re keen to support Fyna Foods, The Chocolate Box, and any other local producer still flying the bilby flag. (Pictured: Fyna Foods Pink Lady Milk Chocolate Foiled Bilby.)

The Lindt bunny is more tortoise than hare, noteworthy only for its bright, gold foil wrapping and the metal bell hanging from a red ribbon around its neck. But when it’s made of chocolate as delicious as Lindt’s Swiss milk, who needs flashy…? Dependable, reliable, and always welcome.

For decades, Australian confectioners Darrell Lea have been known for two things: their soft, black liquorice, and their self-monikered marshmallow, coconut and peanut-filled ‘Rocklea road’ rocky road. At Easter, both are transformed into deliciously lumpy, treat-filled eggs that any fan of locally-made, palm oil-free chocolate would be thrilled to find nestled behind a pot plant.

Sure, other eggs are flashier; studded with nuts or filled with toys. But while we all love finding a honeycomb-dotted boxed egg on our annual egg hunt, it’s the simplicity and volume of these foil-wrapped Cadbury milk chocolate eggs that makes them such a favourite. Sold by the bag-and-box-full, these solid and hollow eggs are the ones you wake to find spread across the entire living room or back yard. Quick, grab a basket and try to collect more than your siblings…!

Honeycomb. Rice bubbles. Nuts. Mint chips. Coconut. Sultanas. Chillies. There’s barely an ingredient you won’t find chocolate mixed, infused or filled with at easter. But of all the delicious combinations waiting on our supermarket shelves, few are as perfect as the Malteser bunny. Not content with replicating the classic Malteser crunchy malt/chocolate coating, the geniuses at Mars have added a creamy, gooey, malty centre. Bye bye bunny.

We know it’s not everybody’s favourite, but the Cadbury Creme Egg is the clear, obvious, objective bearer of the Easter chocolate crown. There’s nothing – literally nothing – like a Creme Egg, and no other time of year to eat it. Everything else on the list is available, in some de-Eastered form, all year (except Red Tulip, thank the food gods…), but the Creme Egg, with its satisfyingly gooey egg-like centre, is Easter. And Easter is delicious.