Chocolate for children

Four junior experts assess shelf appeal, taste and texture

Critters that look too cute to eat, fried-egg confections, mini-egg fiestas and – of course – a seasonal dinosaur: the 2024 line-up of edible children’s treats might grab attention on the shelf, but do they actually taste any good? We invited four experts to the judging table, calling upon the discerning palates of Huxley, 12, Inez, 11, Fintan, 10, and Emmeline, seven. ‘I’m feeling a little bit sick now,’ admitted Huxley to Amy Bryant and Mia Wallis of the Telegraph food desk, after nibbling through more than 10 creations with his fellow tasters. This quartet’s traditional bank-holiday binges might from now on be more of a considered graze.

Asda Belgian Milk Chocolate Patch the Bunny £4.50 for 150g

‘I can barely smell any chocolate and the flavour is a bit too milky,’ says Fintan, while Huxley doesn’t like the way ‘it sticks to your mouth. I wouldn’t buy it,’ he says resolutely. 

Choc on Choc Belgian Chocolate Bunnies

£9.99 for 50g ‘They’re so adorable,’ says Emmeline. ‘I like the way one of them looks like it has sneaked a carrot it’s trying to hide from us.’ But the trio of solid whitechocolate shapes ‘is a bit sickly’. 

Lidl Mister Choc Mini Eggs Blast Easter Egg

£3.49 for 200g

‘Oh wow, that’s so cool,’ says Inez, ‘the egg looks really tempting.’ Fintan rates the design, too, while Huxley says it’s ‘very soft and sweet’, and likes it better than the other white-chocolate options. 

Fortnum & Mason Milk Chocolate Easter Bunny in a Box

£32 for 130g A realistic, hand-painted rabbit. (‘I like that you can stroke it but I feel angry to break it open,’ admits Emmeline.) The chocolate is ‘thicker than I expected’, says Fintan, but ‘tastes a bit earthy’. 

Chococo Handcrafted Milk Chocolate Bunny in a Box £10 for 115g This has serious shelf appeal among our testers (Emmeline likes the ‘spacey splatters’, while Inez says it looks ‘so cool’). All agree it is ‘quite dark-tasting’, however, which splits opinion. 

Daylesford Organic Spotty Pig Easter Egg

£18 for 200g

‘This smells like real chocolate, not cheap chocolate,’ declares Emmeline, ‘but it tastes too earthy.’ Inez loves the little felt piglet inside but rightly asks, ‘What has a pig got to do with Easter?!’ 

Aldi Dairyfine Honey the Golden Retriever £2.99 for 150g

‘Look at his cute nose!’ says Emmeline, ‘I want to nibble it.’ Luckily, the caramel-flavoured blonde chocolate ‘tastes so good’. Inez confirms: ‘I could eat a lot of this in one go.’ 