Here at Rawlingson Lane we will take any opportunity to have a taste test, so with Easter just around the corner we donned our fluffy ears and burrowed away! Rather than trying an array of sweet treats and bakes this year we opted to sample a range of plant-based and vegan Easter eggs. According to a recent Mintel report the UK took top spot on Easter chocolate innovation and as all of us are chocoholics in the office we took this insight pretty seriously… see below for our results.

There were five contenders in this year’s line up:

1. Happi Oat Milk – Milk Chocolate Egg - (RRP £6.40)

2. Montezuma 100% Cocoa Egg - (RRP £10)

3. Nomo Orange Crunch Egg - (RRP £6)

4. Nomo Creamy Choc Egg - (RRP £5)

5. Doisy and Dam Good Eggs – (RRP £2.50)

We pulled together a very thorough scoring system as we take our taste tests very seriously! First up there was the taste, then the texture and finally,, the similarity to real chocolate, which let’s face it, is the element that everyone needs to know.

The first egg to hatch was the Happi Oat Milk – Milk Chocolate Egg. This was a bit like Marmite, as people in the office either loved it or hated it. It had a very creamy texture, and the hint of oat milk really came through. As a lot of us in the office love an oat milk latte, it was surprising that the taste of oat milk within the chocolate divided people. Personally, I would choose to buy this Easter egg again due to the original taste and the satisfying consistency! The taste of the egg scored 44/60, texture scored 52/60 and the similarity to chocolate scored 45/60. Overall coming in with a total score of 141/181!

Next up was the Nomo Orange Crunch Egg. This was very popular amongst most of the office and scored highly on all criteria! What we particularly liked about this egg was the consistency of the ‘chocolate’ which paired well with the tangy orange flavoured jelly pieces. Alongside the egg there was a tasty ‘chocolate’ orange mini bunny which was an excellent addition. Some of us in the office even preferred it to a certain well-known chocolate orange! Overall this cracked  a score of : taste 54/60, texture 51/60 and similarity to chocolate 56/60. This came to a total 161/180!

Following the success of the orange crunch egg, we were all excited to try Nomo’s creamy choc egg! However, in the end we were all a little let down with the after taste of this one. Saying that it did have a nice texture which was very similar to that of your standard dairy Easter egg. The scoring was sadly a little disappointing: Taste 40/60, Texture 50/60, similarity to chocolate 45/60, leading to a total of 135/180!

Next up was the Montezuma absolute black eco egg. We all looked at the packaging and thought that this would be a fantastic egg… and it is… if you like a 100% cocoa dark chocolate with no sweeteners! None of us in the office could handle the very bitter tasty and crumbly texture, but that could just be us. As this wasn’t technically ‘plant based’ as it only contained chocolate, we couldn’t fairly compare it, so we decided to do a ‘would by again’ vote. However, we got our scoring sheet, and the results are as follows: Taste 20/60, texture 28/60, would buy again 29/60, resulting in a total score of 77/180.

Finally, we tried Doisy and Dam’s Good Eggs. These could only be described as a mini egg dupe, and you know what, they were very yummy indeed! They had a sweet plant based dark chocolate centre and a crisp sugar shell which we all liked and overall it scored pretty well too. The bright colour shells would make for a lovely decoration to any vegan sweet treats this Easter and we would recommend buying these again. The final scores for these Good Eggs are as follows: Taste 45/60, texture 48/60 and similarity to chocolate 51/60, giving a total score of 144/180.

The final results showed the Nomo Orange Crunch Egg came in at the top spot, closely followed by Doisy and Dam’s Good Eggs and in third place was the Happi Oat Milk Chocolate Egg. A very successful taste test if you ask us!