The 10 best eco eggs for Easter

We like a good old fashioned Easter egg hunt, but we do take it slightly personally if someone gets us milk chocolate when dark is our favourite, or non-organic when they know we prefer organics. And never mind "it's the thought that counts" -- when it comes to Easter eggs, it's the flavour and the ethical and green credentials. We've tasted ten Easter eggs that all sound like they would make us happy on that front. Check them out and see which one fits your bill.

Cadbury's Eco-egg
First impression: Cadbury's bog-standard milk chocolate. We find it too sickly sweet and too milky. We also think Cadbury's has been a little stingy in just giving us two caramel mini-eggs. But then again, they're so sweet that we'd challenge anyone to eat more than those two anyway. That said, we also know that there are a lot of Cadbury's fans out there who would never eat anything but Cadbury's milk chocolate. If your Easter egg-receiver is one of those, we strongly recommend this egg. It tastes exactly like all other Cadbury's chocolate, but the packaging is 20 per cent less.
Green: Less packaging
Ethical credentials: The Cadbury Cocoa Partnership (Cadbury's own 'fair trade' programme)
Price: £1.69

Booja Booja eggs with truffles
First impression: Wow! These eggs are beautiful. If you're after a traditional Easter egg, these probably won't do the job, but we would love to receive one of these any day. They're twice the size of a large (real) chicken's egg, they made from something that resembles papier-mache which has been hand-painted by artists in Kashmir, and they contain three certified vegan and organic truffles. Our favourite is the Hazelnut Crunch flavour, but there are also Champagne Truffles and Around Midnight Espresso Truffles eggs. According to one SmartPlaneteer, the beautiful shells make for very good jewellery boxes throughout the year, too.
Green: Certified organic and vegan
Ethical: Vegan and Booja Booja only sells its products through independent retailers
Price: £7.99

Green & Black's Milk Chocolate Egg with the Miniature bar Collection
First impression: Green & Black's definitely didn't hear about the trend of cutting down on packaging. The egg itself is encased in a big plastic holder, the Miniature Bar Collection is packaged separately and both are encased in a big cardboard box. Luckily the cardboard is made from recycled cardboard. Flavour-wise, we're more than happy, though. The big egg is made from Green & Black's trademark milk chocolate, which has a slightly deeper and less sweet flavour than other 'ordinary' milk chocolates. It's creamy and well-balanced -- just how we like our milk chocolate. The Miniature Bar Collection means you can give this egg to anyone (and not get in trouble) as there's most definitely at least one of Green & Black's chocolate that will please his or her taste buds. We know, we've tried them all. Numerous times.
Green: Certified organic by the Soil Association
Ethical: Green & Black's Maya Gold was the first certified Fairtrade product in the UK. Unfortunately the Easter egg and miniature bar collection don't contain any Fairtrade chocolates
Price: £9.99

Montezuma's Organic Emperor Egg Box
First impression: The packaging is so cool and simple we don't understand how nobody (including ourselves) has thought of it before: an ordinary egg crate that can be composted or recycled after the eggs are gone. It contains six eggs, two milk chocolate vanilla and peppermint-flavoured eggs, two dark chocolate orange and geranium-flavoured eggs and two dark chocolate chilli-flavoured eggs. It's slightly strange eating mint-flavoured milk chocolate, but it sort of works. The orange and geranium and the chilli eggs are beautiful and you can taste that they've all been made with good-quality ingredients.
Green: Certified organic by the Soil Association
Ethical: Fairly traded according to Montezuma's own principles
Price: £12.95

The Co-operative truly irresistible Fairtrade Belgian chocolate Easter egg with chocolate truffle selection
First impression: We really appreciate that 73 per cent of the ingredients are certified Fairtrade and we think both the dark and white swirls on the egg are pretty, but we're not too keen on the flavour of the actual egg. It tastes of generic, sugary airport milk chocolate. The truffles are exactly what you would think of when you think Belgian truffles with flavourful, smooth ganaches and a crunchy shell. While the majority of the SmartPlanet team likes the truffles, we agree that neither the egg nor the truffles taste like they've been made with top-notch ingredients.
Green: Erm, we can't find anything in particular
Ethical: Certified Fairtrade
Price: £5.99

Waitrose Organic Fairtrade Milk Chocolate Easter Egg
First impression: It looks and tastes exactly like the kind of sweet, slightly acidic milk chocolate Easter eggs we had as kids. But it's moved with the times and is both certified organic and Fairtrade, which of course we love. Even though the flavour makes us a little nostalgic, we don't actually like the egg. Advent calendar chocolate-lovers will adore it, though. It comes in a big, transparent plastic box and while we like the no-nonsense design of both box and egg, we can't help but think it looks a little wasteful and cheap.
Green: Certified organic by the Soil Association
Ethical: Certified Fairtrade by the Fairtrade Foundation
Price: £8.99

Divine 70% Dark Chocolate Egg with Dark Chocolate covered Brazil Nuts
First impression: Made with 85 per cent certified Fairtrade ingredients, Divine's egg is probably the most ethical Easter egg you'll be able to find anywhere. And it's yummy too. The egg, which is aptly shaped like a cocoa pod, is made from Divine's famous dark chocolate, which we're big fans of. Mixed in with the chocolate are crunchy Brazil nuts imported by another Fairtrade pioneer, Equal Exchange. The big box is made from 60 per cent recycled cardboard and is also recyclable. We like the distinct lack of plastic in the packaging ensemble. This is the egg to give to ethically minded, dark chocolate lovers.
Green: General Fairtrade sustainability standards
Ethical: Certified Fairtrade; read our review for more specific info
Price: £4.99

Marks and Spencer Organic milk chocolate half egg filled with hand decorated dark, milk and white hollow chocolate mini eggs
First impression: Well, M&S has done the describing job for us with that name! The milk chocolate is very inoffensive -- we could eat it and we could leave it. The small, prettily decorated dark and white eggs are more interesting, with very typical but good quality flavours. We also like the fact that the shells' thickness varies, which makes the eggs look less factory-made. Although we still think it's quite over-packaged, we appreciate M&S' use of the hollow half egg (all that space in all those hollow Easter eggs must add up!). We also like the Plan A retailer's pledge to cut all Easter packaging by 20 per cent this Easter. This particular product's packaging has been reduced by 75 per cent compared to last year.
Green: Certified organic; less packaging; FSC and recycled cardboard packaging
Ethical: General Plan A creds
Price: £8.99

The Chocolate Alchemist 'Jewelled' Egg with Raspberry and Coconut
First impression: A couple of SmartPlaneteers felt there was too much going on here flavour-wise, but the rest of us were thrilled by this rich, exciting, chunky dark chocolate Easter egg. We love how the raspberry takes the edge off the intense cocoa flavour. The coconut isn't that prominent, but we like it that way. It's so rich that even serious chocoholics would be able to make this last for ages. On top of that, it's handmade, certified organic and vegan -- and while the packaging doesn't have any particular green creds, there's not a lot of it with just enough to cover the gigantic egg. A true Easter miracle.
Green: Certified organic and vegan
Ethical: We can't find anything that looks particularly ethical
Price: £14.50

Daylesford Organic Dark Chocolate Granola Egg
First impression: Another fantastically rich dark chocolate egg. Like the raspberry in the Chocolate Alchemist egg, the granola in this one takes the edge off the deep, dark flavour of the chocolate. Serious choc fans would love this one, whereas we think children and milk chocolate-eaters would find it too overbearing flavour-wise. Its shell is thick and the whole egg is very sturdy. We like that the packaging is understated and doesn't advertise the great quality of the chocolate egg inside -- Daylesford has done the right thing in making a strong egg that can cope in minimal packaging. Its Soil Association certification obviously warms our hearts, too.
Green: Soil Association-certified; minimal packaging
Ethical: While it doesn't sport a Fairtrade Mark, Daylesford assures us it's produced according to international Fairtrade standards
Price: £12.95

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