Why UK Cadbury Creme Eggs Are Banned In The United States

Cadbury Creme Eggs are an Easter favorite. As KUTV reports, these chocolate eggs were voted the favorite Easter candy in 29 states in 2019 in a survey conducted by Retailmenot. The chocolate egg with the creamy center that looks like an egg yolk has quite a devoted following. But did you know that the Cadbury eggs in America are different from those in the UK? And not only are the UK's version of the Cadbury Creme Egg different from ours, but there's also a rumor the UK's version of this sugary treat has been banned in the United States. This seems like quite the fish tale, but turns out there is some veracity to this one.

Cadbury Creme Eggs sold in the UK really are different from those sold in the U.S. and cannot be imported into the country. Per Mic, the brouhaha erupted in 2015. The whole thing stems from the fact that the two countries use two different recipes to make their chocolatey creme eggs. That doesn't seem like a big deal to us, but apparently the makers of the American product didn't want to compete with the British product. That doesn't sound very American to us, either, but there was indeed drama in the courts and Hershey's Chocolate, the maker of Cadbury Creme Eggs in the US, basically won full-time custody of churning out the little eggs that are sold on American soil. Of course, there's more to this story.  

There are, naturally, two sides to every coin, and the outrage, according to The New York Times, is really over a licensing agreement. Jeff Beckman, a spokesperson for Hershey told the outlet, "It is important for Hershey to protect its trademark rights and to prevent consumers from being confused or misled when they see a product name or product package that is confusingly similar to a Hershey name or trade dress." But lovers of the British Cadbury Creme Eggs feel that it is because those made in the U.K. taste better and shared their dismay on social media using #cremeegggate. Apparently, milk is the first ingredient of the creme eggs made in Britain, while sugar is the first ingredient for those made in the good old USA. The British Cadbury Creme Eggs are purportedly creamier and "fudgier" than ours. 

So, which country gets to claim world domination when it comes to these chocolate eggs? Per The Florida Times-Union, in 2009, a Royal Society of Chemistry taste challenge pitted Hershey's chocolate against Cadbury's. The winner? Cadbury chocolate, with a clear 74 percent of participants favoring the British product. Still, harkening back to that 2019 Retailmenot survey, where over half the country voted Cadbury Creme Eggs as their favorite Easter candy, we can only conclude that even if the two products are different, the American version is still pretty good.