The Truth About Queen Victoria And Cadbury Mini Eggs
In this day of 24/7 media coverage, we know quite a bit about the eating habits of the British royal family, particularly those of head-of-the-table Queen Elizabeth II. Her fondness for cakes and cookies charms many people, who can also totally relate to the queen's love of chocolate. It appears her sweet tooth may run in the family, though, as her ancestress Queen Victoria was also quite the queen of tarts...and pies, cakes, and candies.
According to "The Private Life of the Queen," an 1897 tell-all biography penned by an anonymous "Member of the Royal Household," Queen Victoria's pantry was always stocked with sweet treats including sponge cakes, wafers, pralines, and petit fours. She, too, must have been quite a chocolate fan, as in 1854 she granted the Royal Warrant to Cadbury, the popular Easter confectioner from England.
Did the queen ever have the opportunity to sample any of Cadbury's famous holiday candies? History — and that behind-the-scenes palace bio — do not seem to have recorded it, but she was still on the throne when Cadbury released an early precursor to its Mini Eggs.
Queen Victoria could have tried Cadbury's earliest chocolate eggs
According to Cadbury's historians (such a sweet gig!), the company's earliest chocolate Easter eggs came out in 1875. Victoria's 63-year reign lasted until her death in 1901, so she had ample time to try them had she been so inclined. But were those eggs similar to the ones we know today? Well, yes and no.
Cadbury describes those earliest candy eggs as made of dark chocolate and stuffed with something called "dragees," which were sugar-coated chocolate drops. Come to think of it, they do sound rather like Mini Eggs, per Cadbury's website. It seems as if the OG egg may have resembled a dark chocolate Creme Egg filled not with sweet, creamy goo, but extra-mini Minis. The modern Minis did not come out until 1967, the Daily Mail reports, while Cadbury Creme Eggs debuted (under the Fry's brand name) in 1963, so we'll never know whether these confections would have amused Good Queen Vic.
It does seem that her great-great-granddaughter might not be such a fan, though. According to not-so-anonymous tell-all chef Darren McGrady, via Reader's Digest, Queen Liz only likes high-cacao dark chocolate. In this case, even the Royal Dark Mini Eggs probably won't suit her royal palate.