Well, it was a bit of fun, and not as expensive as I thought it might be, some of them were only a quid or two, but I have got about 20-quids worth of chocolate rabbits to eat, just as I was sliming-down down that middle-age spread, having gone back to work, at something semi-physical!
But I didn't purchase every bunny I found, just a cross-section of the more normal ones, I regret the grinning Kinder Bunny, as it's really in the class I avoided, but I console myself with the fact that at least I know what it will taste like!
Aldi's had a plethora of Bunnies, including a colour variant of the one I obtained (left), which was the 'specially selected' hazelnut one, and a more colourful range of both upright and squatting milk-chocolate ones . . . maybe next year! The
Aldi Rabbit also won several of the online taste-tests, so I'm saving it till last!
I seem to recall touching on the Rabbit Wars, a few years ago, when
Lindt finally had to admit the basic shape predated their Rabbit by decades, allowing
Aldi,
Lidl and others to turn-on the taps which have led to today's choice. Since when there has been the Caterpillar Cake War, and regular flare-ups!
The Lindt, though, remains a nicely smooth 'European' chocolate, and comes in about six sizes, of which the larger ones tend to have more limited availability, and I only got the smallest three, having half a mind how the posts would develop!
I didn't see
Lidl's Lindt clone, but they got too confident after the previous round of Rabbit Wars, and made one so similar (in packaging) they had to destroy tons of them a couple of years ago! But their upright did run to two colours, of which I took the blue, naturally, but pink was there!
Rejected uprights included the three licensed or 'product placed' Rabbits from
Smarties,
Milkybar and
M&M's, all stupid looking, and while OK for kids, a further example of how a few corporations have literally turned us into consumer-sheep in a few decades, nasty!
And don't get me wrong, many years ago I asked for a Smarties egg, and still have the mug, it's one of my favourite mugs, but firstly, that was when A) an egg in a mug was as good as it got, and B) Smarties still tasted nice, and of chocolate, the last few times I've bought smarties I've regretted it, they're flowery-chalky pap now!
The three uprights I did end-up with included the
Cadbury's Peter, because it was Peter, not because I like their chocolate, I don't! The
Lidl Favorina and the
Kinder, if I'd been thinking straighter, I'd have got the
Thornton's and shot the
Kinder, but given the amount of
Kinder on the blog, and the fact there may be a toy worth a post in its belly, means it happened the way it happened!
Bare chocolate Rabbits were around, and while the
Thornton's was expensive for what is now no more than another shelf-brand, I think most of their shops have gone now, just a few dozen franchise 'boutiques' mostly shared with other brands, like
Ferrero (
Kinder), while the
Favorina (
Lidl) was too daft-looking, another one for the kids!
While this one wasn't as big as its message gives the impression it was, to the casual observer, rejected for being daft-looking! I think I shot it in
Aldi?
These three all seem to have used the same contractor, or the same commercially available 'off the shelf' mould-tool? From the left we have
Tesco's,
Morrisons' and
Asda's, with only the wrapping being different, I will eat these in sequence, to see if the taste differs? Follow-up in twelve-months? Possibly!
The
Tesco came in four different pastel wraps, I chose the green, while the
Asda also came as a white-chocolate Bunny with a suitably pale artwork and polka-dots! Interestingly though, the online artwork for 'my'
Asda Bunny shows a much darker-brown colourway, which may be last year's version, still being used for publicity shots?
Another upright and more animated, smaller, filled Rabbits from
Nomo, these were in
Morrison's, but I think I did see them elsewhere, and I was tempted by the upright, he would have improved the group-shot above, but my several experiences of gluten-free pies have not been good (the pastry is like cardboard), so I stopped myself, and will never know how good or bad they might have been!
I can't remember if I shot these in
Morrison's or
Sainsbury's, the latter, I think, but again too cartoony for me, and more eggy than Rabbity, so pretty much off the parameter list, before I saw them, but Belgian chocolate is never bad?
Speaking of
Sainsbury's, theirs was by far the prettiest of the wrappings, with a rich greenish-gold that gave
Lindt a run for their money, without aping the Swiss one so close as to risk a court-case, design was the closest too, but it wouldn't stand-up, having a bowed base, and needs to be propped!
A comparison with the Aldi and one of the similar trio, to compare with the previous shot.
If you go ordering Chocolate Bunnies online, you find lots of smaller, regional or bespoke brands offering similar fayre, of which I was rather taken by the semi-realistic wrap on this one from the Candy Store, but I wouldn't trust chocolate hollow-Rabbits or eggs ordered online to arrive in one piece! And with those ears it might be a Hare!
With the many types out there, the alternate wraps, and the regular changes in artwork, one hopes somebody, somewhere, is annotating them all, as I'm too busy with toy figures to disappear down a Chocolate Rabbit hole!
