It’s that time of year again post-Valentine’s Day and post-Mother’s Day (Sunday, 22 March 2022), the Easter bunny pops his head out to fill the supermarket shelves with Lindt bunnies, Cadbury’s mini eggs, cream eggs, and row upon row of boxed Easter eggs in coloured foil wrappings. It’s a sea of pastel and a promise of new life and good things to come. Whether Easter is the end of Lent for those religiously inclined or just a time when the crocuses and daffodils bloom and spring lambs bound in the fields, Easter has a magical feel about it – not least of which it’s prime Bank Holiday season for many across the UK. But if you’re vegan or dairy-free, Easter may not be the basket of abundance, so we are here to help you out so that you can get your vegan Easter egg finds in long before Sunday, 17 April 2022 rolls around.
Vegan and dairy-free Easter eggs are getting better and better each year. They taste nicer, are more readily available in your usual supermarkets, and manufacturers of these dairy alternative eggs usually make a conscious effort to have more eco-friendly packaging.
#1 Divine Smooth Dark Chocolate Easter Egg with Raspberries (£5 for 90g)
At the smaller and less expensive yet tasty end of the scale is this Divine smooth dark chocolate Easter egg with raspberries. The egg doesn’t come with added extras (like vegan buttons) but the chocolate is beautifully presented and there’s a thick even layer of chocolate. The raspberries give an added tang and pop so the flavour is very yummy. I’m not sure how well it’d go down with the little ones, though, but it’ll be sure to be a grown-up fave. Find a selection in-store or shop here.
Waitrose has a selection online of eight different vegan-friendly Easter products in three different brands but your search will yield more results if you check the dark chocolate eggs available too (twelve additional products) – just make sure they are truly dairy-free – such as the Lindt dark chocolate bunny and Green & Black’s organic dark chocolate egg and bars.
#2 Buttermilk (£6 for 175g)
Buttermilk, although an odd choice of name for a vegan chocolatier, has a wide range of vegan Easter treats available such as zingy orange crisp chocolate egg and buttons, salted caramel chocolate egg and caramel cups, honeycomb blast chocolate egg and soldiers and other options. If buying for children, these Easter eggs will be similar to what their non-vegan friends receive like having a foil-wrapped egg with some sort of treat on the side.
You can find this brand in-store at Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Holland & Barrat, and Hannon Fine Foods (in Ireland). The Vegan Kind website also sells three of their egg flavours and lots of bits on the side such as a bunny bar or buttons.
The honeycomb version was very delicious and if you’re vegan for environmental reasons and miss the taste of milk chocolate, this brand will be for you. It’s sweet and doesn’t have that typical “dairy-free” taste. It will suit a less mature palette as it’s sweet and a close copycat of milk chocolate.
#3 Nomo, No Missing Out Vegan and Free From (£6 for around 150g)
Nomo Easter eggs can be found in-store or online at The Vegan Kind, Holland & Barrett, Alternative Stores, and Waitrose. They have a really cute Easter range which includes full eggs plus a chocolate bar on the side in caramel, cookie crunch, creamy chocolate, sea salt, and fruit crunch. Plus, they also have cute extras like cookie dough bunnies and a Monster egg lolly.
I tried the fruit and crunch egg and I love fruit and nut, so this egg was lovely. It was choc-full of raisins, which you could see when you cracked open the egg. The chocolate itself didn’t have the dark chocolate bitterness and this brand will definitely work for mature and young palettes alike.
#4 Doisy & Dam (4 products for £16)
Last year, Doisy & Dam had an Easter egg out, but this year it doesn’t seem to be available on their website. This vegan company specialises in vegan “copycats” of your favourite chocolates but without the palm oil. Their ethics include fairly paying cocoa farmers and using top-quality, ethically-sourced ingredients.
You can find this brand in-store at Holland and Barrett, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, and Asda. Pick up their vegan easter chocolate bundle for £16. They do copycat mini eggs, Maltesers, and chocolate and almond nuttercups (that are delicious and look like Reece’s).
#5 Selfridges Happi White Oat Milk Chocolate Egg (£9.99 for 170g)
Selfridges has an exclusive white oat milk chocolate egg with freeze-dried raspberry and natural raspberry flavour. The packaging is definitely geared towards children. They also have chocolate and salted caramel flavours. Find them online here.
#6 Moo Free (£3.50 for 95g)
My niece, Caroline, is vegetarian and lactose intolerant so she’s always had this readily-available Moo Free brand since she was little – but she’s really been more worried about accidentally eating dairy that she’s less inclined to have a chocolate-fiend-sweet-tooth. But I plan to get her some Moo Free products this Easter. They’re a crowd favourite and they’re inexpensive. The packaging is made from recycled plastic and the chocolate is soy-free, dairy-free, and close in flavour to Cadbury’s Dairy Milk. The eggs are on the smaller side but still come with a small chocolate bar, which is perfect for children. You can find this brand in many supermarkets or on their website here.
This year, Waitrose is selling a Moo Free Choccy Eggsplosion Easter Egg (£3.50 for 80g) and it’s a cute and fun-looking “messy” egg with white cocoa drops and vegan mallows. My niece, for one, cannot ever get enough of vegan mallows!
#7 Thorntons (£10 for 265g)
Thorntons doesn’t specifically have a vegan range, which is a little disappointing as so many chocolate brands do nowadays, but their dark chocolate Easter egg is dairy-free and “accidentally vegan” and can be personalised as an added bonus. Find it online here. It’s certainly one of the more “bang for your buck” choices on the list as this is one of the largest eggs at this price point.
#8 Harvey Nichols, Booja Booja (£25.95 for 138g)
For the fancier more high-end vegan Easter egg lover, you can get your Booja Booja fix from Harvey Nichols. As a non-vegan with three vegans in my family and many vegan friends, I absolutely love the taste of Booja Booja truffles and these Easter eggs look divine.
On their website, you can choose from seven vegan Easter egg offerings including eggs at various price points, all wrapped up in gorgeous and vibrant hand-painted keepsake egg shells and a ribbon! Find the products here. The smaller eggs are around £10.95 and £25.95 for a bigger egg.
The eggs contain delicious truffles (twelve in the large egg) and there are classic flavours like honeycomb caramel, orange, hazelnut crunch, and champagne.
#9 M&S (various price points and sizes)
Last year, M&S launched a vegan aubergine-shaped chocolate gift – I have no idea if that was a hit or a miss – but this year you’ll have to go in-store to pick up a vegan Charlie the bunny as they don’t appear to sell any M&S seasonal offers online. Not sure if there are other specifically vegan Easter products or if you’ll just have to scan the ingredient’s list for vegan-friendly offerings in their dark chocolate range.
#10 Amazon, Melt Chocolates (£24.99 for 300g)
Amazon has lots on offer as far as vegan options that you can ship to your door in an emergency, so if you haven’t made time to support local businesses and UK-based online retailers on their website, then Melt Chocolates does a vegan dark chocolate Maldon sea salt Easter egg, made in small batches in Notting Hill, London. It comes in a special gift box too and is quite a lot of chocolate for the price point.
Amazon sells various other vegan-friendly Easter brands such as Bournville (£9.99) and Plamil so free oat milk chocolate alternative Easter egg and bunny bar (£7.14) as well as options you’ve seen on this list such as Moo Free and Nomo.
#11 Hip Chocolate (£8 for 150g)
Hip is a vegan chocolate company that has one tasty salted caramel oatmilk egg on offer each Easter. It’s produced in a slave-free supply chain and wrapped in plastic-free packaging. Find it here. One reviewer says that she misses milk chocolate since she went vegan and this Hip brand is creamy and the best vegan chocolate she’s found – so that’s a glowing endorsement!
#12 Love Cocoa, Maldon Sea Salt Dark Easter Egg (£13.50 for 150g)
This prettily packaged Easter egg option is also plastic-free. They have Maldon sea salt chocolate on offer as well as salted caramel. They also have an option that comes with truffles inside. One reviewer notes that there was just the right amount of salt and there was no bitterness.
#13 Bettys, Venezuelan Dark Chocolate Egg (£23 for 210g)
Bettys is known as a luxury tea room with locations in Ilkley and Harrogate in Yorkshire, so they seemed an unlikely candidate for Easter eggs but they have a stunning geometric Easter egg dusted with bronze lustre and standing 16 cm tall. Find it here on their website.
#14 Hotel Chocolat (£15 for 220g/£30 for 375g)
Besides the Booja Booja offerings at Harvey Nicks, if you want another upscale choice look no further than Hotel Chocolat. With their Easter offerings, they have over ninety-three delicious vegan options.
In the smaller sized eggs, they have mint dark chocolate, ginger, unbelievably vegan made with nut milk, and dark chocolate. They all come in recyclable packaging and consists of high-quality chocolate.
If you want the ultimate splurge, the extra thick unbelievably vegan Easter egg (£30) is made with plant-based nut milk (made of finely milled hazelnuts with 45% cocoa) and filled with vegan chocolates like truffles, pralines, caramels, and more. The flavour is smooth, mellow, and heavenly. It’s not for those with a nut allergy but it’s definitely a decadent egg to enjoy. It comes in a keepsake tin, too, inspired by the design of a cocoa pod.
Overall, Hotel Chocolat has seven vegan Easter-themed products on offer, ranging from £4.50 for chocolate bunnies to £10 for a small egg, £15 for a medium, and £30 for the amazing vegan extravaganza egg – or if you want to go even more opulent there’s the £85 Ostrich egg (1,100g), which gives you enough chocolate to feed a family plus twenty truffles.
The takeaways
With each of these retailers providing anywhere from two to ten options, there are dozens of eggs to choose from this Easter for the vegans in your life, at every price point. From decadent artisan eggstravaganzas down to the bog-standard vegan chocolates that any child will happily scoff down, these vegan-friendly, ethically-sourced, and eco-friendly vegan eggs will go down a treat.