Fry's Cream Easter Egg, 159g

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With rising concerns over long-term chocolate production and bird flu provoked egg shortages, future Easters might look a little different. But if there is one thing that Easter eggs can show us, it's the adaptability of tradition. The distinctive "five boys" design expressing "Desperation, Pacification, Expectation, Acclamation and Realization "It's Fry's". The reference to Queen Alexandra indicates a date before her death in 1925. The Fry’s eggs were so successful that rivals Cadbury copied the idea two years later, paving the way for countless more imitations and an enduring global tradition. It was no accident that Fry’s were the innovators in the field; they had, after all, already been delighting customers with their chocolate treats for more than a century.

William Gervase Clarence-Smith (2003). Cocoa and Chocolate, 1765-1914. Routledge. p.58. ISBN 0-203-46186-X. The first chocolate Easter egg in the UK was introduced in 1873 by the family-owned company, Fry’s. The founder, Joseph Fry, started out selling drinking chocolate in the 1750s, and his grandsons created the first chocolate bars in the 1860s. Fry’s particular achievement at this time was their chocolate Cream Bar, a product that is still sold today. A lot of Easter traditions — including hot cross buns and lamb on Sunday — stem from medieval Christian or even earlier pagan beliefs. The chocolate Easter egg, however, is a more modern twist on tradition.Although dyeing patterned eggs is still a common Easter activity, these days eggs are more commonly associated with chocolate. But when did this shift happen? These days Easter eggs come in all shapes and sizes, but where did the first chocolate egg come from and where did this tradition begin?

Breast milk is the best ‘whey’ – academic explains breastfeeding benefits and why mothers shouldn’t be embarrassed During the 1950s Fry's was the fastest-growing chocolate firm in Britain, thanks to old favourites being revitalised and new lines introduced. By the end of the 1960s Cadbury's and Fry's had fully merged and several old-classics, such as Five Boys, disappeared or took on the Cadbury name.Others though, insist the history is more aligned with the festival of Lent and Western Europe, where Christians were forbidden from eating eggs during the period, and that this was from Medieval times. There may be some weight within this belief, as it was customary to use up all the eggs in the home before Lent, knowing that they could not be eaten again until forty days later at Easter. What is the history behind giving chocolate at Easter?

While it is true that Quakers in the UK, like the Fry and Cadbury families, helped lead the anti-slavery movement, it is also correct to say that not every Quaker held this view, particularly in America. Around the world, the likes of France and Germany had been making chocolate eggs for many years before the UK, but these eggs had been made from solid chocolate. Fry’s had been the first to figure out how to use moulds and make hollow eggs. This had been achieved through the Fry family’s innovations in making chocolate by mixing cocoa fat with cocoa powder and sugar. This made a smooth paste which could be poured into egg moulds. On the BBC television programme Being Human, an old Fry's Cocoa billboard hangs prominently on the side of the B&B where the main characters reside in Series 3–5. The billboard is a nod to the show's original Bristol location. [17] Its dormant status can be explained by the fact that in 1919, J. S. Fry & Sons merged with the increasingly popular chocolate company, Cadbury.

Chocolate remained expensive into the 19th century, when Fry's (now part of Cadbury) made the first solid chocolate bars in 1847, revolutionizing the chocolate trade. There are many who attribute this Easter custom with the early Christians of Mesopotamia, from whence it spread to Eastern Europe and Siberia, before later coming to other parts of Europe via the Catholic and Protestant churches .