22 All-Time Best Things to Find in Your Easter Basket

Sarah Hurwitz dove deep into the basket and emerged covered in Cadbury creme, bearing all kinds of Easter tips, tricks, and facts. Here's her guide to Easter candy.



1. Bunny Corn
It’s candy corn — in Easter colors. We aren’t stupid, candy industry!

2. Marshmallow Peeps
An Easter classic that comes in chick, egg, and bunny shapes, this is by far the most popular non-chocolate Easter candy. Peeps come in yellow, white, lavender, pink, and blue but the flavors are all the same (basically, nothing), except for the fancy flavors like Cotton Candy.

Fun fact: In 1953, it took 27 hours to create a Marshmallow Peep. Today it takes six minutes, according to infoplease.com.

3. Russell Stover Coconut Nests
This coconut nest tastes way better than it looks. Let’s be straight, it looks pretty gross.

Fun fact: In 2010, Russell Stover attempted to remove the jelly beans (the eggs, get it?) from the coconut nest due to the increasing cost of jelly beans (watch the high/low jelly bean market, you guys), according to the Palm Beach Post. It appears the jelly bean market is back down because the coconut nests now come with those jelly eggs.

4. Chocolate Carrot
Turns out, bunnies don’t eat many root vegetables. Our cultural notions regarding bunnies and carrots come from none other than Bugs Bunny, who got his carrot munching ways from none other than Clark Gable in a scene from the 1934 movie It Happened One Night, according to The Clark Gable Handbook by Emily Smith.

5. Gummy Bunnies
Turns out, gummies do contain a small amount of protein, hence they are practically Easter health food.

6. Chocolate Bunnies
Hollow or solid, what’s your preference? Either way, you must eat the ears first.

Fun fact: 90 million chocolate bunnies are made for Easter each year, ABC reported in 2012.

7. Pez
While not strictly an Easter candy, this one is half candy and half toy, which makes it twice the candy in my opinion. There is a whole world of PEZ aficionados out there, who can probably tell you more about PEZ than you ever wanted to know, but you never know which dispenser could net you big bucks in 20 years.

Fun fact: The word PEZ was created using the first, middle, and last letter in the German word for peppermint, PfeffErminZ, according to us.pez.com.

8. Snickers Egg
Just like candy bars, whatever your preference is, there is a flat-filled egg for your taste.

9. Reese’s Eggs
I mean, Reese’s in any form.

Fun fact: Seasonal Reese’s come in these fun shapes: pumpkins, bells, Christmas trees, snowmen, bunnies, and hearts.

10. Cadbury Eggs
Chocolate-covered miracle sugar goo, (fondant) you guys!

Pro tip: If you are like me and would like to increase the filling to shell ratio, you can freeze the Cadbury eggs and pop those middles right out. You’re welcome.

11. Milka Lil’ Scoops
This is the most precious thing ever, a carton of “chocolate” eggs that you crack with a little purple spoon and eat the sugary insides. Half activity, half food. Sold.

Fun fact: Why “chocolate,” you ask? According to the FDA, in the U.S., chocolate can only contain cocoa solids, cocoa butter, sugar, and milk. Lil’ Scoops have the addition of both hazelnut paste (yum) and whey (yum?). So for those of you concerned about correctness you are going to have to call these eggs confections or chocolate-flavored candy. A chocolate egg by any other name ...

12. Plastic Mystery Egg
Is your mom a health nut? Are there raisins and pretzels in there? Is it really stale jelly beans left in the eggs from last year? A smushed Peep? I grew up with much older brothers so there was always an egg stuffed with a $20 bill to keep my brothers interested in egg-hunting with me. Touché, Mom and Dad.

13. Marshmallow Egg
Marshmallow got its name from the mallow plant, according to mobile-cuisine.com. Mallow plants grew in marshes! Marshmallow!

14. Hardboiled Egg
Okay, I know, technically this isn’t a candy, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Easter’s number one egg shaped food.

Fun fact: Egg yolks are one of the few foods that have a naturally good source of Vitamin D.

15. Cadbury Mini Eggs
Chocolate covered in a tiny candy shell. Easy plastic egg stuffer.

16. Jelly Beans
So many brands, so many varieties.

Fun fact: According to infoplease.com, American consume 16 billion jelly beans at Easter every year. That’s enough to circle the globe three times.

17. M&M Eggs
Name-brand candies will always cost you more.

18. Jordan Almonds
Whyyyy? These are gross. Pretty, but gross.

Fun fact: Jordan almonds are symbols of fertility in Italian culture, so they fit right in there with the spring theme.

19. Jelly Belly
These haven't been the same (in a bad way) since the Harry Potter Every Flavor Bernie Bott’s Beans.

20. Hershey’s Eggs
The shiniest of the candy-coated eggs, these also come without the candy coating.

Fun fact: 81 percent of parents steal candy from their kids Easter baskets.

21. Golden Eggs
Any food based on literature has my vote. The Goose that Laid the Golden Egg first appeared in literature in 1720, according to Wikipedia. Veruca Salt in the Egg Room at the Wonka chocolate factory will always be my favorite. “BUT I WANT IT NOW!”

22. Robin’s Egg
Don’t confuse these malted milk candies with that Burger King sandwich, the Robin’s Egg. The candy came in 1950, the burger in 1957, answering the age-old question of which came first, the chicken ... I mean hamburger or the malted milk ball ... I mean the egg.