TORONTO — Shell-shocked chocolate lovers are crying fowl over word that the recipe for the iconic Cadbury Creme Egg is being changed in the U.K.
But not to worry, Canadian Cadbury fans: the seasonal treat will taste just as sweet as you remember this Easter.
The confection, with a chocolate shell surrounding white fondant and a dab of yellow fondant mimicking a real egg, has been a popular treat since 1971.
Creme egg aficionados began protesting on social media when global snacks company Mondelez International announced that this year's batch for the U.K. will be made with "standard cocoa mix chocolate" instead of Dairy Milk chocolate.
One man in Liverpool started a Change.org petition to "Change Back the Shell of the Cadbury Creme Egg to Dairy Milk" and another emotional fan has even written a song about it.
Corrie Banman, a 44-year-old IT worker in Calgary, responded to the news by tweeting: "the fine people at Coke thought the small change they made to their recipe in the early '80s was for the best as well."
Banman says he's enjoyed the eggs — which are sold from January until Easter — since he was a youngster.
"There are certain products that you like for a certain reason, you like the flavour of it. And when they start changing around the ingredients it changes the flavour, and a product that you really liked before may no longer be palatable for you," says Banman, who also laments the second-rate taste in pop made with high-fructose syrup rather than sugar.
"Companies are just trying to alter their bottom line by making changes to their products and using inferior ingredients or lower-cost ingredients ... and I guess hoping that people don't notice that a lot of those changes they make are also going to change the flavour of the products."
A spokeswoman at the Mondelez Canada office said the Canadian recipe won't be affected.
"There are no changes to the Cadbury Creme Egg in Canada other than some great new packaging that is being rolled out," Stephanie Minna Cass wrote in an email.
Although the number of eggs in a package has been decreased from a half-dozen to five in the U.K., the size and number of treats in the Canadian packaging won't be changed.
"The new packaging refers to a new package format that holds each individual egg," Cass said.
