The Best Easter Candy for Your Family

The birds are chirping, the days are getting long, spring is in the air, and Easter will be here before you know it!  After Valentine’s Day, the shelves at the grocery store are instantly filled with an abundance of Easter candy. They tempt you with their fun graphics and bright colors. But how do you sort through all of the options and pick the right treats for you and your family?

We all know that traditional Easter candy is not the best for you. But it’s hard to avoid because it’s everywhere. Make an effort to do better this Easter and swap your traditional treats for higher quality, better-for-you, sustainably and ethically-sourced alternatives.  Yes, these often means spending more, but we guarantee it will be worth it. After all, Easter is a once-a-year celebration. So why not trade-up and give your family better Easter treats? Our candy experts are here with tips to help you sort through the plethora of options to find the best Easter candy.

Tips for finding the best Easter candy:

1. Ditch the food coloring

Jelly beans, Peeps, Cadbury Cream Eggs … so many traditional Easter candies are loaded with food coloring. It’s fun to include them in Easter Baskets because they add a pop of color. But, these artificial food dyes have been linked to an increase in allergies, behavioral issues in children and even cancer. Why risk it? This year, add color to your Easter basket with brightly colored, foil-wrapped organic chocolate eggs. They come in a variety of fun flavors, like milk chocolate truffle, caramel, coconut cream, and even peanut butter. Plus, you can reduce your environmental impact by recycling the foil when you are all done enjoying your eggs!

2. Skip the junk and opt for clean, simple ingredients

Artificial flavors, preservatives, cheap palm oil fillers, and ingredients we can’t even pronounce (like tert-butylhydroquinone [TBHQ] and polygycerol polyricinoleate [PRGP]) have no place in your food. These ingredients are often included in mass produced Easter candy because it makes the candy last longer and cheaper to produce. When you are buying Easter candy, be sure to read the labels. Instead of reaching for the popular peanut butter filled eggs that so many of us grew up with, opt for a peanut butter egg made with clean, simple ingredients.

3. Go organic for Easter!

If you are on the hunt for better Easter candy, opt for ones that are organic certified. Choosing  organic chocolate reduces the amount of toxins in the environment, making your purchase more sustainable and eco-friendly. Organic products are also held to a higher standard both in how they are produced and the ingredients that they are made with. That means that you can shop for organic Easter chocolates and be confident you are getting treats that don’t contain GMOs, artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives!

4. Make sure it’s fair trade certified

Everybunny deserves a better Easter. Mass-produced chocolate Easter bunnies are inexpensive because they rely on cheap (often unethical) labor. Sometimes this can even include child labor.  This Easter, fill your baskets with Fair Trade Certified™ chocolate bunnies that are making a difference in the world. Buying fair trade chocolate ensures that your purchase is having a positive impact on our local and global communities: hard-working cocoa farmers are fairly compensated, child labor is prohibited, and cocoa farming communities receive an additional fair trade premium ($240 per metric ton) to use for community development.

5. Choose vegan-friendly alternatives

Your Easter candy choices can have a detrimental impact on the environment. The farming and factory production utilizes precious natural resources (i.e. water and land), while processing and transportation produces a large amount of carbon emissions. Easter chocolates made with dark chocolate and dairy-free substitutes, like oat milk, are better for the environment because they use less land and water and produce less carbon and methane emissions than traditional milk! Reduce your environmental impact by choosing vegan-friendly Easter chocolates, like this Classic Oat Milk Bunny.

There are so many Easter options to choose from (with new ones being added every year). This year, treat your family to a better selection of Easter candy. Whether you go organic, ditch the artificial ingredients, dabble in vegan-friendly alternatives or buy only fair trade certified – the sweets you choose to fill your Easter baskets with can have an impact on your health, your community, and your world. So, choose wisely!