Children's Chocolate?
Sunday, May 8, 2011 at 9:00 ;)
We love the Kinder products The Happy Hippos probably are my favorite on the basis of taste - let's just call it an adorable hippo-shaped Ferrero Rocher (same company, same hazelnut chocolatey goodness). But on the basis of overall fun, you just can't beat the Kinder Überraschungs-Ei ("Surprise Eggs").
For those of you not familiar with Kinder Suprise Eggs, they're pretty wonderful for all ages. Kinder chocolate is full of milk and vitamins, so it's supposed to be better for children than regular chocolate. The eggs actually are a layer of chocolate and an inside layer of a milky something. In my opinion, it's also good for kids because they come in small packages and actually don't contain that much chocolate and sugar, compared to most candy bars.
But what's special about the Kinder Eggs is their plastic "yolk," a capsule containing a toy. I find their design team is quite brilliant in how they pack it into such a small space. And really there isn't much chocolate to it - it's the toy that's fun. You can see from my Advent Calendar what amazing things they can stuff inside the space of an egg.
For Easter and Christmas, they have giant Kinder Eggs, and often will have other promotions with themes of the toys. Then, of course, you have to buy a lot of eggs to collect all the toys in a series!! There have been Looney Tunes collections, and others.
Last year Kinder had an rather odd marketing campaign for its new series of Kinder Eggs. Outside of Germany, they called it "Dog Stories;" in Germany "Großstadt Hunde" ("Big City Dogs"). We first saw this on a billboard at a train station.
When you see this picture, with the caption "Stop! There's nothing to see here!," what's your first thought? Yeah....that there's German Shepherd pimp and his underage chihuahua prostitute friend.
It turns out it's a bit more innocent than it seems at first glance to someone who's seen a lot of American TV, but still a bit odd and open to interpretation for a product aimed at kids.
Thanks to the Egg-Wiki (yes, Kinder Eggs are so beloved they have their own Wiki!!!), we know that Rex Bell is the coolest dog in town, with all the ladies at his feet and Chi-Chi is the sweet "Shopping Princess" who wants Rex to notice her. Of course, Don Dogge the policeman wants to protect sweet innocent Chi-Chi, and I suspect there're more to that story... With all these interwoven stories and potential for cross-over into TV media, it's really a shame there aren't Kinder Eggs in the US. They'd definitely have a cartoon series of their own!
The were even in stores in a ski resort in Finland...with a snapshot of all the Big City Dogs.
Frau A ... 5 Comments 
Reader Comments (5)
Just don't try to bring them with you to the States. Kinder Eggs are illegal in the U.S. and will be confiscated at the border!
Oh, I love those Kinderueberraschungseier!
I have seen them at ethnic stores here in Cleveland, though. There is a Ukrainian store in Parma that carries them, and the german Hansa Import House sells them as well.
This past Easter, CVS sold something similar. Of course I had to try it out. The chocolate can't even compare to the real thing. Big surprise....NOT!
The little toy inside was a small "Kreisel" ( dreidel? ), which I thought was pretty cute.
Still, not the real thing.
Do they still make the Kindermilchschnitte?
Astrid
Scott, I've heard the same and it's so crazy!
Astrid - they do still have the kindermilchschnitte and similar milk snacks in the yogurt/pudding section of stores. I confess I bought one of the CVS ones too, but haven't opened it yet.
is it because the tiny toy parts could pose a choking hazard?
Exactly, it's considered a choking hazard for children under 3, thus is banned.
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/265505/choc-and-awe-mark-steyn