The Best Easter Candy and Sweets of 2021

Milk Chocolate Easter Bunnies

In our Easter bunny taste test (yes we had one), we found that many grocery store milk chocolate bunnies were cloyingly sweet. But there were a few that were balanced, creamy, and worth including in a good Easter basket. The first is a bunny by Harbor Sweets, which features a velvety milk chocolate shell surrounding pieces of caramel, pecans, almonds, and butter-crunch toffee.

For something a little more traditional (i.e. non-stuffed bunnies), we loved the miniature "place setting" bunnies from Li-Lac Chocolates.

Dark Chocolate Easter Bunnies

Not everyone is a fan of milk chocolate, and that's okay. For those who prefer things a little less sweet, there's a Harbor Sweets bunny for you, too. There's also the large Jacques Torres bunny; both bunnies won our taste test because they offered a pleasingly bitter flavor and distinct chocolatiness that the competition lacked.

Divine Easter Chocolates

Divine's 26% milk chocolate bar is at the top of our list for the best chocolate for baking. With the addition of powdered cream along with milk, it's rich and truffle-like; sweet but not too cloying. This chocolate also comes in mini egg form, just in time for Easter. You can find them online on Amazon or on Divine's website. And if you have any left over, they'll go perfectly well in Stella's chocolate Easter cookies.

Cacao Nib and Fleur de Sel Mendiants From Recchiuti

These thin chocolate disks have a creamy, melt-in-your-mouth texture and a complex and pleasantly fruity bitterness. But it's the scattered cacao nibs on top that take them from memorable to exceptional. The crunchy bits of bean are toasty and flavorful in their own right, but Recchiuti goes the extra mile, tossing them in caramel and fleur de sel for a brightly salty-sweet finish that electrifies each bite.

An Assortment of Sweets from L.A. Burdick

L.A. Burdick's assortments are almost too pretty to eat, but they're not all about looks. White chocolate lovers who don't shy away from serious sweetness will enjoy the Signature Bunny Box, with its perky, hazelnut-filled rabbits and colorful sugar-encrusted marzipan eggs. Those who prefer creamy, dark ganaches and nuts should look to one of the Signature Wood Box Assortments instead: You'll get the same charming package with a more chocolate-heavy composition—tiny mice, nibble-size truffles, and a pleasing array of bonbons.

Sugarfina Sweets

While Sugarfina candies are far too expensive for everyday enjoyment, their beautiful packaging and creative flavors make them perfect for the holidays. For Easter, you can pick up a delightful "bento box" of festive candies, like dark chocolate marshmallow eggs and little chocolate-covered caramels. (A couple of rose-flavored gummy bears won't hurt either.)

Caramel Popcorn

Yes, you could argue that there's nothing Easter-y about a bag of popcorn. But just one salted-caramel bite is enough to silence any qualms. Before it's packaged, melted dark chocolate is ladled over the kernels for rich, chocolaty clusters—just enough to add some complex bitterness to the liberal coating of nutty-sweet caramel, without interrupting the heavenly salty, crunchy, eat-the-whole-bag-in-one-sitting ethos of Torres's creation. You can pick up a bag right here.

Malvi S'mores

This year, our designer Maggie is going all out with Malvi S'mores. These delicate treats include a fluffy marshmallow sandwiched between two shortbread cookies. With flavors like raspberry hibiscus, spiked espresso, and vanilla salted caramel, they'd be as delightful by a campfire as they'd be in your Easter basket.

A Surprise Chocolate Egg

While we'd never turn our noses up at the purple-bagged Cadbury mini eggs, there are a few, more sophisticated eggs around, like this one by L.A. Burdick. Crack the thick, polka-dotted chocolate shell and you'll find a generous assortment of smaller sweets within—dense and velvety cocoa-powdered truffles in the bittersweet Dark Polka Dot Egg, or a jewel-toned jumble of tender, tart-sweet pâtes de fruit in its milder milk chocolate counterpart.

Italian Colomba

If you tire of chocolate easily and would prefer something a little more substantial, try a Colomba from Gustiamo. This dove-shaped bread is a classic Easter dessert. It's fluffy, eggy, and sweet, filled with candied orange peels, and topped with a rich and flavorful frosting. Hints of honey and vanilla round out the citrus notes—it would make a glorious centerpiece to your Easter table and a fantastic addition to any candy-packed basket.

Jelly Belly Jelly Beans

There are plenty of upscale jelly beans out there, but we have yet to meet a single one that can unseat Jelly Belly from the jelly bean throne. Get fancy with a 40-flavor gift box, grab a 99-cent bag at the grocery store, or explore the company's myriad experimental collections.