As my last two blog posts have mentioned, Roger, Marco and I were in the States last month. It was over a month ago that we flew there, eek!
Imagine our surprise when we were going up and down the aisles at Target (a department store which also contains a pretty large food section). It is something we always do in the States – find a Target and/or a grocery store and just check out the offerings and decide what we want to bring back. I have a photo of Marco jokingly holding five large bags of Synder’s Hot Buffalo Wing pretzels, for instance. 🙂 I think he settled on opening one bag during the trip and bringing two unopened bags back in our luggage…
But that’s not surprising. What is surprising is seeing a Kinder egg for sale! In the States!
This was illegal due to a 1938 Food and Drug Administration regulation, because of what it is: candy with a toy (wrapped in plastic) inside the chocolate shell. After I got back from vacation I looked up how we could possibly come across this item. It turns out that Kinder Joy is a variant legally sold in America because it completely separates the candy from the toy with two sealed halves. The Italian company which makes them (Ferrero) first started delivering them exclusively to Wal-Mart in late November for 30 days and then any American store from January of this year.
According to this today.com article: “The Kinder Joy, the version that will soon be available in the U.S., comes in a plastic egg-shaped package comprised of two separately sealed halves. One half contains an edible treat made of two soft cream layers: one is sweet milk cream-flavored and one is cocoa-flavored. Nestled into the creamy layers are two round, chocolate-covered wafer bites that are filled with a sweet cocoa cream that’s soft enough to be eaten with the included spoon. The other half of the egg contains a surprise: a non-edible toy.”
You can see a picture of the Kinder Joy egg and what it looks like when opened (including the toy that still needs assembling) over on Wikipedia. And here is another fun link: “Why the FDA doesn’t like chocolate eggs with toys inside“.
And there you have it – the story of how American kids can experience the joy of a Kinder Egg. Pun possibly intended.
Life in the Hague 
I have a personal grievance with Kinder eggs and boycott them.
You see, I have watched my students open many a kinder egg. Every time, they managed to get some cool robot or some sophisticated moving toy. Often they spend countless minutes (instead of studying–but that doesn’t bother me so much) assembling the thing.
Two out of the three times someone has bought a kinder egg I have received a butterfly. Yes, a butterfly. Basically a piece of paper and a plastic bread clip.
Boycott.
Hope your experience was better.
*** some of this (but not all) was in jest.
Haha, we actually didn’t buy it. Though if I had understood the significance I would have. Now maybe I should buy a kinder egg here and see what toy I get from that!
You have been warned…. so if you get a butterfly or any other disappointing surprise, I will not shoulder the blame.😏
Understood! 😉