What new candy will win Easter 2026? What shoppers want most

Every spring, candy brands roll out a fresh lineup of Easter treats hoping to earn a spot in shoppers’ baskets. This year, Easter candy innovation leaned less on entirely new products and more on creative twists on familiar favorites. From brand mashups and globally inspired flavors to new packaging formats and seasonal shapes, many of this year’s launches build on candies consumers already know and love. 

To understand which of these new treats resonate most with shoppers, we asked consumers to evaluate a selection of this year’s Easter releases and share which they’d be most likely to purchase — and why.

Here’s what stood out from this year’s crop of Easter candy innovations.

1. Easter innovation in 2026 focused on remixing familiar favorites: Most new launches didn’t introduce entirely new candies. Instead, brands refreshed well-known products with new shapes, flavor mashups, packaging or seasonal twists. This suggests brands are leaning on trusted brands and proven formats rather than taking big innovation risks. Our previous research shows that a lighter-touch approach to seasonal innovation tends to work better than entirely new products, so this direction makes sense. 

2. Brand mashups and collaborations are becoming a key innovation strategy: Several launches combined two popular brands or flavor systems (e.g., Reese’s Eggs & KitKat Bunnies or Peeps Strawberry Pop-Tart). These mashups generate novelty while still relying on flavors consumers already know and love, making them both exciting and low-risk.

3. Packaging innovation is emerging as a new way to refresh seasonal candy: Some launches relied on new packaging rather than new products, such as Cadbury Mini Eggs in stand-up pouches. This shows brands can create perceived novelty through format, convenience and shareability, without changing anything about the candy itself.

4. Chocolate remains the dominant flavor for Easter: Milk chocolate continues to dominate the category, with consumers consistently ranking chocolate-based candies as their favorites. Peanut butter and caramel pairings are particularly popular, reinforcing the strength of classic flavor combinations.

5. Nostalgia remains one of the strongest emotional drivers: When consumers talk about their favorite Easter candy, many reference childhood memories, traditions and seasonal rituals. Classic products like peanut butter eggs (especially Reese’s), jelly beans, chocolate bunnies, Peeps and Cadbury eggs remain powerful because they’re tied to long-standing Easter traditions.

This year we saw a number of fun new candies hit shelves, including:

• Twix Easter Baskets

• Starburst Jellybeans Spring Berry Blast

• Lindt Dubai Style Chocolate Eggs

• Peeps Easter Strawberry Pop Tart

• Lindt Lindor Gold Bunny Milk Chocolate Bar (a favorite in other markets but now available in the US for the first time!)

• Reese’s Eggs & KitKat Bunnies (a new pack with two fan-favorite candies in one)

• Jolly Rancher Gummies Easter Fruity Mix Flavors

• Oreo Cookies & Creme Filled Chocolate Bunny

• Cadbury Mini Caramel Egg Easter Standup Pouch (now sold in a standup pouch for the first time)

• Cadbury Mini Creme Egg Standup Pouch (now sold in a standup pouch for the first time)

• Oreo Cookies & Creme Filled Chocolate Bunny

• Trader Joe’s Marshmallow Eggs

• Jif Peanut Butter Filled Eggs

Looking at this list, it appears Easter candy innovation in 2026 was focused less on entirely new candies and more on remixing familiar favorites — through brand mashups (Reese’s & KitKat and Peeps & Pop Tarts), premium flavors (Dubai-style chocolate and the Lindt Lindor bunny bar that’s available in the US for the first time), shareable formats (mini eggs in standup pouches) and, of course, seasonal twists on iconic treats (Twix Easter Baskets).

It’s particularly interesting to see some of the new releases rely on new packaging rather than new products. KitKat has been releasing fun seasonal shapes every season, with the bunnies first released last Easter. Rather than create a new flavor or a new shape for KitKat this year, Hershey’s combined them in one package with its other astoundingly popular Easter candy, Reese’s Eggs. Cadbury Mini Eggs are already a fan favorite, and now they’re available in a standup pouch — but the product hasn’t changed. 

With all the innovation in seasonal candy in recent years, it appears brands are taking it back to the basics a bit.  

In our ScreenIt solution we asked respondents to rank the Easter candies according to which they would be most likely to purchase.

If you caught our Easter analysis last year, the winner shouldn’t be a surprise! Reese’s Eggs and KitKat Bunnies took first and second place last year, so the combination of both candies in a single package easily took first in this ranking (34% of the first-choice votes). Twix Easter Baskets and Cadbury Mini Caramel Eggs Standup Pouch tied for second with 27% of the first-choice votes. And Starburst Jellybeans Spring Berry Blast came in third with 24% of the first-choice votes.

A few of the non-chocolate options (Jolly Ranchers Gummies, Trader Joe’s Marshmallow Eggs and Peeps Strawberry Pop Tart) got the least number of first-choice votes.

Digging a little deeper, let’s take a look at the key strengths of the various candies. These are the products that scored highest across key category attributes:

• Best tasting: Reese’s Eggs & KitKat Bunnies (68%)

  • Runner up: Twix Easter Baskets (63%)

• Most festive: Starburst Jellybeans Spring Berry Blast (47%)

  • Runner up: Cadbury Mini Caramel Egg Easter Standup Pouch (45%)

• Most fun: Starburst Jellybeans Spring Berry Blast (46.3%)

  • Runner up: Oreo Cookies & Creme Filled Chocolate Bunny (45.6%)

• Top quality: Lindt Lindor Gold Bunny Milk Chocolate Bar (46%)

  • Runner up: Lindt Dubai Style Chocolate Eggs (44%)

• Most playful: Jolly Rancher Gummies Easter Fruity Mix Flavors (43%)

  • Runner up: Starburst Jellybeans Spring Berry Blast (37%)

• Most unique: Oreo Cookies & Creme Filled Chocolate Bunny (41%)

  • Runner up: Lindt Dubai Style Chocolate Eggs (40%)

• Most modern: Lindt Dubai Style Chocolate Eggs (33%)

  • Runner up: Reese’s Eggs & KitKat Bunnies (29%)

Reese’s Eggs and KitKat Bunnies win for “best tasting” — no surprise since taste is the most important consideration for consumers when it comes to buying candy and this was the candy they were most likely to purchase! Interestingly, it also placed second in the “most modern” category, potentially because it’s a combination of two candies in one package — something consumers are less used to seeing. 

Starburst Jellybeans Spring Berry Blast wins for “most festive” and “most fun,” while Jolly Rancher Gummies Easter Fruity Mix Flavors wins for “most playful.” We often see fruity seasonal candies win in these fun and playful categories. They’re bright, colorful and stand out a bit from the chocolate options. 

Lindt dominates the “top quality” category, with Lindt Lindor Gold Bunny Milk Chocolate Bar coming in first and the Lindt Dubai Style Chocolate Eggs coming in second. It’s definitely seen as a more premium brand than many of the other brands we looked at in this analysis. The Lindt Dubai Style Chocolate Eggs also wins for “most modern.” Dubai-style chocolate is a trendy flavor that took off thanks to TikTok several years ago, so it makes sense that it would feel the most modern.  

Finally, Oreo Cookies & Creme Filled Chocolate Bunny stands out as “most unique” — it’s certainly a different take on the classic chocolate bunny! 

We asked consumers to assess each candy on the key drivers of product success:

• Advantage: How much better each of the products is to other products already available 

• Distinctiveness: How different each of the products are from other products already available

• Relevance: How relevant each of the products is to the respondents

• Believability: How believable the claims of each product are to the respondents

Reese’s Eggs & KitKat Bunnies — the candy our respondents said they would be most likely to purchase earlier — stands out for Relevance (3.9), while its Advantage, Believability and Distinctiveness are directionally above average, although slightly below the significance threshold. Overall, this candy wins by being more motivating and relevant than most, rather than being uniquely distinctive.

Meanwhile, Twix Easter Baskets (the second-ranked candy) is the most consistently strong stimulus across these metrics, scoring significantly above average on all four KPIs. While Easter candy shapes are typically dominated by eggs and bunnies, Easter baskets are more unique — yet still relevant to the season. Season after season we see that the seasonal candies with the most success are those that offer seasonally relevant enhancements (like shapes and colors) to existing, well-loved candies. Twix did a great job following this path to success, while also picking a shape that stands out against all the other Easter shapes.  

Cadbury Mini Caramel Egg Easter Standup Pouch (also second-ranked) mirrors the top-ranked pattern with significantly higher Relevance, while Advantage, Believability and Distinctiveness sit around the category norm. Compared to others, it performs as a solid, credible choice but doesn’t differentiate strongly on distinctiveness.

Oreo Cookies & Creme Bunny and Lindt Dubai Style Chocolate Eggs both stand out as distinctive, while Jif Peanut Butter Eggs and the Lindt Lindor Gold Bunny Bar stand out for their Advantage.

We also asked people what their favorite all-time Easter candies were — not just what was released this year. There were some clear themes that emerged: 

1. Peanut butter eggs (especially Reese’s)

The most mentioned candy by far was the peanut butter egg — with many calling out Reese's peanut butter eggs specifically.

The peanut butter and chocolate combo is extremely popular for Easter, and the egg shape is often preferred over regular cups because people perceive the ratio of peanut butter to chocolate as tasting better.

2. Jelly beans

The second most common answer was jelly beans, either with no brand mentioned or Jelly Belly and Starburst called out specifically.

Jelly beans remain a classic Easter-specific candy, strongly associated with the holiday itself.

3. Cadbury eggs & mini eggs

Another major favorite was the iconic Cadbury Easter lineup, including both caramel and creme eggs.

These are viewed as signature Easter treats, with strong nostalgic feelings attached to them.

4. Chocolate bunnies

Many respondents mentioned generic chocolate bunnies — both milk and dark chocolate. Chocolate bunnies are seen as the classic centerpiece candy of an Easter basket.

Brands mentioned included Lindt (especially the Gold Bunny), Hershey's and Russell Stover.

5. Peeps

The marshmallow chicks from Peeps were also a recurring favorite. Peeps have strong cultural recognition, though they tend to be more polarizing. Some people love them and some people don’t!

6. Malted Eggs

And a few people specifically mentioned malted milk eggs — referring to Whoppers or Robin Eggs — as their favorite Easter candy. 

Reasons to love

People said that they love their favorite Easter candies primarily for their taste, enjoyable textures and the feelings of nostalgia — with festive shapes, colors and limited availability making the experience feel special.

When it comes to flavors, milk chocolate dominates Easter, with two-thirds of people saying it’s one of their favorite Easter flavors. 

Caramel follows, which explains why the caramel Cadbury eggs beat the creme eggs in this analysis! 

And peanut butter is next — no surprise after seeing how many people called out how much they love the combination of chocolate and peanut butter for Easter. 

Dark chocolate and white chocolate round out the top five.

Clearly, Easter is all about the chocolate for many consumers. Milk chocolate is the favorite, followed by dark chocolate and then white chocolate. But people also like the combination of chocolate with other flavors for Easter — primarily caramel and peanut butter. 

That’s not to say other flavors like citrus, berries, marshmallow and cookies & cream aren’t selected at Easter. They definitely have their fans. Jelly beans and Peeps especially were called out by many respondents as their all-time Easter favorites! 

But nothing can top the near universal appeal of milk chocolate at Easter.

Have you tried any of these new Easter candies? What’s your all-time favorite candy to eat at Easter? 

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