How 'Kinder Surprise' was invented in Russia more than 100 years ago! Wait, what?

Chocolate eggs with a “surprise” were first invented as a sweet gift for children for Easter in the Russian Empire. They were produced around the same time at the confectionery factories of Johann Ding and Alexei Abrikosov in Moscow and then they appeared in the assortment of other factories in the country.

Easter chocolate egg with "surprise" number 6.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the ‘Ding’ factory had 31 types of chocolate Easter eggs. They were sold for Easter by numbers, from 1 to 31. However, some historians believe that there were even more types, but they have not survived. 

Mint candies, pictures and porcelain figurines would be hidden inside. If a buyer managed to collect the entire series of toys and returned them to the store, they would receive a new Easter egg. 

The egg itself consisted of halves glued together with sugar syrup. All the wrappers were different and hand-painted. 

Alexey Abrikosov factory product range.

Abrikosov, meanwhile, had eight kinds of chocolate eggs with decorations and figures inside. 

Confectioner Alexei Lagodin's factory made five kinds of chocolate eggs, as well as several kinds of “chocolate bombs”. The ‘Sioux Confectionery’ factory in Moscow also offered “eggs with surprises in a tin” and “chocolate eggs on hinges”. 

Assortment of Lagodin's factory.

And the factory established by Swiss national Moritz Conradi in St. Petersburg offered chocolate eggs in different colors for Easter. 

Eggs cost, on average, from eight kopecks apiece, that is, about the same as a loaf of bread. But, there were also large collector's items, the cost of which exceeded a worker's monthly salary. 

After the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, chocolate factories in Russia were nationalized and their owners, for the most part, emigrated. Only the Easter eggs from the Ding factory and old catalogs of other factories have survived to this day.