Easter is a holiday about rising from the dead. It’s a time to celebrate resurrection, rebirth, springtime, a freshening of the home and spirit, and alsoโ€”perhaps most importantlyโ€”the consumption of pastel-colored sugary treats.

You know what else helps people rise from the (metaphorical) dead? A nice hot cup of coffee.ย And so today, in honor of Easter, I thought I’d do my very best as a Jewish kid from the suburbs to talk through ten of the very finest coffee and Easter candy pairings imaginable. To build the list I spoke to many sources in the goyim community, who graciously shared their favorite Easter candy picks. Then I paired those up with lovely coffees sourced in partnership with Sprudge’s remarkable network of beloved advertising clients, whom you can visit on the right hand side of this and every Sprudge story.

So set aside that toothbrush as together we explore the pastelrific, flavortastic world of coffee and Easter candy.

Cadbury Creme Egg +ย Elixr Guatemala El Injerto

cadbury

I’m starting with the most important Easter candy, which I feel is inarguably the best, although I understand there is some disagreement here. The Cadbury creme egg is a triumph of holiday candy form. I appreciate that it only comes around once a yearโ€”you cannot simply buy a Cadbury Creme Egg in like, July or whatever, because they’re unavailable, the candy is just for Easterโ€”and I love, love, love that here in American Cadbury has aired some version of the “Cadbury Bunny Try Outs” commercial for the last 30 years. As a pairing, I’m going fave for fave by linking up the beloved creme egg with a wonderful Guatemala El Injerto from Elxir Coffee of Philadelphia. This is one of the first coffees I ever really loved and it continues to surprise and delight year after year, not unlike a certain egg of creme (not to be confused with an egg cream,ย though that would also be an awesome pairing).

Jordan Almonds + Partners Coffee Jumpstart Blend

jordanalmonds

I adore a Jordan Almond, and not just because they bear my name. The Jordan Almond makes a wonderful snack year-round but really comes out to shine during spring, when its pastel color palatte syncs up with the wider fashion milieu. Try mixing in a Jordan Almond on your seasonal charcuterie boardโ€”you’ll crash Pinterest with such interest! For pairing purpsoes you’d be hard pressed to find a more perfect synergy than Partners Coffee Jumpstart Blend, a melange of Latin American coffees with tasting notes such as and including caramel, poached pear, and…wait for it…Jordan Almond. Now that’s synergy.

Peeps +ย Stumptown Rwanda Huye Mountain

peeps

I don’t like Peeps. There, I said it. I get that they are cute and beloved, and make a fine basket decoration, but as a snack they are demonstrably ungood. It’s a sugar-coated marshmallow; what’s the big deal? Plus the act of eating an entire tiny bird feels ethically questionable, like the sort of thing you’d be required to cover your face with a napkin before doing in France. So if I’m going to have to have a Peep, I want that Peep to be paired with a coffee I really, really like, such as this nice Rwanda Huye Mountain from Stumptown. This coffee is named for the washing station, which is common in Rwanda, and draws from around 1200 individual farmers around the rolling green mountains and valleys of Huye. I got to travel here once, which does not make me any sort of expert or authority, but it does mean I’ll always love the coffee from this place thanks to the emotional resonance of my own personal experiences with it. Which I guess is how some people feel about Peeps! Not me though. You can keep your weird sugar birds.

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Hollow Chocolate Rabbit + Onyx Coffee’s Peru Coffee & Cacao Nib Box

chocolate bunny

Now we’re talking! I love the hollow chocolate rabbit (the only good chocolate rabbitโ€”miss me with the solid rabbit variety) and truly believe there’s no Easter treat more quintessentially Easter than devouring a chocolate rabbit, ears-first. I like that there are many, many different tiers of chocolate rabbit available, from the $2.99 Walgreens iteration to the 24 carot gold Los Angeles foodie tastemaker version to this 13 inch high upright sugaredย Leporidaeย that kind of feels like a nightmare, but also I’d like to eat it. (I will also definitely eat a real rabbit, just so we’re clear, because a well-prepared rabbit dish is wonderful.)ย Anyway, the chocolate rabbit is a taste sensation, and so why not double-triple down by pairing it with a wonderful Peru Coffee & Cacao Nib Box set from the equally wonderful Onyx Coffee Lab. This way you have chocolate, coffee, and cacao nibs, and can go about the rest of your day in sugary caffeinated bliss. Once I had a dream where an enormous chocolate rabbit roamed the earth, the size of Godzilla. His ears looked delicious.

A large handful of jellybeans (plus several more) + Equator Coffees’ Decaf Eye Of The Tigerย 

jelly beans

Here’s the thing about jellybeans: you eat them by the handful, and there’s never just one handful. Contrary to what some believe, I don’t ascribe to the popular notion that any single jellybean flavor is better than another one. Rather, I am a proponent of like a pan-bean omni-jelly approach to eating the jellied bean, a maximalist interpretation of jellybean consumption resulting in a multiverse of flavors perhaps best described as Tutti-Frutti. Let’s pair these beans with a coffee you can drink in multiples: a nice decaf from Equator known as Eye Of The Tiger, which coincedentally enough looks like a jelly bean (the tiger’s eye, not the coffee). Decaf is the best and hating on decaf is so profoundly immature and reductive I can’t believe people still attempt it.

The Reeses Peanut Butter Egg + Dogwood Coffee’s Mixtape Blend

egg

Reeses (pronounced Ree-Seez) have got this holiday racket figured out, transmogrifying their popular peanut butter cup into whatever shape demanded by a given celebration: hearts for Valentine’s, pumpkins for Halloween, trees for Christmas, and yes, the popular Peanut Butter Egg for Easter. I find its popularity baffling: Justin peanut butter cups are demonstrably better than Reeses, and the actual good Reeses snack is the Reeses Pieces (prounouncedd Ree-Seez Pee-Seez), ideally mixed in with a big tub of movie popcorn, yum yum. But multiple individuals consulted in the exhaustive research portion of this article’s creation expressed their fondness for the egg cup, so who am I to judge? Let’s have it with a nice cup of Dogwood Coffee’s Mixtape Blend, probably my favorite ever-changing coffee blend name in the whole dang industry, whose present notes include “nutty”, not unlike the iconic butter of a peanut.

Chocolate carrot + Intelligentsia Persephone Blend

carrot

The chocolate carrot is an underrated Easter treat. It is perhaps the most pure expression of the confectionary trope, “Let’s make something look healthy but really it’s made of chocolate and sugar,” and I love that for all of us. Let’s pair it with the deeply seasonal, blue pastel clad Intelligentsia Persephone Blend, a coffee that is springy as all get out and would look great on your all-pastel-everything Easter lunch grazing table.

Chocolate Marshmallow Egg + Joe Coffee Turihamwe IWCA

russell

This is obviously not my favorite version of the Easter sugar eggโ€”that would be the Cadbury, featured aboveโ€”but the marshmallow egg is pretty great. The textural tension between the robe of chocolate and soft, fluffy innards makes for great snacking. Of any candy featured in this increasingly lengthy post, this is the one I kind of want to run out and buy immediately. I’m pairing it with a coffee I’d also like to drink immediately: Joe Coffee’s Turihamwe IWCA, a new offering that’s part of Joe’s limited release Atlas Collection. This has flavor notes including vanilla and melon, and it represents a micro-lot from the Ngozi Province of Burundi, sourced in partnership with JNP Coffee and the International Women’s Coffee Alliance.

Whoppers Robin Eggs + Perc Ceramic Pink Gift Box

whoppers

Hear me out: you get some Whoppers Robin Eggs (a very underrated Easter Candy!!) and then you get this lovely pink ceramic mug from Perc, and you fill the mug *with* the Whoppers Robin Eggs, and brew up your choice of coffee alongside. That is like a modern Easter basket but it’s also a mug you get to keep and use later, and you’ll get some yummy coffee to drink. Did I just invent this? Has someone already done this? Is it someone’s entire identity on Tik-Tok? I’m going to go check the hashtags.

Our Favorite Year-Round Candy Made Into Pastel Colors + Olympia Coffee Roasting Co. Little Buddy

pastel

The Easter milieu reaches its zenith when all forms of candy can become pastelified, from Kisses to M&Ms to cookies and cakes. It’s an introduction to the Easter candy form, and should be paired with a coffee built to introduce new coffee lovers to the world of flavor. That’s Little Buddy, a balance of adventure and comfort, like a marshmallow the color of a pink poodle, or a Jolly Rancher gone mint green. Let the pastel tones and delicate flavors enrobe you like so much melted chocolate, surrounding your precious fluffy marshmallow core. Together we’ll nap another year, safely ensconced in our bird’s egg blue candy wrapper, before being devoured anew amongst the spring rain and blooms.ย Who’s pushing the pedals on the season cycle?ย 

Jordan Michelman is a co-founder and editor at Sprudge Media Network. Read more Jordan Michelman on Sprudge.

Brands featured in this story are members of the Sprudge Media advertising network. Interested in advertising on Sprudge? Get in touch.ย 

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