Kinder Surprise Eggs Überraschungsei

It was an eggstravaganza. Überraschungsei proportions in Germany 01/06/2017 by Erin Blakemore:

The Kinder Surprise, also known as the Kinder egg, combines candy and a prize, which has made it a kind of cult favorite around the world, selling billions during its over 40-year history. But that didn’t stop Germans from being surprised when tens of thousands of Kinder eggs washed up on the shore of a small island this week.

Deutsche Welle reports that Langeoog, which is located on the Germany-Netherlands border along the North Sea, became the site of an unexpected egg invasion after a storm called Axel buffeted the north of Germany. The storm caused flooding in coastal areas, but in Langeoog it also brought a surge of Kinder eggs that originated from a Danish freight container, which had lost its content in the maelstrom. 

The unexpected eggstravaganza was cause for sardonic comment among the German press, but it also highlighted the country’s obsession with the eggs. Since they debuted in 1974 in Italy as Kinder Sorpresa they’ve become a favorite among kids and adults alike. The concept is deceptively simple: Foil covers a chocolate egg filled with a plastic “yolk” that’s in turn stuffed with kid-friendly treats. Though they’re manufactured by the Italian company Ferrero, they’re particularly beloved in Germany, where the word das Überraschungsei, or “the surprise egg,” is even in the dictionary.

All those treats washed up on shore at a strange moment for the eggs: Just last week, the sweet’s inventor, William Salice, died at age 83. As the UPI reports, Salice apparently invented the eggs as a way to keep using Easter egg molds all year long. 

It’s a good thing they didn’t wash up in the United States. If they had, they’d have been confiscated—Kinder Surprise is banned from importation into the U.S. due to what U.S. Customs calls a “choking and aspiration hazard” for young children. A few years ago, a pair of Seattle men were detained at the border for possession of a half-dozen Surprise eggs and threatened with a $2,500 fine per egg, reports KOMO’s Jamie Lynn, but managed to get off with a warning. Nonetheless, a black market for the candy does exist in the U.S. and YouTube is flooded with videos of people opening up Surprise eggs.

Surprise eggs may be banned in the United States, but the German kids on Langeoog lucked out. As the Deutsche Welle reports, the island’s mayor allowed local kindergarteners to go wild on an impromptu egg hunt and dared those who claimed it was theft to come clean up the beach for him. Not that anyone who loves the candy would need any, well, egging on. It seems Easter will never have anything on Axel—and 2017 will go down as the year the sea spit out Surprise eggs for one and all.