Sweet by Street: UK’s chocoholic capital revealed

The countdown to Easter can mean lots of things to different people. Whether it’s seeing family, welcoming the joys of the season or celebrating the festival with your local community, there are plenty of ways to spend the spring bank holiday.

Here at Birds, there’s certainly one element of Easter that we love the most. Belgian Chocolate!

At this time of year, the specialist chocolate room in our factory is even busier than usual, while our talented team gets to work creating all of the treats from our Easter range. Everything from delicious rabbits to orange carrots and Easter-egg lollipops are carefully created for our customers to enjoy. But does everyone in the UK share our sweet tooth?

A hunt for information

Easter eggs and other treats might be flying off the shelves across the UK, but we wondered which area has the biggest demand for chocolate. So we gathered the data.

To find the UK’s capital of chocolate, we analysed thousands of Google searches. We looked at terms including “Easter eggs”, “chocolate recipes” and “chocolate bars” to make sure we got a full understanding of the nation’s love of cocoa beans. Then, we filtered this information down against a number of towns and cities across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to see where residents had been searching for all things chocolate throughout 2022. And we were surprised by the findings…

Where is the UK’s most chocoholic region?

Derbyshire, where we are based, didn’t come top of the list. In fact, it ranked 30th place. However, with the launch of our new Easter treats we hope this might change over the next few weeks!

The UK’s most chocoholic region was Cambridge. Although it may be famous for its university, historic architecture and the River Cam, residents in the city made the most online searches for chocolate this year.

After all, there’s nothing better than a bar of your favourite chocolate following a day of punting - and it’s the perfect post-revision pick me up,

Top 20 chocolate loving areas revealed

When analysing our top 20 list, the South of the UK has the biggest chocolate craving overall. But after Cambridge, it was Lincoln, another historic city in the Midlands, that ranked in second place.

Although Cadbury, one of Britain’s most well-known chocolate giants, is based in Birmingham, residents seem to neither love nor hate the stuff. Birmingham ranked at 39 out of 81 areas that were indexed.

10 regions without a sweet tooth

On the other end of the scale, there were certain areas where chocolate-based searches were rare. People in Cardiff made the least online searches for chocolate themed terms, closely followed by Stratford-upon-Avon.

Chocolate, and beyond

Chocolate eggs might be a symbol for Easter, but there are lots of other treats that can be enjoyed during the holiday. On our blog we’ve shared seven spring bakes that work well this season - why not spice things up with a cinnamon roll, or try an easter bunny carrot cake?

For a real taste of tradition, Simnel cake has been eaten at this time of year since the Medieval times. Combining together dried fruits with citrus zests and a large helping of marzipan, it’s the perfect alternative treat for people in Cardiff and other non-chocoholic regions to enjoy this Easter.

Other retailers have left hot cross buns off their Easter range this year, but we love this Easter classic so much, we’ve made it into a loaf. Whether you love Belgian chocolate or prefer something more fruity, browse our full Easter range online.

The chocolate selection from Birds can be found in one of the 62 stores across the Midlands - or with the new Birds By Post service, a selection of treats can be ordered throughout the UK.

Methodology and references

To find the UK’s capital of chocolate, Birds analysed thousands of Google searches. It included terms including “Easter eggs”, “chocolate recipes” and “chocolate bars”, which were then filtered against a number of towns and cities across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and cross referenced with the population in each area to create an index based on the density of searches.

ONS UK population data