New Zealanders outraged after falling victim to 'the curse of the Cherry Ripe'

People have taken to social media to show how many Cherry Ripe bars were in their Favourites Easter eggs. Photo / Cadbury Dairy Milk

Chocolate maker Cadbury has responded to a woman who complained on social media of a disproportionate number of Cherry Ripe chocolates in her sons Favorites Easter Egg saying the process is randomised.

Shelley Down, from Paraparaumu, posted an image of the offending package and questioned the company on their chocolate selection process.

"Was super excited to watch my son open his Favourites Easter Egg but had a bit of a WTF moment when we realised there were 7 Cherry Ripes and 1 Dairy Milk [sic]," she said.

"I know Cherry Ripes get a bit of a tough time and you still need to force them upon us but the ratio seems a bit drastic. Did you have a newbie working on the distribution line that day because surely this ain't right?!"

The post has attracted over 3400 reactions and 364 comments - including from a number of other people with the same issue, which one person referred to as the "curse of the Cherry Ripe".

In response to her post of their Facebook page, Cadbury said the high number of Cherry Ripes in the Favourites Easter Egg was unintentional.

"Thanks for your feedback. Whilst the process of the pieces going into the packet is randomised, it is not intentional that you would get that much of one particular product."

They asked for her contact details and "the barcode, Best Before Date and batch code from the pack.. and we'll be in touch."

A spokeswoman for Cadbury told the Herald: "While variation in the numbers of Cadbury mini bars in each pack is possible due to the random selection process, it is very unusual to have a majority of one bar.

"We encourage any customers who have a concern to contact us directly and we will investigate the matter further."

Ms Dawn was not the only chocolate lover to take to Facebook to lament about disproportionate numbers of Cherry Ripe bars in Favourites Easter eggs - a problem that could shape up to be first world problem of the year.

Anna Wych said that four of her seven mini chocolate bars were Cherry Ripes, and Angela Adams posted a photo with a ration of six Cherry Ripes to a total of eight bars.

Vanessa Miers said she had four Cherry Ripes and three Dairy Milk bars, while Wendy Reid said all three boxes of the Favourites eggs were ridden with cherry-coconut flavoured candy.

Two boxed contained four of the bars and the other five, she said.

Each package of Favourites Easter eggs contains one hollow milk chocolate egg and about eight mini chocolate bars from the Cadbury range.

In a statement to the Herald, a Cadbury spokeswoman said the bars were selected at random when placed into the packaging.

Note: Dairy Milk has been omitted from the poll

"It appears that one customer has purchased a Cadbury Favourites egg which by chance has a higher proportion of Cherry Ripes. While this is extremely unlikely, it is possible given the manufacturing process.

"We do appreciate that the customer likely wanted to sample all of our mini bars range, so we are sending them some replacements to enjoy this Easter."

In a Herald poll, Turkish Delight chocolate bars and Flakes were voted the two favorite Cadbury offerings. The two chocolaty delights both scooped up 17 per cent of votes. Cherry Ripes trailed not far behind on 16 per cent.

Dream chocolate bars meanwhile only manages to rake in three per cent of votes making it the lest favorite in the poll.