I grew up in Germany and Kinder chocolates are possibly the best things in the entire world! They are missed and it's sad that they are so expensive here and hard to find. :( The eggs are such a great toy... If you live up north, you can get them more readily (and they are "legal") in Canada!

I've seen the Kinder Eggs sold in Portland, Maine but toys are not the same as you would get overseas. Not small pieces that you put together.

I'd loved Kinder Eggs (I'm Canadian) since childhood but didn't discover Bueno until I was stuck in an airport in Moscow and had a lot of rubels I wanted to use up before getting on the flight. I ended up buying a handful of them and they kept me happy through the long, long, multiple-flights home.

Never heard of someone actually choking on the toys. Silly rule!

I was warned on my first trip to Germany that Kinder Eggs are addictive and you can't bring them back because of the choking hazard. I haven't tried to sneak any back, yet, but I did gorge myself on them on a recent trip to Ecuador. I have a ton of awesome little Kinder Egg boats as proof of my love for their awesomeness.

Forget the eggs, Kinder Hippos are the best!!

I love Kinder chocolates! I have a friend who brought back several eggs from Germany and I have lamented that I haven't had one for years.

I'd read that they couldn't be SOLD here because of the "choking hazard" but I had no idea you couldn't bring them into the country. Craziness! I have lots more to say about this BS, but I will confine it to my head.

Last month a Canadian woman made the news because she was stopped and searched at the US border and they found an offending egg. They confiscated her Kinder Surprise egg and threatened to fine her $300. She later received a letter asking her to formally authorise the destruction of the egg.

All that for a piece of candy.

Kinder Bueno are everywhere here in Quebec (grocers, walmart, convenience stores, pharmacies, etc.) and they're stocked with the other candy bars. They're nice but I never thought they were anything 'special'.

Good grief, if they tried to confiscate my kinder eggs I think I would just stand there in front of them and eat every single one. Wouldn't care if it made me sick as a dog, I have a streak of stubbornness when I encounter stupid rules.

I second MariaB!!! Hippos all the way!

I almost brought one back from London last year but decided to go with a different chocolate. Good thing, I guess.

There was actually a big hubbub about this when a woman tried to take some Kinder Surprise Eggs across the border into the US for some kids.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/story/2011/01/10/man-kinder-surprise-border.html

I lovelovelovelove Kinder Eggs. My dad's best friend (my "Uncle" Vince) used to bring them for me and my brother every time he came over. And those little tiny bars are awesome too (with the milk white chocolate center yummmmmm). I've only recently seen them in stores in Toronto, but we used to get huge boxes of them at the duty-free on our way home from Mexico.

I grew up buying Kinder Eggs in Germany. And as a American child my fondest memories are those of the great feeling of accomplishment and pride I'd have after putting together the toys (tiny pieces and all!) using the German instructions. Swoon...

I keep begging my sister to bring me kinder hippos the next time she visits the states. Now I have to figure out how to get some eggs as well.

What an enormous waste of TSA resources! Kinder eggs are awesome. If we stop allowing people to bring things into the country that children could choke on, we'd really be in trouble. It is the parents' responsibility to supervise their children and decide what kinds of toys are appropriate for them, not the TSA's.

Really? Well, when I drove across the US-Canadian border with like 20 Kinder eggs, no one stopped me!

Oh, Kinder! How I miss thee! I've found the chocolates here in the US and they are not only expensive BUT they taste different. Yes, in my opinion they taste sweeter (which how is this possible?)

Thankfully my Dad is going to Karneval in March and will be returning with pounds and pounds of confections, including Kinder.

So...kids can chew on toys covered in toxic lead paint - but not Kinder Eggs because they might choke? That's ridiculous.
We just brought back about a dozen Kinder eggs this fall - we didn't have any issues.

PS - our World Market carries nearly every Kinder product, except the eggs.

It's been awhile since I've checked, but I know even just 4-5 years ago, many of the polish and ukrainian markets around Chicago sold the Kinder Surprise Eggs. I wonder if customs knows. And if not, PLEASE, dear Kitchn blog readers... don't tell them!!!!

Ah, I too, love kinder eggs! I see them every now and again here in the US--usually little stores. My sister and I got really excited at a Canadian gas station recently (totally as adults) since they sold kinder eggs. The cashier looked at us like we were nuts, but we explained we just couldn't get them in the US!

I brought my mom back a gigantic one from Canada, only to discover they'd smashed it into tiny bits and took out the toy in the centre. :( this was before these things were banned. JERKS!

Just one more reason to wish I lived abroad... the fabulous treats! A friend introduced me to Kinder Bueno in England and I've been in love ever since. If you have a fondness for Nutella-esque treats, you HAVE to try them :)

I love Kinder Eggs! No wonder you can never find them here...bummer! Great story, thank you for sharing :)

I <3 Kinder Eggs!

My grandpa tell a great story about chocolate confiscation, actually. He bought a great big box of expensive chocolates, but it was confiscated by the border agent. Turns out his ride was very late, so he had to wait several hours outside. When who should he suddenly see but the exact same agent, walking out of the building with grandpa's giant box of chocolates under his arm.

Well, he immediately ran over to the man, pulled open the box, and dumped then out all over the street! The guard couldn't even say anything, as he had been caught red-handed.

Fortunately this all happened decades and decades ago, or grandpa probably would have been arrested. But it's still a hilarious story.

I formed an addiction to the Bueno bars while living in London....I even found them worthy of gifting at Christmas. To this day I am still tempted to buy them in mass quantities and stash them away when I see them in stores. However, I have since acquired an allergy to wheat which keeps from doing so. My hips are thanking me, though my quality of life has seriously taken a dip.

I love Kinder Schoco! Especially since they were marketed as container some number of your daily milk servings - chocolate AND nutritious!

I used to get them all the time when I lived in Italy, (I was 12 at the time.) I still can't believe that after all this time that there are actually enforcement people devoted to confiscating the eggs.

what's truly unbelievable is that you can cross the border with a box full of the toys, it's only when the toy is still wrapped in chocolate that it appears to be a problem.

I'm all for basic consumer safety regulations, but there is a point where it changes from selling something that is inherently dangerous to selling something with which you can do something stupid to yourself. and kinder eggs are definitely on the far side of that line.

Yup - US customs confiscates thousands of kinder eggs each year at the Canadian/US border.

There are a number of places to buy these in Boston (Gourmet Boutique in the Copley mall used to be a reliable source, although I haven't been there in a while), and I've never asked questions about how the manage to have them on the shelf. They seem to be authentic and full of silly, fiddly little toys. For novelty factor, Kinder Egg all the way, although I agree with others that the Hippos are where it's at.

It's very funny that Kinder Eggs are illegal. But, I'm so surprised all of you like the chocolate. I guess I liked it as a kid (probably for the toy), but as an adult I found the chocolate to be awful. Like the stuff they use to make chocolate bunnies you buy at the drugstore at Easter. That being said, I don't think they deserve their illicit status!

NOoooooooo, I grew up on Kinder Eggs. They are so much fun to collect.

And I don't know anyone who chocked on them. I agree with circusboy

Good to know, I used to buy some Kinder Eggs every time I went up to Canada. I've seen them for sale locally in Asian grocery stores.

Weird - I'm pretty sure you can buy them at Dilaurenti's at Pike Place Market in Seattle...

My grandparents used to bring me Kinder Eggs every time they came to visit when I was a kid. They used to live in Germany and never seemed to have any problems with customs.

They really are the perfect treat for kids, but be warned you'll end up collecting crates of tiny plastic toys.

Oh, I love Buenos! I was so happy when I moved to SF and discovered they're sold in pretty much every corner and drug store.

We brought back some Kinder eggs from Germany a few years ago without any trouble. I agree with the general consensus: Happy Hippos are better!

these have been banned for YEARS, like a decade at least at this point. We used to "smuggle" them back from Canada on the regular

Weird. You can buy them in Canada last time I checked.

The legal reason they aren't allowed in the country is from the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act: has partially or completely imbedded therein any nonnutritive object, except that this subparagraph shall not apply in the case of any nonnutritive object if, in the judgment of the Secretary as provided by regulations, such object is of practical functional value to the confectionery product and would not render the product injurious or hazardous to health;

I have seen the Kinder eggs in Polish markets in Chicago as well (Fresh Farms in Niles has them) but they are not the same as what I grew up with in Austria. The best thing about the Ueberraschungseier was the special collections like the Crazy Crocos - google it. They are still collector items. There would be one in every 7th egg or something like that and we swapped them in school.

I can't believe American kids have to grow up without Kinder Eggs, they were such an essential part of my childhood.

I also really miss Kinder Milchschnitte, Kinder Maxi King and Kinder Pingui.

Fairway sells Kinder. Hippos, too :)

I have only had a chance to sample Kinder Bueno a few times and I *adore* them. I've never been too excited by the eggs though since they are basically a chocolate shell with a toy inside (nice chocolate, but just chocolate nonetheless). I'd love to try the hippos!

We did have that discussion in Europe, too, it struck everybody as absolutely ridiculous because we all grew up with "Überraschungseier" and nobody was ever stupid enough to confuse the toys with the chocolate. They are not meant for under 3-year-olds anyway.

do you know that kinder is just one of the many sides of the gigantic Italian Ferrero, the same that produce Nutella and Tic Tac? I'm old enough to remember when they introduced the kinder egg to the market in 1974

I ♥ Kinder eggs. My godfather used to send me lots of them from Switzerland when I was a child and they were still a novelty here. And I do the same today for my nephew who lives oversea. Btw, you can find them everywhere in Quebec (Canada).

This is really crazy! I´m living in Germany! And I see so often things here which I would love to buy and which are not available in Germany.And you dont even get the Eggs:( Silly - There is a note/warning on each egg - the eggs are not suitable for children under 3 years! So there should be no problem if your kids are older! :)

Kinder Eggs are awesome and it's true that you're not allowed to bring them into the US. The ones that are sold here have crappier toys (usually puzzle pieces).

I live in queens and there are awesome turkish/european groceries all over and they all sell kinder egg and other kinder products. There's even an Irish Mart that sells the giant eggs around christmas.
I have a small collection of all the odd toys from inside them like an alligator that is pulling a cart (which you had to assemble), a creepy witch, etc. Some you had to put together and some were just figures.

They had them at the Christkindlmarkt in Daly Plaza in Chicago this year...marked waaaaay up. Everything else was straight from Deutschland, and these looked pretty authentic. But my kids chose lebkuchen, instead. Not sure how they can be related to me and not love chocolate.

Lord love a Kinder Egg! The toys are fantastic - I hauled a bunch of these out of my purse to share with my friends at an Easter lunch (drink-fest) a few years back and the squeals could be heard throughout the restaurant. Forgot to bring a few to my fiance's family dinner and he and I had no choice but to open them up at home - sans kids. We ignored the chocolate and played with the toys. We're in our mid-40's... I get mine in Brooklyn.

I totally agree with anyone who praised Kinder Hippos, they are delicious!!! Also like ek76 as a kid here in Australia I liked the toy way better than the chocolate. Most of the Kinder products are available here, including the eggs... guess our government thinks we're smart enough not to eat the giant ball of plastic or its contents :P When I was an exchange student in the UK we got so many Americans addicted to Kinder Surprise Eggs.. and Tim Tams :)

I live in Chicago and buy Kinder eggs all the time. Huh.

bkk, Tim Tams are fantastic. I'm so glad that Pepperidge Farm is selling them now.

I had a British boarding agent once threaten to confiscate my Cadbury's chocolates. She was joking, but she thoroughly enjoyed my sad face at the "news".

(sarcasm on) Clearly Americans are too dumb to realize the plastic egg inside a chocolate egg shouldn't be eaten...or to not give it to small children per the packaging's warning. We soooo need to be protected from ourselves. (sarcasm off)

As with a couple of you, I was reaised in Germany and spent many afternoons shooting one end of the yellow capsule across the room. I'm not too crazy about the chocolate but the toys were great. My parents still live in Germany and my mother, who never breaks rules, sends them to me a couple times a year. I still have 4 from the Christmas box that she sent.

You know, verily, rather than being insulting and trying to pass it off as sarcasm ("Clearly Americans are too dumb to realize...") you could trying reading other people's posts, particularly postfacto's one that contains the FDA's legal directive about non-food items embedded in food items.

Word Market or Cost Plus sells the various Kinder chocolates. I get my son Kinder "Happy Hippos" all the time for his lunch.