Aldi's 'cursed' Christmas chocolate leaves shoppers baffled

We may still have Halloween to get out of the way, but that’s not stopped supermarkets from stuffing their shelves with Christmas goodies.

It’s both a blessing and a curse, given that many of us are desperate not to wish the year away too quickly, while others are just happy to start stocking up gradually, while they’ve got the time and the cash.

But while Christmas products appearing in shops often triggers the ‘It’S ToO EaRLy!’ brigade, Aldi’s got a line of chocolate treats that are leaving people rattled for an entirely different reason.

Many people have noticed the supermarket’s seasonal selection trickling into stores, including the famous milk chocolate Santa figurine and a ‘delicious’ new chocolate orange Baileys dupe.

While out shopping recently, one customer snapped a photo of Aldi’s Parker the Penguin and Garry the Gingerbread Man chocolate products.

Both retailing at £1.99 a pop for the 62g figurines, the hollow milk chocolate eggs are made from Rainforest Alliance Certified cocoa.

They tweeted: “Merry Chreaster ya filthy animal.”

Aldi later reposted the photo, joking: “Babe what’s wrong, you’ve hardly touched your Chreaster egg.”

Yep, it's that famous Christmas Easter egg, aka... the Chreaster egg.

The portmanteau term (and, well, overall concept) soon caused a bit of stir online, with one commenting: “Nah man," as someone else said: “Absolute disgrace.”

A third wrote: “I saw these in my Aldi on Saturday and I was so confused.”

And a fourth fumed: “Chreaster. CHREASTER?! Don’t you dare you lovely people. Tbf, I’ve always thought it should be eggs at Christmas because we’re (some of us still) celebrating the birth of the baby Jesus.”

Mind you, other shoppers were a bit fan, with one tweeting: “I love Aldi, just when you think they can’t do better. This is so cursed I actually love it.”

Another quipped: “Where's the Chreasterween eggs?”

Aldi went on to reply: “Wow, now... We can't go full throttle right off the mark! We thought we would ease our customers in with the Chreaster eggs first! Final destination: Easummalloweemas eggs!”

Too far, guys, too far.

If that chocolate orange Baileys dupe sounds like a bit of you, the Ballycastle Milk Chocolate Clementine Country Cream is available now in stores, costing £7.49 for a 700ml bottle.

It sees ‘smooth, creamy milk chocolate infused with bright, zesty clementine’, providing a deliciously boozy take on the Terry’s Chocolate Orange.

“Make autumn un-bally-lievably delicious with the launch of Aldi’s NEW Ballycastle Milk Chocolate Clementine Country Cream,” Aldi said, adding that the drink is in stores now.