They are everywhere: in shop windows, piled up on supermarket shelves and even hidden behind garden bushes. They come in all sizes and colours. But where does the Easter bunny actually come from? Where are they made?

Photographer Christian Beutler visited the chocolate maker Honold external linkin Küsnacht, near Zurich, to find out more. The firm, which has been in the same family for four generations, produces handmade Easter bunnies.

The origins of the Easter bunny are still unclear. It is thought that a German manufacturer started making them in the 1950s. In 1952, the Swiss chocolate company Lindt & Sprüngli started selling its famous golden bunniesexternal link. The story goes that the idea came from the owner’s son, who was very attached to his pet rabbit. The product took off in Switzerland and is now sold all around the world.

According to the Federation of Swiss Chocolate Manufacturers (Chocosuisseexternal link), in 2017 4,600 tonnes of Easter-related chocolate products were sold in Switzerland and 380 tonnes were exported. On average, 16 million chocolate rabbits are sold in Switzerland every year – twice the number of Swiss inhabitants.

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How did a country without a single homegrown cocoa bean become one of the world’s leading chocolate manufacturers?

By Thomas Stephens

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SWI swissinfo.ch on Instagram