Hmm, something tells me that you fell for the Cadbury eggs?
Only when they had liquid centers. I'm not a big fan of the frosting centers.
Don't' they make them anymore?! No wonder I kept thinking I got a hold of a bad batch.
I could be wrong about this, but from what I've read, Hershey bought out Cadbury's division in the USA, which resulted in a reformulated recipe.
If I had to guess (strictly just my opinion from working many years in food retail,) the changes towards a more solid center were probably due to:
1. Costs, of course. I'm guessing the new recipe is cheaper, or might have been necessary due to supply issues, or both.
2. The liquid centers were probably more of a hassle for shipping, storing, etc.
As much as the frosting-like center might be loathed, it's more practical for shipping and storing across various climates (especially when palettes of merch are sitting in the back rooms of stores in places like AZ, where the air conditioning has been turned off in zones where employees are but not customers in order to save money.)
And of course, AZ is so hot that even if they did have the AC running in the back rooms, you barely noticed. Candy palettes certainly aren't important enough to take up any precious refrigerated space (same thing with shipping -- transport trucks are mini moving deserts, even in milder weather,) so coming up with a formulation that could endure extreme temperatures would be crucial.
I know some brands of those candy cordial cherries have liquid centers, but they're also packed in protective plastic cartons, where each piece of candy is individually protected.
Cadbury eggs are often packaged loose with only a foil covering, which presents a lot more challenges when developing a product that can endure all the journeys and conditions before it reaches the shelf.