No Butter Krak in your Easter basket this year, New Jersey — and it’s going to sting

My first reaction was a simple, deflated: oh, bummer.

That's the only appropriate response when you find out that the candy you grew up finding in your Easter basket — the same candy you later put in your own kids' Easter baskets — is not going to be on the shelves this year. No butter cream. No coconut cream. And worst of all, no Butter Krak.

If you're from South Jersey or anywhere in the Philadelphia region and you just felt a small pang of loss reading that, you are not alone. Zitner's Fine Confections — the century-old Philadelphia chocolatier that has quietly owned Easter in this part of the country for generations — is sitting out the 2026 season. And while the reason is frustrating, it's also the kind of story that makes you root for them to come back stronger.

Why Zitner's Easter candy is missing from NJ store shelves in 2026

Here's what happened. Zitner's had been manufacturing out of an aging plant near 17th and Clearfield Streets in North Philadelphia for decades. In recent years, the building deteriorated badly. A salvage yard moved in next door and took over the shipping and receiving area, forcing workers to load trucks directly on 17th Street. The company's chief executive Evan Prochniak made the call that the situation had become a safety issue, and production at that location ended in the summer of 2024.

For Easter 2025, Zitner's used an outside manufacturer to fill the gap — but that was never a long-term fix. These are old-school recipes, and the company wanted to maintain control over every batch.

The good news came last Friday, when Prochniak closed a deal to acquire Kargher Chocolate, a small family-owned manufacturer in Hatfield, Montgomery County. Equipment is moving in now. But a typical Zitner's Easter production cycle takes about four months, and with Easter falling on April 5 this year, the math simply doesn't work. The candy won't be back in time.

So if you've been checking the shelves at your ShopRite in Berlin or Chews Landing, your Acme in Haddon Township, your Wawa, your Boscov's in Moorestown or Voorhees — yes, they're really gone this year. It's not your store. It's not a supply chain mystery. Zitner's just needed to find a new home.

A century of Easter baskets — the story behind the candy

Zitner's traces its roots to 1922, when Russian immigrants Samuel and Annie Zitner started making chocolate candies out of a garage on Kensington Avenue — the same year the El started running overhead. A century later, the recipes Annie developed are still what people drive around looking for every March.

The bestseller — the dark chocolate Butter Krak egg — is made from buttercream, long-shredded coconut, and toasted coconut, just the way Annie Zitner taught Leon Sherman, the nephew who took over the business in 1936 and ran it for decades. The recipes were standardized. The loyal following grew. And somewhere along the way, Zitner's became less of a candy brand and more of an Easter tradition for the entire Delaware Valley — New Jersey very much included.

Ownership changed hands over the years. The company filed for bankruptcy protection in 2018 while restructuring debt, though that filing was later dismissed. Through all of it, the candy survived. And now, under Prochniak's ownership, it's about to get a proper new home.

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When will Zitner's be back — and what's coming next

The Hatfield facility is the next chapter. Prochniak says staffing will roughly double this year, and he has plans to go beyond the classic Easter lineup — reviving old handwritten recipes from the company archive and potentially opening a Philadelphia retail store, with an outlet at Philadelphia International Airport also in the conversation.

To bridge the gap for loyal fans, Zitner's is planning a "Christmas/Easter in July" release through its Facebook and Instagram accounts this summer. It's not April, but it's something.

For now, the Butter Krak will have to wait. But it's coming back — made the right way, in a real factory, by a company that knows exactly what it has.

Put it on your list for Easter 2027. Some things are worth waiting for.