You've probably already seen tubs of Christmas chocolates stocked up the supermarkets and shops like B&M, Wilko and Home Bargains. And, if you can resist eating them prematurely, you can stock up now when the deals are on.
When it comes to festive choccy tubs, no one does it quite as well as Roses and Quality Street. So, in the name of Christmas, Birmingham Live's Kirsty Bosley put the two OG tubs to the test.
I have to admit that in all 35 years of my chocolate-gobbling life, I've never paid much mind to which is better, Roses or Quality Street. I've always taken for granted that I'd just have access to both every Christmas, rustling through tubs in the office and when visiting friends and family. But this year, I'm trying to be a little more mindful.
With the cost of everything just so high, I'm really going to do my best to be smarter about how I shop this coming festive season. So I decided, once and for all, to pit Nestle Quality Street against Cadbury Roses, to see which is better, so I can make smarter shopping decisions come December.
Both tubs are a fiver each just now in Sainsbury's, 600g plastic tubs filled with chocolate morsels, individually wrapped. I got one of each and in the interests of consumer research (and NOT greed, thank you very much), I set about researching. Here's what I found:
Packaging
Both tubs are iconic and recognisable, though I do miss the embossed tins of my childhood. The blue plastic Roses tub, illustrated with pretty glowers, bears the Cadbury logo in the classic purple and gold colour scheme.
"A bright bunch of delicious chocolates", the label reads, a nod to Dorothy Cadbury, who grew up in the gardens of the Bournville factory. Though I'm trying not to give Cadbury a home advantage, it's hard not to when you're a Brummie.
Each of the individual chocolates is wrapped in plasticky, foiled wrappers, different colours but not in the same charming way that Quality Street sweets are wrapped. There's just something special about their rich, jewel-toned soft cellophane wrappers that is just so pleasing to me, nestled inside a royal, eight-sided purple tub.
As packaging goes, Quality Street wins it every time for me.
Options
There are nine options inside a tub of Cadbury Roses: Hazel Whirl, Caramel, Hazel in Caramel, Golden Barrel, Signature Truffle, Dairy Milk, Tangy Orange Creme, Strawberry Dream and Country Fudge.
For me, that number is made up of five icons, two boring options (I don't much care for Country Fudge and Signature Truffle) and a pair of sweets that I could give or take, the orange and strawberry options.
In a tub of Quality Street you have 11 options, which to me comprises three bangers (Green Triangles, Purple Ones and Caramel Swirls) and maybe just one boring one - the Coconut Eclair.
With that in mind, I have to admit that Roses wins it in terms of options. Sure, Quality Street has more variety, but Roses has a greater number of unmissable morsels.
Volume
Now we're down to the nitty gritty. We know how many options there are in each tub, but how many sweeties are there overall. Here's a full breakdown of what we get in a tub of Roses:
Name of sweetie |
Number of sweeties in the tub |
Hazel Whirl |
6 |
Caramel |
7 |
Hazel in Caramel |
6 |
Golden Barrel |
8 |
Signature Truffle |
4 |
Dairy Milk |
7 |
Tangy Orange Creme |
6 |
Strawberry Dream |
7 |
Country Fudge |
6 |
Total number of sweets |
57 |
And here's what we get in Quality Street:
Name of sweetie |
Number of sweeties in the tub |
Caramel Swirl |
7 |
Green Triangle |
4 |
Coconut Eclair |
5 |
Milk Choc Block |
4 |
Purple One |
5 |
Toffee Penny |
5 |
Toffee Finger |
7 |
Orange Chocolate Crunch |
5 |
Fudge |
8 |
Strawberry Delight |
7 |
Orange Creme |
6 |
Total number of sweets |
63 |
With this in mind, we have to give this category to Quality Street, just for the fact that we get more sweeties for our money and, when you're sharing, that matters.
Conclusion
So when all is said and done, Quality Street won two of our three categories. And yet, I cannot give the win to them, despite this.
At the end of the day, the most important thing is how many of the sweets inside each tub you're going to smash in one sitting. And for me, Roses has the edge every time. In the time it's taken to write this up, there are more empty Roses packets sitting on my desk than Quality Street ones, and so if I could only choose one to buy this Christmas, the Brummies have it.
Three cheers for Cadbury. Thank you very much!
