Putting Santa Claus, carol singing and decorated fir trees aside, if there's one thing that screams Christmas it's surely a family tub of Quality Street.
Often dubbed as a 'British staple' over the festive period, the Nestle sweet selection dates back to 1936, and they've certainly achieved widespread acclaim over the last 86 years or so.
If you're unfamiliar, the tubs compile of 11 different sweets, all falling under the category of toffees, chocolates, or creams.
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The Mirror reports that Quality Street's current selection includes the four 'core' sweets - the Purple One, the Green Triangle, the Caramel Swirl, and the Toffee Finger - infused with an Orange Crunch, Strawberry Delight, Orange Creme, Fudge, Milk Chocolate Block, Toffee Penny and Coconut Eclair.
Throughout its existence, sweets have come and gone from the selection boxes, sparking outrage from die-hard fans of the treat. But exactly how do they decide which ones make the cut year in, year out, and more importantly how do they decide what to boot?
Here's what a Nestle employee had to say about it all...
Emily Grimbley has been working on the Quality Street brand team at Nestlé in York since 2020 and is currently a brand manager, so it's fair to say she knows her stuff when it comes to Christmas sweets. During The Mirror 's visit to the York factory, she explained that deciding what goes into the Quality Street mix all comes down to one simple thing - you and me, the consumers, and what we make clear to Nestlé that we want.
She said: "So we do a lot of research and speak to a lot of consumers, but everyone's got different favourites and a different opinion, so we're trying to please everyone. We categorise it into toffees, creams and chocolate sweets and try and do a fair mix of them so that there's something for everyone in there.
"We've also got our sweets that have been in there from the start - the Purple One, the Green Triangle, Caramel Swirl and Toffee Finger. They are the iconic sweets that have to stay within the brand as they have that heritage and then the others fall in the bucket to create a perfect mix.
"Although there's a lot of debate on what the perfect mix is..."
When it comes to deciding which sweets get taken out of the box, the company tries to avoid axing products as much as possible as it causes 'outrage'.
Emily says: "People love Quality Street and they don't like us to mess with it too much so we know that all of the sweets in there are really loved by our consumers and they're really passionate about them, so I don't feel like there's too much need to mix it up. We don't axe sweets from the tubs very often because it causes outrage, but when we do, it all comes down to consumer research, speaking to customers and then trying to see whether we can optimise the mix to give people a better experience.
"So one of the big ones we took out was the Toffee Deluxe, as we know that consumers really like chocolate sweets, so then we only had two toffee ones in the tub and more chocolate. It's just trying to get that balance right."
The Toffee Deluxe was first canned in 2016, but saw a resurrection after people protested that it should make a return. After its resurgence though, it saw the boot once more in 2019, leaving the tins forever.
Despite this, Emily says it's important that the remaining toffees are 'well represented' in tubs, with Quality Street being renowned for its toffees which helped lift the brand off in the early 1900s.
She continued to say that there's an 'average' amount of sweets in each tub, however, there isn't a set amount of each individual sweet.
Those hoping for new flavours added to the mix will be delighted to know that Nestle has been offering different flavours in John Lewis stores across the UK via Pick 'N' Mix outlets, where shoppers can personalise and tweak their tins until their heart's content.
But in hindsight, it turns out that it's not so easy to whip up a brand-new Quality Street flavour, with Emily also going on to share exactly how the team works on new products for three to five years before launching. This is due to numerous rounds or research and testing to make sure they're top quality.
As part of this, Emily work with Vikki Geall, who is the Lead Confectioner for Nestle, to pool ideas for flavours before conducting consumer research. Prototypes are then made.
Emily added: "We've done limited edition sweets in the past. We work a few years ahead so if we're going to introduce a new flavour, it will be planned three to five years in advance. We have John Lewis [where] people can personalise their sweet mix and that's where we introduce new sweets for customers to try, while we keep the favourites elsewhere."
Last year Quality Street fans were able to get their hands on the first-ever white chocolate sweet, the Creme Caramel Crisp chocolate, which had a white chocolate tip. This was available exclusively in John Lewis stores and Emily claims consumers 'went nuts' over the white chocolate sweet.
And for this Christmas, the confectioners are bringing back a beloved Quality Street flavour that was axed in 2018 - the Honeycomb Crunch. The sweet isn't being sold in tubs but can be found at John Lewis Quality Street Pick & Mix stands.
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