Chocolate selection box/tin discussion

[PTR 444]

It’s that time of year again where we start to think about what to get for Christmas, and one of those shared presents is nothing more than the iconic chocolate selection tins. Before we get into a debate about whether Celebrations is better than Quality Street, I should mention that Bounties are being discontinued from Celebrations, so that will sway the decision of many chocolate lovers.

Bounty bars removed from Celebrations tubs in trial

Mars Wrigley is removing the treat from some tubs after finding 40% of people hate the coconut-filled sweet.

www.bbc.co.uk

IMAGE SOURCE, ALAMY
Bounty hunters may have their work cut out this Christmas, after chocolate manufacturer Mars Wrigley said it would be eliminating the sweet from some of its tubs.
The coconut-flavoured treat may be marketed as a slice of paradise, but nearly 40% of us hate them, Mars says.
So a limited run of "No Bounty" tubs will go on sale at 40 Tesco stores in the run-up to Christmas.
It comes after the brand let shoppers return unwanted Bounties last year.
However, the food maker said it was yet to decide whether the treats would be banished for good. Because while a survey for the firm found many people leave the coconut creation languishing at the bottom of the tub, for 18% it is still their choc of choice.
Big tubs of Quality Street, Roses, Celebrations and Heroes start appearing on supermarket shelves in the run-up to Christmas, with sales usually soaring during the festive season.
But cost-of-living concerns could see customers striking some treats off their shopping lists. Stirring the debate around customers' preferences is one way to promote the brand, with one communications company describing lively discussion about the move on social mediaas a "great PR coup for the Mars team".

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Mars Wrigley said its survey, which consulted 2,000 people aged between 18 and 65, suggested that 18% would feel irritated to find only Bounty bars were left in a tub, while 58% believed it would lead to a family argument.
Its polling also suggests the sweet is popular with older consumers, with 38% of over-55s choosing it as their preferred bar.
Mars Wrigley said the limited edition tubs would include additional Mars, Snickers, Milky Way, Galaxy and Maltesers sweets in place of the missing Bounty. They will be available at "pop ups" within 40 different Tesco stores for six weeks in the run-up to Christmas.
It follows a "Bounty Return Scheme" last year, in which Bounty haters were able to return their unwanted chocolates and swap them for Maltesers after the festive period.
"Last year, we gave customers the opportunity to return their unwanted Bounty chocolates. Now, off the back of public demand, we're trialling taking them out of the tub altogether," said Celebrations senior brand manager Emily Owen.

Personally I’m not really fussed since Bounties, along with Snickers, were the two chocolates we’d always leave out. I really hope they replace these with more Galaxies or Teasers.

Despite there only being room in the poll for Celebrations and Quality Street, discussion around Cadbury Heroes and Roses etc is also welcome here.

 

[JamesT]

It’s that time of year again where we start to think about what to get for Christmas, and one of those shared presents is nothing more than the iconic chocolate selection tins. Before we get into a debate about whether Celebrations is better than Quality Street, I should mention that Bounties are being discontinued from Celebrations, so that will sway the decision of many chocolate lovers.

Personally I’m not really fussed since Bounties, along with Snickers, were the two chocolates we’d always leave out. I really hope they replace these with more Galaxies or Teasers.

Despite there only being room in the poll for Celebrations and Quality Street, discussion around Cadbury Heroes and Roses etc is also welcome here.

They're not being discontinued from all tins of Celebrations, only selected Tesco stores will have the Bounty-less ones. It's a PR stunt which appears to have worked well.

Personally I'm not big on peanuts or hazelnuts, so chocolates that include those tend to be left for others to consume.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Never been a fan of the "Toffee Penny" which I believe usually appear in 'Quality Street' selections. Thread title relates to "Chocolate Selection boxes/tins", and the last time I checked, toffee pennies don't seem to have much chocolate on them, which seems to be a right swizz!

 

[PTR 444]

toffee pennies don't seem to have much chocolate on them, which seems to be a right swizz!

To be quite frank I don’t think they even have any!

 

[Mcr Warrior]

To be quite frank I don’t think they even have any!

You may be right as I've avoided 'Quality Street' selections for some time now. They (the Toffee Penny) have, however, been included in your poll, so presumably they must still be available somewhere, if not, why include them?

 

[PTR 444]

You may be right as I've avoided 'Quality Street' selections for some time now. They (the Toffee Penny) have, however, been included in your poll, so presumably they must still be available somewhere, if not, why include them?

They are a regular feature of Quality Street selection tins, which I think you can buy all year around despite being most popular in the run up to Christmas.

 

[STEVIEBOY1]

I like the Purple, Brazil nut chocolate in Quality Street. I am not keen on the bounty bars and don't like the soft fruit, orange, strawberry etc cream/chocolates ether. I do like Bourneville dark chocolates.

 

[prod_pep]

The only ones I would leave are the Toffee Penny (too chewy and tough on the teeth) and Bounty because coconut is a no-no, full stop. Growing up, Bounty chocolates were always like ready salted crisps or black Wine Gums in our house: invariably wasted because no one touched them.

 

[tbtc]

I’d invite someone from these chocolate firms to come to an open plan office like the one I worked in and see the state of play in the second half of December, when the A-lister chocolates are a distant memory and people have similarly exhausted supplies of their second and third favourites, leaving only the dregs

I’m surprised at how unpopular Mars Bars have been in the places I’ve worked, I though that the Mars was the King of chocolate bars when I was growing up, the equivalent of the BigMacb in the burger world, but maybe it’s a bit dated now, or people prefer specialist crunchy/ bitter/ orange flavoured/ gooey/ chewy more and Mars is more of a middle ground compromise?

There’s always seem to be disproportionate amounts of toffee ones in the Quality Street/ Roses boxes, and of Bounty in the celebrations , and I’m not sure why this continues to be the case, it’s not as if they look any cheaper to make than the top tier chocolate ,e.g. I don’t mind that my local takeaway throws in a free bag of salad with orders, because they can afford to give away something at such low cost to them, but it’s not as if it can be much cheaper to provide a Bounty than something actually popular?

Credit to Celebrations though, the “debate” about coconut flavoured chocolate bars went as well as their top expectations, celebrities expressing views (and therefore a lot of free advertising), some very angry options from ordinary people generating more coverage… some contrary weirdos claiming to actually like Bounty and starting petitions to keep them… then we found out that it was a token number of runs in just one supermarket… absolute textbook PR that will be stuck in heads as families start doing their shopping with an eye on the festive season

Just reduce the toffee/coconut ones down to the “rate test” level and give people more of what they clearly want (big purple ones/ green triangles/ Maltesers/ crème egg), it seems strange not to tweak the ratios each year based on what people enjoy (based on what they prioritise/leave till last), why not learn from your customers? Or at least offer alternative proportions (maybe even in a deluxe version)?

 

[PTR 444]

I’d invite someone from these chocolate firms to come to an open plan office like the one I worked in and see the state of play in the second half of December, when the A-lister chocolates are a distant memory and people have similarly exhausted supplies of their second and third favourites, leaving only the dregs

I’m surprised at how unpopular Mars Bars have been in the places I’ve worked, I though that the Mars was the King of chocolate bars when I was growing up, the equivalent of the BigMacb in the burger world, but maybe it’s a bit dated now, or people prefer specialist crunchy/ bitter/ orange flavoured/ gooey/ chewy more and Mars is more of a middle ground compromise?

There’s always seem to be disproportionate amounts of toffee ones in the Quality Street/ Roses boxes, and of Bounty in the celebrations , and I’m not sure why this continues to be the case, it’s not as if they look any cheaper to make than the top tier chocolate ,e.g. I don’t mind that my local takeaway throws in a free bag of salad with orders, because they can afford to give away something at such low cost to them, but it’s not as if it can be much cheaper to provide a Bounty than something actually popular?

Credit to Celebrations though, the “debate” about coconut flavoured chocolate bars went as well as their top expectations, celebrities expressing views (and therefore a lot of free advertising), some very angry options from ordinary people generating more coverage… some contrary weirdos claiming to actually like Bounty and starting petitions to keep them… then we found out that it was a token number of runs in just one supermarket… absolute textbook PR that will be stuck in heads as families start doing their shopping with an eye on the festive season

Just reduce the toffee/coconut ones down to the “rate test” level and give people more of what they clearly want (big purple ones/ green triangles/ Maltesers/ crème egg), it seems strange not to tweak the ratios each year based on what people enjoy (based on what they prioritise/leave till last), why not learn from your customers? Or at least offer alternative proportions (maybe even in a deluxe version)?

I believe personalisation of chocolate selection boxes is becoming more of a thing. Last year I bought a personalised Quality Street tin for my family from John Lewis, with the option to pick and choose the chocolate you want.

Sadly, many varieties such as the Green Triangles, Chocolate Blocks and Fudges had sold out so we were left with a tin full of Orange Crunches, Caramel Swirls and Coconut Eclairs (for the family). At least they did have the limited edition white chocolate honeycomb crunch which couldn’t have come soon enough!

 

[yorksrob]

In my childhood I used to avoid the strawberry and orange creams, now I hoover them up !

 

[gg1]

Everything labelled 'Quality Street', the mankiest chocolate produced this side of the Atlantic IMO.

 

[GusB]

I noticed that the Toffee Deluxe seems to have been pulled from the Quality Street range. They were always my favourites, but there was much competition in our house between my dad and I, and I had to get to them quickly before they disappeared.

There was an episode of "Inside the Factory" that featured the Quality Street production process - not currently on iPlayer, but no doubt it will be repeated on telly at some point.

More recently I've had Celebrations at Christmas, and it tends to be Maltesers and Snickers that are left over. Bounty is usually one of the first I go for, bit I'd rather they had the dark chocolate variety instead of the milk.

 

[swt_passenger]

I believe personalisation of chocolate selection boxes is becoming more of a thing. Last year I bought a personalised Quality Street tin for my family from John Lewis, with the option to pick and choose the chocolate you want.

My daughter was given one of those as a present 2 years ago, we couldn’t work out was wrong with it for a while…

 

[yorksrob]

Was delighted to see that the superb Terry's Segsations have arrived at Sainsburys.

Truly segsational !

 

[Jamesrob637]

I see I'm not alone with Marathon/Snickers.

 

[nlogax]

Malteasers and Snickers are the way forward. Won't eat Bounty or Coconut Eclairs...I'm not a monster.