As Christmas gets closer, it's nearly time to start stocking up on your favourite boxes of chocolates.
One family was left feeling let down by one classic box of chocolates after they decided to count exactly how many chocolates were in a variety of tubs including Roses, Quality Street, Celebrations and Miniature Heroes.
Adam Maidment, a reporter with Manchester Evening News, along with his 14-year-old and six-year-old nephew and niece decided to put the boxes to the ultimate test and not only measured how many chocolates in the tins but how many of each flavour.
READ MORE: Cheapest Christmas tubs in supermarkets now - Where to get Roses, Heroes, Celebrations for under €3
Quality Street
Last year, Quality Street announced it was ditching the plastic and foil packaging for each of its miniature chocolates in favour of a vegetable-based wax wrapping, for more of an eco-friendly alternative.
When opening the tin, Adam revealed: "The bright colours of each of the eleven flavours inside are still as vivid and vibrant as memory serves."
In his tin, there were 64 chocolates found, including seven Toffee Fingers and five Toffee Pennies, which he believed were "perhaps the two most controversial flavours".
Quality Street results
- Total flavours: 11
- Total chocolates: 64
- Most common: Strawberry Delight and Fudge (8 each)
- Least common: The Green Triangle and Milk Choc Block (4 each)
Miniature Heroes
This selection box was Mr Maidment's "favourite tub" out of the four sweet treats and he believed the "dud flavours" were the Fudge and Chocolate Eclair.
To the family's "frustration", the box contained two regular sized Twirl bars instead of mini Twirl Bites, which was because of supply issues, according to Cadbury, last year.
The reporter admitted he felt "fobbed off" by the discovery, which revealed because of the large size, the Twirl was therefore the least common chocolate in the box.
Miniature Heroes results
- Total flavours: 9
- Total chocolates: 56
- Most common: Creme Egg Twisted (8)
- Least common: Twirl (2)
Roses
A criticism from Mr Maidment was that despite there being 10 flavours in a box of Roses, he found only 54 in the box.
He believes Roses had the least amount of chocolates of the selection tins and boxes they compared.
Roses results
- Total flavours: 9
- Total chocolates: 54
- Most common: Dairy Milk Chunk and Strawberry Dream (7 each)
- Least common: Caramel and Signature Truffle (5 each)
Celebrations
There were found to be only eight flavours in a Celebrations tin - the smallest variety out of the four.
That being said, there are a "whopping" 65 chocolates in total, which is the highest number out of the lot.
Celebrations results
- Total flavours: 8
- Total chocolates: 64
- Most common: Mars, Snickers and Milky Way (11 each)
- Least common: Twix (5 each)
The reporter concluded: "The best thing about these tubs is that we all have our own favourites and in an ideal world that will balance perfectly with everyone else's. One man's Bounty, for example, could be another man's Green Triangle - and vice versa."
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