The Great Christmas Debate - #1 Sweets

Loughc · 10-09-2018 9:09am #1

Happy Monday everyone!

So here we are it's time for the great Christmas debate, it's coming up to mid-September the mornings and evenings are getting darker, the temp is dropping the season is almost beginning and what a better way to start it than an good old fashioned Christmas argument Debate :pac:

So your options are;

Roses - A stable Irish tradition, but have these sweets glory days pass them by?

Quality Street - Another Staple in the Traditionalist cabinet, the UK equivalent of roses and still seem to be going strong.

Celebrations - Mars miniature venture, proving so popular it's spanned several spin offs.

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Miniature Heroes - Cadbury's version of Celebrations, Miniature versions of some of their best creations.

Other - Is your favourites not one of the 4 above? Pick Other and post and tell us what your favourite is.

The Rules...

The only rule is as well as voting in the poll you need to post to explain why you picked your choice for your vote to count.

The Poll will end on Sunday night and the winner will be revealed next Monday Morning

Baggly · 10-09-2018 9:11am

Other

Missing a poll, methinks?

Loughc · 10-09-2018 9:13am

Celebrations

Pter wrote: »

Missing a poll, methinks?

There now, I was still working on it when you posted

Baggly · 10-09-2018 9:14am

Other

I retract my busy body question so

Loughc · 10-09-2018 9:26am

Celebrations

I'll kick off, I'm voting for Quality Street, I feel like there's a few reasons why, the selection of different toffees, caramels, and soft filled chocolates works, they are very traditional, I still remember the big cardboard 1kg boxes they used to come in and they haven't decreased in quality like Roses have over the years.

The fact they still sell tins really warms me to them as well.

Baggly · 10-09-2018 9:26am

Other

Ok so ive placed my vote. And it was for Heroes. Please allow me to explain my reasoning;

-Flavour - Solid chocolate flavour, other secondary flavours also very good. No issues here. No bland flavours that would leave leftovers (such as half the QS, half the roses and the Mars & Bounties in the Celebrations

-Origin - I dont really care about where they came from or if they are 'Irish' (and i suspect none of these are really Irish anyway), so this is on par across all 4 options.

-Historical significance - see above. Live in the now, not 20 years ago.

-Size (of individual sweet) - I would suspect heroes have the joint largest sweet size on average across the 4 options. Possibly rivaled by Celebrations.

-Size (of 'tin' / plastic bucket) - Not too much, not too little for me. Lasts Christmas Day in our house anyway (suspect this might change this year as smallies are a little less small and a little more aggressive in finding chocolate around the house).

-Availability - No issue here, stocked in all major retailers, has the benefit of Cadburys distribution network behind it.

-Consistency - No issue here, have never had an issue with OOD or whitened chocolate.

-Variety - 7 sweets matches Celebrations and (i think) QS. Not sure about Roses, but i dont like most of the variants in Roses anyway. Love the options within Heroes anyway. Some of my top bars in there.

-Lack of duds - Personally i prefer toffees to fudges, so the presence of the fudge is offset by the presence of the Eclair. Fewest duds of any of the 4, imo.

-Presence and abundance of toffee sweet - Choc eclair is the superior toffee sweet across all options, imo.

Baggly · 10-09-2018 9:27am

Other

Loughc wrote: »

I'll kick off, I'm voting for Quality Street, I feel like there's a few reasons why, the selection of different toffees, caramels, and soft filled chocolates works, they are very traditional, I still remember the big cardboard 1kg boxes they used to come in and they haven't decreased in quality like Roses have over the years.

The fact they still sell tins really warms me to them as well.

Yeah the metal tin has a good nostalgia factor, but its ruining the environment

Loughc · 10-09-2018 9:30am

Celebrations

Pter wrote: »

Yeah the metal tin has a good nostalgia factor, but its ruining the environment

The plastic tubs can't be great for the environment either :pac:

Bring back the old 1kg Cardboard boxes, cardboard is recyclable and its 1kg haha.

Baggly · 10-09-2018 9:31am

Other

Loughc wrote: »

The plastic tubs can't be great for the environment either :pac:

Bring back the old 1kg Cardboard boxes, cardboard is recyclable and its 1kg haha.

Cardboard is the way to go for sure. Lower environmental impact to get oil than it is metal though; and easier to reuse as well!

miamee · 10-09-2018 9:44am

Other

I concur with Miniature Heroes. I do enjoy all of them but the Roses (to me) are pure sugar now and don't taste the same as they used to. Quality Street are good but a few duds whereas Heroes are all good, I wouldn't mind doing a blind hand dip into the box because I'd be happy with whatever came out, lol.

mojesius · 10-09-2018 9:52am

Other

They tend to overload boxes of roses and quality street with minging coffee/orange or strawberry cream sweets so they're out for me.

I like celebrations but the chocolate itself is fairly sickening. I'd have to go with miniature heroes myself. Love munching through the eclairs. Actually a whole miniature heroes sized box of eclairs would be perfect!!

Loughc · 10-09-2018 9:57am

Celebrations

Oh god the coffee roses sweets... horrible. Another reason roses have gone to the dogs.

pleas advice · 10-09-2018 9:57am

Miniature Heroes

Celebrations for me, even though I'm alergic to Snickers, and I love the chocolate eclair in the Heros, or the blue quality street, just the variety of 'good' sweets beats any other tin

washiskin · 10-09-2018 10:47am

Celebrations

Roses have not crossed the step of this door since they switched to plastic, destroyed the Hazelnut Whirl and got rid of the twist wrappers. They can feic off, so they can! :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

Toto Wolfcastle · 10-09-2018 11:08am

I chose Other.

I’m not a fan of any of the other options. I’d eat a Celebration or two at a push but I hate the rest of them. I’m very particular about chocolate though and we’d never buy a box of chocolates that big. My Christmas pick would be After Eights.

DavyD_83 · 10-09-2018 11:13am

Other

Pter wrote: »

Ok so ive placed my vote. And it was for Heroes. Please allow me to explain my reasoning;

-Lack of duds - Personally i prefer toffees to fudges, so the presence of the fudge is offset by the presence of the Eclair. Fewest duds of any of the 4, imo.

-.

Agreed, if I was eating a box of any of the above on my own, heroes is the only one I'd finish, so it's gotta win really.
Roses and QS have nostalgia factor, but I think we've all realised they're not actually that nice.
Celebrations, not too shabby, but bounty being in there taints the whole thing for me

kitten_k · 10-09-2018 11:18am

Other

Another vote here for Hereos for basically the same reasons - I eat them all! there isn't any one particular sweet in it that everyone avoids!

LordBasil · 10-09-2018 11:24am

Miniature Heroes

Celebrations - No waste - I love Bounty!! and the Malteaser

mirrorwall14 · 10-09-2018 11:57am

Celebrations

Quality street for me. Good weight for the price. Love the tins factor though agree they should all be cardboard these days.

Roses are completely horrid nowadays and we end up dumping half the box if given any. Similarly with celebrations no one here eats snickers so there’s always a ton at the bottom. Honestly never bought heroes so can’t really comment.

Will give a second thumbs up for after 8’s too but hey never last more than an hour in our house so are really a one off treat!

omb0wyn5ehpij9 · 10-09-2018 12:09pm

Miniature Heroes

I’m a massive Cadbury’s fan in general, but Celebrations would be my choice for the Christmas box of chocolates (apart from the bounty....horrible!). We usually end up with 2 or 3 boxes of chocolates so I have plenty of choice!

Cork2015! · 10-09-2018 1:34pm

Other

My vote is for heroes

Main reason is because it is the only tin where i like every one of the sweets.

My favourite sweet over all is from the roses tin (strawberry/orange cream) but because I dont like many others from the selection means that i can't vote for roses

Heroes all the way :-)

DvB · 10-09-2018 3:11pm

Celebrations

Another vote for Quality Street here.
Reasons pretty much already well outlined by others, simply a better variety of sweet, fond of a caramel/toffee myself so the mix is great. Toffee coin & the chocolate coated toffee stick being 2 favourites. The only thing is the fact the newer tubs are so small, we end up getting a few of them in the run up (under the falsehood we'll need them as presents mostly) when I'd much prefer to simply pay more for one big massive tin/tub of the things. Far more retro!!

Interesting how others dont rate the coffee flavoured roses... for me its the one thing along with the caramel that the roses have going for them. Love coffee flavoured anything! Roses have too many gooey sweets (Strawberry & orange being the very last anyone in our family will touch) so we try to avoid unless we're gifted one...

Celebrations are alright with a cup of tea, fond of the bounty but theres something about them I'm not mad about, screams of 'meh'.

Heroes, are simply too sweet, that probably makes no sense but theres something about the chocolate on them I find too lucious, I'd have one, two tops, but probably leave it at that, but with the QS I'll much away if left uninterrupted.

jellybear · 10-09-2018 4:09pm

Celebrations

I've voted for Quality Street. Absolutely love the strawberry, orange and green triangle...as well as the coconut...oh and the fudge... Think that shows why I've voted- I love pretty much all of them!! Hubby loves the toffee penny and the toffee finger so they're the perfect tin of chocolates for us

CheerLouth · 10-09-2018 4:12pm

Celebrations

I've voted for Quality Street. Roses have gone downhill in recent years - the nail in the Roses tin was when they changed the wrappers so now you get less sweets in a tin! Quality Street are still quality - love them!

I was nearly going to vote for "other" as in recent years, I've developed notions (:P) and am in love with the Lindt balls. They are beyond amazing!

DvB · 10-09-2018 4:15pm

Celebrations

CheerLouth wrote: »

I was nearly going to vote for "other" as in recent years, I've developed notions (:P) and am in love with the Lindt balls. They are beyond amazing!

My Mrs loves the Lindor balls (red ones, followed by the dark & orange ones) they've easily become her favourite.

The dark choc ones are a tad special I must admit (much prefer dark chocolate to milk chocolate)

Baggly · 10-09-2018 4:16pm

Other

If this is a proportionate representation vote ill give my #2 to the Lindt balls.

Loughc · 10-09-2018 4:17pm

Celebrations

CheerLouth wrote: »

I've voted for Quality Street. Roses have gone downhill in recent years - the nail in the Roses tin was when they changed the wrappers so now you get less sweets in a tin! Quality Street are still quality - love them!

I was nearly going to vote for "other" as in recent years, I've developed notions (:P) and am in love with the Lindt balls. They are beyond amazing!

Oh my god, the Lindt balls... they're amazing... by far superior chocolate!

If they got in on the gimmick of Christmas packaging/tubs I would have no need to buy any other tubs.

Baggly · 10-09-2018 4:18pm

Other

Loughc · 10-09-2018 4:19pm

Celebrations

Pter wrote: »

Available in Ireland? :eek:

Baggly · 10-09-2018 4:21pm

Other

Im sure we could order in a container of them between us all and resell them to the major retailers.

Lindt + Tins + ?????= Profit.

Loughc · 10-09-2018 4:21pm

Celebrations

Pter wrote: »

Im sure we could order in a container of them between us all and resell them to the major retailers.

Lindt + Tins + ?????= Profit.

Lindt + Tins - Eating = Losses :pac:

WittyNameForMe · 10-09-2018 4:25pm

This option might make peoples choices easier

Quality Street pick and mix is coming to John Lewis this Christmas with an exclusive personalisation station at their Oxford Street department store in London.

From September – when the Christmas shop will open – John Lewis will partner with the iconic confectioners to offer customers bespoke, collector’s edition tins of their favourite sweets.

Whether your go-to chocolate is The Purple One, Strawberry Delight or The Green Triangle, you can choose your absolute favourites from Quality Street's 12-strong assortment. It also ensures that you won't have that one unwanted chocolate flavour left in the tin!

http://https://www.housebeautiful.com/uk/lifestyle/food-drink/a22130566/john-lewis-quality-street-pick-mix-personalisation-christmas/

Baggly · 10-09-2018 4:29pm

Other

Ultimate tin: Heroes choc eclair, Penny toffee from QS, Teaser from celebrations, Lindt red ball, Twirl from Heroes, Purple one from QS, Toffee one from Roses.

otnomart · 10-09-2018 5:46pm

I chose Other.
I find miniatures-size bars just a gimmick, not Christmassy at all.
Only had Quality Street once as a child (still have the tin, though !) so do not have any memory of it.
Tried Roses when I lived in Ireland, maybe I was unlucky but always seemed the get flavours I did not like (full disclosure: don't like toffee).
So
In my family we get selections of Ferrero chocolates at Christmas, and my favourites amongst those are Pocket Coffee, followed by Mon Cherie (the boozie cherry ones)

freshpopcorn · 10-09-2018 6:43pm

Miniature Heroes

Celebrations for me.
Mainly because they are the only tub that are emptied and I enjoy.
I find the quality of them fairly consistent.
Every year we end up with tubs of strawberry, orange and coffee roses/Quality Street left over.
I used like quality street but they've dropped sweets such as the nut chocolate and introduced stuff such as that honeycomb one in the last few years and I love honeycomb.

10-09-2018 6:48pm

Miniature Heroes

Celebrations..

I just love maltesers. I steal all of them as soon as the box is opened. Mine , mine, mine...

jellybear · 10-09-2018 6:50pm

Celebrations

Lads...with the weather outside and the talk of chocolate I may just cave and buy a tub tonight....*leaves thread quickly- you're all a bad influence :P*

Loughc · 10-09-2018 8:03pm

Celebrations

jellybear wrote: »

Lads...with the weather outside and the talk of chocolate I may just cave and buy a tub tonight....*leaves thread quickly- you're all a bad influence :P*

Funny you say bad but I hear great influence :P

Also if anyone doesn’t like the orange and strawberry sweets in roses and quality street I am happy to rehome them for ya :pac:

Loughc · 11-09-2018 8:09am

Celebrations

51 votes placed so far and only 5 votes separating the top 3!

Going to be a lot closer than I thought!

miamee · 11-09-2018 9:22am

Other

Loughc wrote: »

Also if anyone doesn’t like the orange and strawberry sweets in roses and quality street I am happy to rehome them for ya :pac:

I'm happy to rehome these plus coffee ones and any Bounty celebrations :pac: It's funny how the ones everyone hates are the ones I love. More for me!

Baggly · 11-09-2018 9:24am

Other

Ill have a load of fudge heroes going spare. Free to a good home.

trik · 11-09-2018 9:34am

Miniature Heroes

Definitely Celebrations for me. I used to love Roses, they were my favourite, but Cadbury's chocolate has changed so much that I don't like it anymore.

Loughc · 11-09-2018 10:09am

Celebrations

Pter wrote: »

Ill have a load of fudge heroes going spare. Free to a good home.

Sold.

Sundew · 11-09-2018 11:07am

Celebrations

Another vote for Quality Street! I’m one of the rare breed that devours all the orange and strawberry cream ones first !
Quality Street lasts about 48 in our house whereas Roses will last 2 weeks!
Think that says it all 🙂

donegal_man · 11-09-2018 11:37am

Other

Heroes for me. Grew up with Roses but ever since they dropped the coffee cream and moved the mini Bournville I dropped them. I also find it easier to ration the children's intake by allowing them a mini bar as treats.

Loughc · 11-09-2018 8:06pm

Celebrations

Loughc wrote: »

51 votes placed so far and only 5 votes separating the top 3!

Going to be a lot closer than I thought!

67 votes now and only 5 votes separating the top 4 now! It’s getting even closer now.

touts · 11-09-2018 8:40pm

Celebrations

Grew up with Quality Street and Roses. The others are just modern imitations. Pity you can't get real roses any more. I know they are called Roses but they taste nothing like the real ones. Whatever they are coated in isn't chocolate.

Quality street wins my vote because I can still close my eyes eat the Orange Creme and be transported to the my definition of the happiest place on earth. My childhood living room at 7am with a fire crackling to life, some cartoons on TV, surrounded by family and presents from Santa.

Zaph · 11-09-2018 9:51pm

Miniature Heroes

Celebrations, because everyone I know seems to hate Bountys, which just leaves more for me.

CheerLouth · 12-09-2018 8:23am

Celebrations

I love the Bountys!

My favourite celebration!

miamee · 12-09-2018 9:45am

Other

There's a bit of a Bounty fan club forming in here

Loughc · 12-09-2018 9:48am

Celebrations

Another Bounty fan here too!

The Great Christmas Debate - #1 Sweets

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Comments

"I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year" - Charles Dickens

"I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year" - Charles Dickens