It wouldn’t be Christmas without a massive tub of chocolates to share with your family while watching Christmas films on TV – or to dip into at any given moment.
But with shrinkflation on the rise, the family favourites we know and love appear to be getting smaller year on year, while prices continue to steadily increase.
In 2024, plastic tubs of Quality Street were 600g, but this year, Nestle has shrunk the size by 50g to 550g. Similarly, Celebrations have also downsized from 550g in 2024 to 500g this year.
So, how many chocolates are you actually getting in your containers? The Daily Mail bought the four major Christmas tubs and counted the number of chocolates, along with how many of each variety there were.
Families are constantly arguing over a couple of select favourites, from Quality Street’s The Purple One to the Malteaser Teaser chocolate in Celebrations, and there appears to be an explanation for the high demand.
These are indeed outnumbered by other chocolates in the box.
Our Roses tub also had more Cadbury Dairy Milks than any other chocolate with 12 in total, but only two Hazelnut in Caramels.
Read on for the definitive list of what festive treats you can expect to find in your Christmas chocolate selection.
Quality Street, 60 chocolates
Nestlé’s Quality Street launched in 1936, when the purple tin hit the shelves for the first time.
Although Quality Street still sells tins, many shoppers pick up a 550g plastic tub, costing £4.50 at Tesco.
In the container bought by the Daily Mail there were 60 chocolates, working out at 7.5p each, and 12 different varieties.
It’s a running joke that families row over the last The Purple One or The Green Triangle, and it seems for good reason, as there are only a small handful in every tub.
Of the 60 chocolates, there were only five Purple Ones and four Green Triangles.
Coconut fans look away now, as Quality Street only poured a measly three of their blue-wrapped Coconut Eclairs and four of the green Milk Choc Blocks into our tub.
The most common flavours were Strawberry Delight and Caramel Swirl, with seven of each.
The Fudge, Orange Creme, Toffee Penny and Toffee Finger followed closely behind, with six of each chocolate. There were five of the Orange Chocolate Crunch, along with one unwrapped chocolate.
Separate analysis published in October by The Mail on Sunday found this year’s tub now contains an average of 59 sweets, down from 64 in 2022.
The test showed that, on average, this year’s tubs contained two fewer pink Fudge sweets, and one fewer Toffee Penny, Toffee Finger and Strawberry Delight.
The MoS looked at the contents of three tubs of Quality Street to find the average number of each type of sweet – and compared this with figures from 2022.
The spot test revealed the number of pink Fudges in a box had dropped from eight to six, Toffee Fingers and Strawberry Delights from seven to six, and Toffee Pennies from six to five.
Quality Street still offers large metal tins in select supermarkets, such as Ocado, Sainsbury’s and Asda. These retail for £12 and contain 750g of chocolate.
There is also a 1.9kg tin, available from Costco for £14.99 rather than supermarkets, which may account for it not being on the radar of as many shoppers.
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Cadbury Heroes, 55 chocolates
A 550g tub of Cadbury Heroes now costs £7 at Tesco, working out at around 12.7p per chocolate
Cadbury Heroes launched in 1999 to rival Celebrations, which entered the market two years prior.
In 2009, a 975g tub of Heroes was sold for £10. But now, a 550g pot of Heroes retails for £7 at Tesco, working out at 12.7p per chocolate.
There were 55 chocolates in the Daily Mail’s container and nine varieties, but the rarest was Twirl, with only three available.
Wispas, Fudge and Dairy Milk Caramel were some of the least common flavours, with five of the former and six of the latter two.
Creme Egg Twisted, Crunchie Bits, Dairy Milk, Double Decker and Eclair made up most of the tub, as there were seven of each.
In October, it was reported that Cadbury was going to axe the Eclair from Heroes and replace it with Flake instead, but only in selected packets.
The brand also made a huge change to its Heroes packaging by trialling new paper tubs in place of the old plastic ones in a bid to be more sustainable and eco-friendly.
Mondelēz International, which owns Cadbury, collaborated with sustainable packaging company DS Smith to produce 300,000 Heroes paper tubs, which are now being spotted at Tesco stores across the UK.
A representative for the brand said: ‘The paper tubs will only be available in Tesco as part of a trial, testing out the new packaging.’
These new, more sustainable tubs are the only Heroes packs that don’t contain Eclairs.
Celebrations, 54 chocolates
A 550g tub of Celebrations retails for £4 at Tesco and contains eight varieties of chocolates
Mars Wrigley launched Celebrations in 1977, and marketed it as ‘the tubs and boxes of chocolate that bring everyone together’.
However, it has not managed to dodge shrinkflation, as Celebrations is one of the smallest pots of chocolate on the market, weighing in at 500g.
This has been cut by 50g in just one year, according to the Guardian, which reported that it was 550g in 2024.
A tub of Celebrations is £4 at Tesco and contains eight varieties of chocolates, with Twix, Malteasers, Galaxy Caramel and regular Galaxy being the most rare at only five chocolates each per pot.
We had 54 chocolates in our tub and found that Mars and Milky Way were the most common, with nine chocolates per container, followed closely by Snickers and Bounty, with eight chocolates each.
In 2022, it was announced that Mars Wrigley would roll out Bounty-free tubs in selected Tesco stores across the country, allowing those who hate coconut to avoid it.
But the news outraged loyal fans, with statistics at the time revealing that only 22 per cent of people said Bounty was their least favourite.
This meant that a whopping 78 per cent of people have nothing against the coconut treat.
Meanwhile, 95 per cent of people love Galaxy, making it the most beloved sweet out of the Celebration tubs.
Cadbury Roses, 51 chocolates
A 550g tub of Cadbury Roses retails for £7 at Tesco, the same as Heroes, and each chocolate costs 13.7p
Named after Dorothy Cadbury’s favourite flowers, Roses have been a staple on British supermarket shelves since 1938.
They launched as a competitor to Quality Street, which debuted in 1936 – two years prior.
And like Heroes, the more common plastic tubs have also shrunk in size. In 2009, a container of Roses cost £10 for 1.1kg.
Now, a 550g tub of Cadbury Roses retails for £7 at Tesco, the same price as Cadbury Heroes; however, there were four fewer wrappers in Roses, which meant each chocolate cost 13.7p.
Out of a total of 51 chocolates, the most common flavour was the original Dairy Milk square, with the Daily Mail finding 11 in the pot.
There were seven Hazelnut Swirls and six of the Chewy Caramel, Golden Barrel and Creamy Orange flavours.
Dreamy Strawberry only made up five chocolates, whereas there were only four of each of the Country Fudge and Signature Truffle.
The rarest chocolate in Cadbury Roses was the Hazelnut in Caramel, as the Mail found only two in the tub.
In 2016, Cadbury abandoned the twist-off foil wrappers, ending an 80-year tradition for the brand.
Similar to Quality Street, Roses also offers an old-fashioned 700g chocolate tin for £14, so that older fans of the Christmas treat can relive their childhood.
