Which has most - and how do they compare over the past two years?(Image: Richard Baker / Getty)

'We counted every sweet in Quality Street, Celebrations, Roses and Heroes 2 years running'

by · Wales Online

Every Christmas supermarket shelves are brimming with chocolate delights. Whether it is selection boxes, the golden balls of classic Ferrero Rocher or the tubs of sweets, it is hard to walk down an aisle without coming across them.

One of the first things often to hit the bargain deals is the tubs of Heroes, Roses, Celebrations and Quality Street. And it is often debated which is the best value.

Many people swear every year the amount of sweets is less in each while the price often seems to be on the up. So we decided to see if there really was a difference between the tubs in 2023 and those on the shelves in 2024.

Last year the we reported how Daniel, posting in Facebook's Dull Men's Club, counted the sweets in every tub of Celebrations, Heroes, Quality Street and Roses. He told followers: "This evening we purchased four tubs of Christmas chocolates from Asda. Before any could be eaten I first insisted on conducting a chocolate count for each tub."

This year we decided to repeat the test and see just what changes have been made - and if the tubs are better or worse value. Dayna Farrington of Birmingham Live tallied up the contents of each as part of a review into the popular chocolates and when we compared the two years there were some surprising results - with one tub having more than a year earlier and another a shocking amount less. Here's what we found:

Tubs of Quality Street had the most sweets(Image: Manchester Evening News)

Quality Street 2023

5x Toffee Penny

8x Toffee Finger

2x Orange Creme

9x Fudge

8x Strawberry Delight

3x Coconut Eclair

5x The Purple One

7x Caramel Swirl

4x Milk Choc Block

4x The Green Triangle

9x Orange Chocolate Crunch

Total: 64

Quality Street 2024

7x Caramel Swirl - 7

8x Orange Creme

4x Green Triangle

6x Purple One - 6

6x Fudge

7x Strawberry Delight

4x Orange Chocolate Crunch

8x Toffee Finger

4x Milk Chocolate Block

6x Toffee Penny

5x Coconut Eclair

Total: 65

Difference - 1 extra sweet in 2024

Celebrations had seven less than last year(Image: Dayna Farrington)

Celebrations 2023

6x Galaxy Caramel

7x Galaxy

11x Snickers

7x Bounty

11x Milky Way

12x Mars

7x Maltesers

6x Twix

Total: 67

Celebrations 2024

10x Snickers

6x Twirl

9x Mars

7x Malteasers

6x Galaxy Caramel

6x Galaxy

6x Bounty

10x Milky Way

Total: 60

Difference: 7 less than 2023

There were 52 chocolates inside the Roses tub(Image: Dayna Farrington)

Roses 2023

7x Dairy Milk

6x Hazel in Caramel

6x Tangy Orange Creme

6x Caramel

7x Strawberry Dream

5x Country Fudge

6x Golden Barrel

4x Signature Truffle

6x Hazel Whirl

Total: 53

Roses 2024

6x Hazel in Caramel

7x Strawberry Dream

5x Caramel

6x Tangy Orange Creme

7x Cadbury Dairy Milk

4x Signature Truffle

5x Country Fudge

6x Hazel Whirl

6x Golden Barrel - 6

Total = 52

Difference: 1 less than in 2023

A Cadbury's Heroes selection tub(Image: Dayna Farrington)

Heroes 2023

5x Twirl

9x Dinky Decker

6x Crunchie Bits

7x Creme Egg Twisted

7x Dairy Milk Caramel

7x Dairy Milk

6x Wispa

6x Fudge

8x Eclair

Total: 61

Heroes 2024

8x Eclairs

6x Fudge

6x Wispa

7x Dairy Milk

6x Crunchie Bits

4x Twirl

7x Dairy Milk Caramel

8x Dinky Decker

7x Creme Egg Twisted - 7

Total: 59

Difference: 2 less in 2024

Conclusion

While supermarkets change the price of the deals across the festive season making it hard to say what most shoppers actually pay they all come with a retail price of around £6. The supermarkets usually include all four in any of their deals so effectively people will pay the same price regardless of variety.

The Heroes, Celebrations and Roses all contain 550g of sweets while Quality Street has 600. The difference in weight was clear when you counted the chocolates in 2024 with Quality Street having 65 individual chocolates and the others significantly less

So when you look at the price of the sweets you clearly get much more with Quality Street - especially as you got one extra sweet this year than last. Heroes and Roses both saw a cut in the number of sweets inside the tub. Heroes was down by two to 59 while Roses fell by one to 52.

However the big shock was the Celebrations. In both years the tub has been sold at the same price as the other three, regardless of weight, and it is no different this year but the difference in the number of sweets was significant.

It was down seven chocolates on last year. As every tub contains a relatively random mix of contents the changes could be down to different sweets inside the tubs over the two years.

But whatever the reason if you want more individual sweets there is a clear winner. For more bang for your buck it is Quality Street all the way.