Supermarket’s £12 chocolate tin hailed as ‘better than’ Quality Street and Roses

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In the UK, when it comes to Christmas there are several foods that are always bound to divide the nation. 

Turkey is one of them, Brussels sprouts are another and then there’s the tub of chocolates – your family could either be a Quality Street household, a Roses household or a Heroes household. 

Each year the tubs cause a stir due to the size and price and already this month fans have been left fuming over a ‘rip off’ change to Quality Street as they’ve shrunk from 600g in 2024 to 550g and they cost as much as £7 in some supermarkets. 

If you want to avoid all the drama, shoppers have found a supermarket own-brand alternative from M&S that they claim is ‘better than the leading brands of chocolates’.

The Big Mix from M&S costs £7 for a 650g carton or £12 for a huge 1.2kg tin and features a mix of 10 different sweets in colourful wrappers, suitable for vegetarians.

The selection includes Salted Caramel, Coffee Truffle, Hazelnut in Caramel, Cream Toffee, Milk Crème, Caramel Fudge, Strawberry Crème, Orange Crème, Biscuit in Caramel and a Butterscotch Éclair.

Both the box and tin are available to buy now on Ocado and shoppers have been raving about the products in the reviews. 

A shopper known as littlepieces gave them a 5/5 rating, writing: ‘Best chocolate box for Christmas!

‘These are our favourite chocolate box at Christmas time for sharing with the family – the chocolate is nice and thick and lovely fillings. I’ve been buying these for a few years now instead of the other popular brands.’

Whirley Shirley agreed, saying: ‘Absolutely love this new mix of chocs with some different flavours to the norm. Coffee one a real joy, a nice milk chocolate covering too.’

While fussyshopper1 commented: ‘Great selection, better than the leading brands of chocolates that come in plastic tubs and tins.’

And ElizaBee added: ‘Lovely chocolate! Tastes like Roses and Quality Street used to before they were ruined. Reminding me and my husband of childhood tubs! Will only be buying these from now on at Christmas!’

On Instagram, snaps of the chocolates were shared by @uknewestfoods and followers were quick to say they’d buy them over other chocolate brands ‘purely because they still have shiny wrappers’.

Quality Street famously ditched its iconic sweet wrappers for a paper version in 2023 in order to reduce plastic.

However, not everyone was a big fan of the M&S chocolates with some saying the flavour was ‘very sweet’, ‘sickly’ and just ‘ok’ – perhaps only one to try if you’ve got a really big sweet tooth!

This comes after M&S recently released hundreds of new and improved products which have been going viral on social media.

There are more Christmas chocolates, including a Peanut Butter & Jelly version of the Merry Munch tin (£10), Peppermint Bark (£10), Chocolate Gnomes filled with Pistachio (£5) and Peanut Butter Reindeer (£1).

Plus some rather controversial additions to the store, such as Hot Maple Syrup (£5) and a Marmite Caramel Sauce (£3). 

Marmite is also making its way into the bakery section, with the release of Pecan and Salted Caramel Blondies with a hint of Marmite (£5). These feature a nutty pecan tiffin, that’s infused with a little Marmite and layered with a fudgy white chocolate blondie and a swirl of salted caramel sauce.

But shoppers were a little disappointed with changes to some of the retailer’s ready meals, especially the Chicken Arrabbiata.

Social media users said they were ‘gutted’ by the recipe change, but M&S thought it had changed for the better.

Speaking exclusively to Metro, the lead product developer for Italian meals at M&S, Sarah-Jane Large, said: ‘When it comes to proper pasta, most Italians would agree that a dish is only as good as the quality and provenance of its ingredients.

‘That’s why we’ve spent over two years refining and upgrading our popular range of Italian meals to ensure they are the best of the best.’

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