The cost of Quality Street chocolates around the world

South Africa has some of the cheapest Quality Streets after the United Kingdom.

The interest in our Quality Street story has been strong enough to warrant a few interviews, including one on SAfm’s national breakfast show. But that’s not why we’re writing.

Both interviews raised questions about how Quality Streets compare globally - and although we’ve missed the boat to do an international audit, we have, absurdly, invested a little more time into this topic.

How Quality Street prices compare in 7 countries

As our initial audit showed, the cost of a standard bag of Quality Street has only gone up. And we’re now getting less chocolate for our money than ever before.

A single Quality Street bought in a 435g bag in South Africa now costs about R2.83. Eat five of the variety chocolates, and you’ll have spent the equivalent of a KitKat Chunky. Which, to our mind, is a far better investment for your tastebuds.

So for a bitesize followup, we’ve researched the price of Quality Street bags and tins in seven countries on five continents.

We found that the cost of Quality Street chocolates varies quite significantly around the world. And that it seems like South Africa is one of the few countries that doesn’t have tins, and sells them in pretty large plastic packets.

There are a few things that will impact costs in our above calculations. Volume and packaging differ in most countries. We’ve done our best to pick equal size containers, though some only sell in the 650g tins. Our research wouldn’t pass the scrutiny of the IMF, but it’ll do just fine as a basic insight into Quality Street economics.

What we found

Most interestingly, to us at least, is that there’s still a clear loyalty towards England, the Quality Street motherland. In the UK, Quality Street costs just R19.54 per 100g - R10 less than the next cheapest destination, South Africa.

Australia isn’t too far behind South Africa - there, you can get a carton that equates to about R34.51 per 100g. And Belgium, the home of much better chocolate, charges around R37.68 per 100g.

But that’s where things start to unravel.

Canadian Quality Streets cost around R42.08 per 100g, and the cartons we researched in India cost R53.65 per 100g.

But by far the most expensive place to buy Quality Streets is in the land of equally mid-level chocolate, the United States. There, you’ll need to pay R62.67 per 100g, or as much as R400 for a single tin of the variety pack.

OK, that’s all on Quality Streets for now, we think. Unless you want to weigh in in the comments section.

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