Every chocolate you can expect to receive in a bag of Quality Streets this December
Gone are the days that Quality Streets provide a random mix - and bags are now smaller and pricier.
We’ve been tracking Quality Streets in South Africa for four years now, and this year, we bought over two kilograms of them to see how they’ve changed since last year - if at all.
Firstly, we found that Quality Streets have never been more expensive. Bag sizes continue to shrink, and prices have only gone up. And, perhaps even worse, there’s now little to no variation between bags.
So we now know exactly how many of each type of chocolate is in each bag of Quality Streets you pull off the shelf - and we’re about to tell you so you can also be the smart alec around the dinner table this December.
Quality Streets continue to shrink - and increase in price
In 2020, a plastic bag of Quality Streets weighed 500 grams and cost about R100. One year later, Nestle reduced the bag size by 50 grams - but was kind enough to keep the price mostly unchanged.
2022 is when things started to get a little nasty. Nestle shaved a further 15g off the bag and added around R10 to the overall price.
And this year marks the biggest increase of the lot - with no extra chocolates inside.
According to what we found on the shelves, in 2023, you’ll be lucky to get away with a bag of Quality Streets for under R130. We’ve seen some prices as high as R170 per bag. And you’re still only getting 435g.
On average, you’re also getting one chocolate less per bag - of the five we checked, three had 46 chocolates, and only two had 47.
And if you’re tempted to go for a slightly classier version, Nestle has for the first time launched a Quality Street “carton”. It has just 232g of chocolates inside, and is selling for as much as R120 in stores - which is definitely not the way to go if you’re looking for the best value.
A few small changes to packaging
Apart from the introduction of overpriced cardboard cartons, Nestle has only tinkered slightly with Quality Street chocolates this year.
They’ve changed the shapes of several variations once again. Some that were long are now round, and some that were skinny are now a little shorter and fatter.
And gone are the old foil and translucent wrapper packaging - mostly. Curiously, it seems they’re still phasing out the old packaging by diluting it with new. There were a few strays bearing old wrappings, but for the most part, products are in a new waxy wrapping of a slightly more muted palette.
Only the Orange Chocolate Crunch and the ever-elusive and perennial crowd favourite, The Green Triangle, retain their traditional foil wrappings.
Now almost no variation
Perhaps the most important element of the year’s most unnecessary article is how much variation there isn’t between each bag of Quality Streets. You can now pluck any five off the shelves and know with relative confidence that you’ll be getting the exact same 46 sweets.
When we first started the ridiculous task of counting these chocolates in 2021, there were 12 options. Many of these, including a few favourites, have been discontinued or renamed. There are no coffee-flavoured or combo milk and white chocolate options, and all names have been aligned to their global counterparts.
And when it comes to diversity, the news this year is dire.
Gone are the days when buying a bag of Quality Streets felt like picking up a lucky packet. Nestle has dialled in their combination so carefully that we found just two minor variations in the bags we checked.
That variation was one additional Toffee Penny, easily the least exciting Quality Street, in two of our bags. So, aside from the vague possibility of scoring one extra Toffee Penny in your bag, you’re unlikely to get any other surprises.
The bag makeup is very similar to what we found last year. This year, like last, your most common chocolates in a Quality Street bag are the Strawberry Delight, Caramel Swirl, Fudge, and Orange Creme.
You’ll also find four Toffee Fingers per bag.
There are just three of The Purple One, Milk Choc Block, Orange Chocolate Crunch, and the Green Triangle.
If your favourite is one of these four options, best you be quick - with just three par bags this year, they’ll disappear quickly.
Why there’s no variation anymore
How companies like Nestle, who now make Quality Streets, compile their bags is much more scientific than it first appears. It’s no accident that the company dials in exact percentages of each chocolate type into each bag - and any variation is much more a happy, statistically unlikely accident.
Companies like Nestle will typically employ the services of industrial engineers to assist with bag makeup. These engineers will work to establish which products are cheapest and easiest to manufacture and assist with factory setups. The chocolate company will then combine this with marketing considerations to ensure that both customers and finance departments are kept happy.
As unhinged and fun as a purely random bag of Quality Streets might seem, if that churned out 10 of those near-toxic Coconut Eclairs, you’d likely be pretty unhappy. And if it churned out a bag full of the most expensive variations to produce - seemingly, the Green Triangle and Purple One - then head office may have a hard time projecting and raking in profits.
Still, in some countries, shoppers can buy entire bags of just their favourite Quality Streets. To prove our point, these cost more than if you surrender yourself to Nestle’s mix.
At Sainsbury’s in the United Kingdom, for example, you’ll pay the equivalent of R31.39 per 100g for a bag consisting purely of The Purple One - but R29.30 for a mixed bag. Either because the market here isn’t big enough, or they don’t trust us enough with nice things, this is not yet an option in South Africa.
In all, consistency seems like a pretty fair way to manage expectations. And hopefully, with this forewarning, you can be first to the bag to claim your favourites before all three in a bag disappear.
However, the lack of surprise, shrinking bags, and climbing prices might have you thinking twice about whether - at the cost of around R2.83 for a single Quality Street, be it a Coconut Eclair or a Green Triangle - they’re really even worth it to begin with.