They're a household staple at Christmas, and you've probably tucked into them time and time again if you're a chocolate lover - but selection tubs have changed a lot over the decades.
Some of us are diehard Quality Street fans, while others are hungry for Heroes - perhaps you're more partial to a tub of Roses, or you're from a family who always passes around the Celebrations every festive season. But whatever your go-to may be, we all have something in common in that we've all had to mourn the loss of a few of our favourite chocolates.
Whether you're still pining after the Toffee Deluxe in Quality Street, you miss the Roses Orange Crisp or you still dream about the Celebrations Galaxy Truffle, it's safe to say that some of the swaps in chocolate tubs have not gone down well in the past. Here's a list of some of the favourites that have disappeared from the sweet selections over the years, as reported by the Liverpool Echo - with some names sure to leave you feeling nostalgic.
READ MORE: Name the chocolate bars without the wrappers in our quiz
Quality Street
Quality Street which was founded back in 1936, named after J. M. Barrie's play of the same name. The brand was acquired by Nestlé when they bought Rowntree Mackintosh in 1988.
And it won't be surprising to hear, given that the brand has been around for the best part of 85 years, that there have been many flavours that had to be sacrificed to make way for the current crop. It's worth noting that many of these experienced minor alterations while others were dropped altogether.
Purple One (the original 'Purple One' with Brazil nut, replaced with hazelnut version)
Chocolate Strawberry Cream (now replaced with Strawberry Delight)
Chocolate Toffee Cup (now replaced with Caramel Swirl)
Hazelnut Cracknell (red wrapper)
Hazelnut Eclair
Honeycomb Crunch (discontinued in 2018 to re-introduce Toffee Deluxe)
Chocolate Nut Toffee Cream
Malt Toffee (replaced with Toffee Deluxe as a "new" flavour)
Milk Chocolate Round (now replaced with Milk Choc Block in green wrapper)
Peanut Cracknell (blue wrapper)
Almond Octagon (purple wrapper, replaced with Vanilla Octagon, but the latter is now discontinued as well)
Gooseberry Cream (green wrapper, light green fondant with a touch of Gooseberry Preserve covered in milk chocolate)
Fig Fancy (light brown wrapper)
Apricot Delight (blue wrapper, square chunk, apricot flavoured jelly covered in milk chocolate)
Toffee Square (metallic pink wrapper, a small square of very hard toffee)
Chocolate Truffle (brown square chunk, a soft truffle filling covered in milk chocolate)
Montelimar Nougat
Harrogate Toffee
Fruits of the Forest Creme (pale purple wrapper)
Smarties (ordinary cardboard box of Smarties, a 2004 promotion only)
Coffee Cream (brown wrapper, same size and shape as the strawberry cream)
Mint Fondant (pale green wrapper, same as strawberry crème but with a mint crème filling)
Toffee Deluxe (replaced by Honeycomb Crunch, reintroduced and then replaced by Chocolate Caramel Brownie)
Crispy Truffle Bite (John Lewis stores only, black and gold recyclable foil)
Roses
One of the 'original two', Roses launched in 1938 - two years after Quality Street first came onto the market. And just like Quality Street, because of the blank canvas available to Cadbury when it came to making the flavours, not to mention it being in supply for almost a century, there have been plenty to fall by the wayside:
Brazilian Darkness (a chewy toffee square coated in dark chocolate, red wrapper with gold edges)
Praline Moment (silver wrapper)
Chunky Truffle (blue wrapper)
Bournville (moved the brand to Heroes)
Almond Charm (blue wrapper)
Coffee Creme
Montelimar (chewy nougat encased in milk chocolate, green foil-twist wrapper)
Marzipan (red foil-twist wrapper)
Turkish Delight (dark purple wrapper)
Nutty Truffle Log (emerald green foil-twist wrapper)
Orange Crisp (orange wrapper)
Chocolate Bite (pink wrapper)
Noisette Whirl (green and transparent wrapper)
Lime Barrel (green wrapper)
Black Cherry Cream (pink/purple wrapper)
Caramel Velvet (green wrapper)
Almond Caramel Bite (light brown wrapper with purple twists)
Heroes
Despite its iconic status up there with the other chocolate selections, Heroes have been around for a much shorter amount of time. They were introduced in September 1999 as a response to rival Mars' Celebrations (more on them below) and the box contains miniature versions of various Cadbury chocolate bars.
- Bournville (added in 2008, removed in 2013)
- Dairy Milk Whole Nut (added in 2002, removed in 2008)
- Dream (removed in 2008)
- Fuse (removed in mid-2000s)
- Picnic (removed in 2007)
- Time Out (removed in 2007)
- Toblerone (added for Christmas 2013, 2014 and 2015)
- Nuts About Caramel (Cadbury's Caramel with added hazelnut in the centre, removed in mid-2000s)
Celebrations
And finally, Celebrations - this is perhaps the selection that provides the most arguments among families, with Bounty and Snickers' inclusions often being debated between chocolate lovers. Today, customers can still enjoy the likes of the Maltesers Teaser, Twix, Galaxy and more - and they have a much shorter list of discontinued products than their competitors.
Galaxy Truffle (1997–2011)
Topic (1997–2006)
Which one of these discontinued sweets was your favourite? Let us know in the comments below.
