Quality Street lovers have been left gobsmacked after Nestlé confirmed two fan favourites will look quite different this year.
The popular Green Triangle and Orange Crunch chocolates will not be packed in their iconic wrappers, in a move which has dismayed several fans.
Announcing the changes with a tongue-in-cheek post to Facebook, Quality Street told fans: "We've been foiled". But people were quick to worry the flavours would be changed.
Thankfully, the well-loved chocolates will remain exactly the same, as it is just the wrappers that were changed due to a foil shortage. As such, a limited run of tubs will include Green Triangles wrapped in gold foil and Orange Crunch sweets wrapped in bronze foil.
Sharing a side-by-side picture of the two Green Triangle wrappers online, Quality Street confirmed both sweets are the same inside. However, not all commenters accepted the change with ease.
"No no no!!! It’s a GREEN triangle!!" wrote one concerned fan. Another said: "I think that the green triangle not being green would actually make more sense as green implies mint. But let's stay classic and stop changing things!" And a third agreed: "Please do not change the wrapper!!"
Meanwhile, a different commenter replied: "Why! They are easier to pick out when green.... They look the same colour as the penny's and them orange creams." And someone else warned: "Don’t even think about ruining Christmas!"
But what was arguably the strongest response came from one mega-fan, who wants to see Quality Street expand its Green Triangle range. The chocolate lover wrote: "A green triangle is....and always will be a GREEN TRIANGLE. Please don't change it. If anything.... you need to make boxes of pure green triangles, and bags of green triangles, and chocolate bars infused with green triangles, and green triangle Christmas drinks, and green triangle pyjamas. GREEN TRIANGLES......... You get my drift."
Quality Street's Senior Brand Manager, Jemma Handley, said: "I promise this isn't a publicity stunt. We've not added full size chocolate bars to the tin or removed the coconut flavour from a handful of tubs.
"We simply didn't have enough of the right coloured foil to cover the production run of the two sweets in question and, rather than leave them out of the selection altogether, we decided to use different colours for a very limited period."
"We are fairly sure this is the first time this has happened so anybody who finds a green triangle or an orange crunch in a different coloured foil will have something of rarity on their hands. I am pleased to say that it's the same delicious hazelnut and orange sweets inside the wrappers, regardless of their colour."
Production at Nestlé's Halifax factory is now back to normal, with packs containing the substitute foil wrappers expected to land on shelves at retailers across the UK and Ireland over the next few weeks. Fans can rest assured there will be no visible difference on the Quality Street packaging, since there is no change to the sweets themselves.
What do you think of the change? Let us know in the comments below
