'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, families were fighting over who got the last Viennese in the biscuit tin.
With Christmas being the official season of the selection box, it’s a prime time for biscuit-related rivalry and kerfuffles - and things can get pretty heated if you don’t choose your biscuit carefully.
To ensure all’s peaceful this year, we’ve had a look at the best Christmas chocolate selection box biscuits (try saying that after a few sherry’s) from the leading supermarkets.
READ MORE: Mum who had to use foodbanks to survive now runs her own business earning £30k a MONTH
Dayna Farrington from sister site Birmingham Mail has taken on the gruelling challenge by comparing Tesco, Sainsbury's, Waitrose, M&S and Aldi’s biscuits to see who comes out top on the Battle of the Biscuits.
It’s a tough job but somebody had to do it - and it’s up to Danya to take on such duty.
Looking at all five boxes - you might notice that they are practically identical, give or take one or two biscuits.
There's no end of Viennese fingers, milk chocolate regencies, marbled octagons and white chocolate rings.
However, when tasted, they weren't all equal - but more on that later.
Tesco Extremely Chocolatey Biscuit Selection
First up is Tesco’s selection box priced at £4.
There's two types of dark chocolate biscuit, six milk chocolate and one white chocolate - there's even an orange sundae and a vanilla sundae flavoured biscuit.
And there are 28 biscuits in a box- the highest in our comparison.
We liked the look of the box - with the red giving off a festive feel.
The box's description says "a carefully chosen selection of biscuits smothered in smooth chocolate".
"Extremely Chocolatey" was a popular name for the biscuits - with Tesco, M&S and Aldi using it.
Can I feel another Colin vs Cuthbert argument brewing?!
Waitrose Christmas The Ultimate Chocolate Biscuit Selection
Waitrose was the most expensive biscuit selection box of the lot - coming in at £5 per box.
At first glance, the tray looks identical to those from M&S. But there are a few differences of course.
If you are a fan of white chocolate (like me) then this might be the box for you. It has a number of white chocolate biscuits including a white chocolate ring, white chocolate coated shortcake ring and the dark and white chocolate Viennese.
However, the rest of the box is pretty much identical to the others - we were drawn in by the idea of a milk chocolate fudge sundae however.
We liked the packaging the most - with the festive bow looking like a Christmas present.
There were 26 biscuits in the box.
Milk, Dark and White Chocolate Biscuits by Sainsbury's
Sainsbury's, surprisingly, was one of the cheapest on our list - coming in at £3.50 a box.
We were shocked to find that the Sainsbury's and Aldi offerings were literally identical - bar two biscuits in different places.
There's seven milk chocolate options, two dark chocolate, two white chocolate and a marbled option in this box.
Again, similar to Tesco, there were the orange and vanilla sundae options.
We found the packaging to be rather boring - although the blue colouring was nice, it was similar to M&S and Aldi's boxes.
There were 27 biscuits in the box.
M&S Extremely Chocolatey Milk, Dark and White Chocolate Biscuits
M&S's box also cost £4 - the same as Tesco. I had expected these to be a bit more expensive, considering I'd spent £5 on their own brand of chocolate selection tub the week before.
There was a nice variety in the box - and while you had your standard milk chocolate regency, Viennese finger and marbled octagon (although the last two were named differently on the box, they were essentially the same biscuit).
It also had a dark chocolate ginger biscuit and a milk chocolate honeycomb cream. Not to everyone's taste - but a little more interesting than other options on offer.
The box was a similar blue to Aldi and Sainsbury's offerings, but features a tea pot and mug - as who doesn't love a cuppa with some biscuits?!
The description states "more chocolate than biscuit!"
It only had 24 biscuits in the box - the lowest in our comparison.
Aldi's Extremely Chocolatey Milk, Dark and White Chocolate Biscuits
The underdog of the supermarkets - Aldi's Belmont Biscuits was the cheapest selection box at £3.29.
As I said previously, Aldi and Sainsbury's were near enough identical on look - with two biscuits in different spots in the packaging.
But again, it had most of the biscuits on offer in all the other selection boxes - including the vanilla, orange and fudge flavoured ones.
It also had two white chocolate options for those who are a fan.
The packaging was dull and boring in my opinion.
There were 27 biscuits in the box.
But which box stood up to the taste test? Find out below.
Milk chocolate regencies
It's the staple in most of the biscuit selection boxes - the milk chocolate regency.
All but Aldi looked identical for this particular biscuit. We felt Aldi looked slimmer and also a lot smaller compared to the other.
The ridges or lines through the biscuit didn't seem to run as deep.
Sainsbury's went one up by calling this the milk chocolate regency shortcake, as did Waitrose with the milk chocolate shortcake regency (can you spot the difference). While all the others (Aldi, Tesco and M&S) called it milk chocolate regency.
Our household biscuit expert said: "They all look pretty much identical - it is basically your bog standard biscuit with a milk chocolate coating.
"But we rated Waitrose, M&S and Sainsburys as the best. Waitrose lives up to its name with tasty shortcake inside.
"While M&S had a nice undertone of gingerbread flavour running through it, and Sainsbury's had way more biscuit which works well with the chosen milk chocolate.
"With Tesco we felt it was more of a chocolate than a biscuit. And with Aldi we didn't like the chocolate used and it left a strange after-taste."
Rating:
- Aldi 6/10
- M&S 9/10
- Waitrose 9/10
- Tesco 7/10
- Sainsbury's 9/10
Marbled octagons
The marbled octagons all looked pretty much identical in each of the five packs. The marbled effect was slightly smaller on the Tesco biscuit.
It is called a marbled octagon in Sainsbury's, Aldi and Tesco. M&S went a little different by calling it the extremely chocolatey marbled whirl, while Waitrose called it dark and white chocolate Viennese.
All in all, it was the same biscuit.
But they certainly didn't taste the same.
Our trusted review said: "There was little taste to the Sainsbury's one compared to the others, while Aldi had an overwhelming taste of dark chocolate with none of the white chocolate marble coming through.
"Tesco was the nicest tasting biscuit - it was rich and delicious, with a satisfying crunch to the biscuit. We felt Waitrose also had a much-needed crunch with the biscuit.
"M&S looked identical to the others but there was definitely a cinnamon or orange flavour coming through which was also tasty.
"We would definitely reach for Tesco, Waitrose and M&S again."
Rating:
- Aldi 6/10
- M&S 8/10
- Waitrose 7/10
- Tesco 9/10
- Sainsbury's 6/10
Viennese fingers
Another category where we could review all five in the box - were chocolate fingers.
Now this time, they were all literally identical. Milk chocolate with drizzles of dark chocolate over the biscuit.
They were called Viennese fingers in Sainsbury's, Aldi, Tesco and Waitrose. M&S called it a milk chocolate finger.
Our BirminghamLive Viennese finger correspondent said: "We thought M&S was going to be the winner in this category, until it started to leave a strange after-taste in your mouth.
"Sainsbury's take was also quite dry, while Waitrose had quite an overpowering sweet/sickly taste.
"The biscuit was softer for Aldi and also had a nicer taste, but the overall winner was Tesco as the biscuit had quite a shortbread taste which was nice."
Rating:
- Aldi 7/10
- M&S 6/10
- Waitrose 6/10
- Tesco 8/10
- Sainsbury's 6/10
White chocolate biscuit
And we left the best till last to compare (in my opinion). A white chocolate biscuit.
There wasn't the same white chocolate biscuit in all five boxes - but a plain white chocolate ring featured in four out of five, so we decided to try those.
Sorry Tesco, you will have to take a backseat this time (although they do have a white chocolate alternative in the box so no fear).
Sainsbury's called this one the white chocolate shortcake ring, while Aldi just called it the white chocolate ring.
Waitrose's take was named the white chocolate coated shortcake ring and while M&S went for the long-worded extremely chocolatey white chocolate shortcake biscuit.
On first glance, Waitrose, Aldi and Sainsbury's are IDENTICAL. You would not be able to tell the difference between them at first glance. Nothing at all.
At least M&S had a different design to the biscuit which changed it up a bit.
Our white chocolate expert said: "White chocolate is often sickly and sweet - and you end up not eating more than one, which is probably true here.
"For Sainsbury's the white chocolate was not the best but the biscuit had a nice crunch, while it was flipped round Aldi where the chocolate was nicer and not as sickly, but the biscuit was not as good.
"For Waitrose, the biscuit and chocolate was a good match, neither was too over-powering.
"But M&S is the winner here. It lives up to the name of "extremely chocolatey" and was the best tasting overall."
Rating:
- Aldi 8/10
- M&S 9/10
- Waitrose 8/10
- Sainsbury's 8/10
Overall winner
Overall, we all preferred Tesco and Waitrose above the others.
But taking the price into account, we would probably overall go with Tesco as it was cheaper and just as tasty.
Tesco also had the most biscuits in the box - at 28, so we felt you get even more value for money.
We were hoping for more from the underdog here - Aldi - with such good pricing, but we felt they just didn't live up to the other brands. The same with Sainsbury's but we were slightly disappointed with their Viennese fingers and marbled octagon.
M&S offered us a few different varieties of biscuits, but they just weren't as popular all-round.
