The remaining 6 of my Nestle Quality Street reviews, continued from Friday. In case you don’t want to click back, “Nestle?s Quality Street is a variety pack of cheapo chocolates that?s pretty ubiquitous in the UK.” Onward!
Orange Chocolate Crunch (bottom left) is a flat disk of orange flavored chocolate with little crunchy bits throughout. A poor knockoff of a Terry’s Chocolate Orange Segsation, if you will. Orange chocolate can go well when it’s made with care and decent ingredients. This has neither.
The Purple One (first row, 3rd from left) is unlabeled to create a sense of mystery, though an asterisk does warn that it may contain nuts. It turned out to be a milk chocolate shell containing a flowing, nearly liquid caramel and a hazelnutty paste. Creative in composition, at least comparatively, but meh with Quality Street’s cost-cutting execution.
At first thought, Vanilla Fudge (top right corner) sounds oxymoronic, but a quick googling reminds me that fudge need not be chocolate flavored. This piece tasted neither of vanilla nor of chocolate fudge. No good.
The Toffee Finger (second row, far left) is the same sticky, jaw-achingly chewy toffee of the toffee penny, just in stick form and covered in a thin layer of milk chocolate. The finger shape does make eating it a bit more manageable, so points for that, but it loses all of those points because of the terrible, barely-even-qualifies-as-chocolate-ness of the coating.
Toffee Deluxe was highlighted on the box as being new. It’s slightly darker than the other toffees and a bit more buttery, more like the Brach’s Milk Maid style of caramels we’re used to in the states.
And finally, the Orange Creme. Oh the orange cream – a bitter dark chocoalte coating over a white, grainy paste that’s “orange” flavored – never again, the orange cream.
It’s laughable how this assortment has the word “quality” in its name, as it’s anything but. It’s not horrible, spit-it-out chocolate, but it is bad, take-one-bite-and-you’re-done chocolate. The chocolate base of everything is just blah and blech. Save your money and go elsewhere. Nestle’s Quality Street has the dubious distinction of earning my very first — rating. Congratulations!
Jim from The Chocolate Mission, on the other hand, rather enjoyed these. Maybe it’s a British thing, as there must be a reason why they’re practically in institution there?
I have to say, I didn’t think these were so bad (I do like the purple one best) and I’m not British. LOL But probably not worth what they cost in US either.
Cadbury Roses (you probably already know this) are a similar concept but MUCH better, I thought. If you haven’t tried them, I recommend them.
Ever since I came to Canada it has been an integral part of Christmas Holidays – I love it – so do another 100 people that I know.
Sorry to hear that you hate “Nestle Quality Street”
Sincerely,
Olga
I agree… these should be called No-Quality Street.
If you get an old tin of these they can be a bit nasty as any chocolate candy would, but when you get a fresh batch they can be delicious.
My Mom was Welsh and it was a Christmas tradition in her family to have a tin of Quality Street Candy. Since my mother was a war bride and moved to Streator Illinois she used to get a tin sent to her every Christmas.
It quickly became our family favorite and was missed dearly when her parents passed away.
We were able to find a source in Canada that would stock these tins between the US Thanksgiving and Christmas. We started up the tradition again and our entire family loves Quality Street.
Both of my parents have passed away but our Quality Street tradition lives on even stronger as do our memories of these special times.
Are they the best chocolates in the world? Maybe not, but to our family they are magical.
It is easy to be a critic, but it takes an open mind and desire to learn in order to fully see the beauty that exists everywhere.
Johnny