Quality Street – FebPhotofest Day 3

Did you know that Quality Street got it’s name from a play by J.M Barrie? Did you also know that these sweets were invented by Harold Mackintosh in Halifax, West Yorkshire in 1936?

The idea behind them was really to bring boxes of chocolates to the masses. Up to that point a box of chocolates was something that only the wealthy could afford. Harold wanted to change that and so he took the toffee’s his Fathers business has been built on, covered them with some chocolate and packaged them as cheaply as possible. That is why they are individually wrapped as that was much cheaper than making a box that held them all apart as individual chocolates and by putting them in a tin that kept them fresh that resulted in a tempting chocolate smell filling the air when the tin was opened.

I have vivid memories of those old fashioned tins. My Granddad had a proper sweet tooth and he always had some sort of sweets in his pocket but he loved Quality Street. They would buy a big tin and they would sit on the side and they would have a couple every night. Of course my Grandmother kept all those tins and so they also are associated with baking because if you found one in the pantry and eased off the lid there would nearly always been something yummy she has made sitting inside.

The days of the beautiful big tins that were full to the brim are long gone. Now you get a plastic tub and when you open it there is surprising amount of space in there but I still love them. They always feel like a special treat to me, pretty sure that is my grandparents fault. All those coloured wrapped just waiting to be unfurled just make me happy.

Oddly since writing this on Friday, we went to Costco and there in the main snack section piled 7ft high was tubs of Quality Street but when I reached out to touch them because it made me smile to see them I realised they were not plastic tubs but actual big arse tins just like you used to get back in the day. A 2 kg tin at that. I will admit it wasn’t cheap but as a nod to my beloved Grandparents and my happy nostalgia they ended up in our trolley. For now you get the original picture I took with the plastic tub we had already but I do have an idea how to use this tub for another image in future so maybe there will be Quality Street homage in the future.