Quality Street (confectionery) facts for kids
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Quality Street Vanilla Fudge
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| Owner | Nestlé |
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| Introduced | 1936 |
| Markets | Worldwide (excluding US) |
| Previous owners | Mackintosh's |
Quality Street is a popular collection of toffees and chocolates. These tasty treats first came out in 1936. They were made by a company called Mackintosh's in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England.
The name "Quality Street" comes from a famous play by J. M. Barrie called Quality Street. Since 1988, the sweets have been made by Nestlé. Quality Street has always been a friendly rival to Cadbury Roses, which started in 1938. While Nestlé doesn't sell Quality Street in the US, you can sometimes find them online or in special candy shops.
Contents
The Story of Quality Street
How It All Began
The story of Quality Street began in 1890. A man named John Mackintosh and his wife opened a small shop in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. They came up with a new kind of sweet. They mixed hard toffee with soft, runny caramel.
Their toffees were special because they used simple, cheap ingredients from the local area. These included milk, sugar beet, and eggs. Their sweets became very popular. Because of this success, they built the world's first toffee factory in 1898.
From Fire to New Ideas
Sadly, the first factory burned down in 1909. But John Mackintosh didn't give up! He bought an old carpet factory and turned it into a new sweet-making place.
When John Mackintosh passed away, his son Harold took over the business. In 1936, Harold created Quality Street. He named it after the famous play by J.M. Barrie.
Sweets for Everyone
In the early 1930s, fancy boxed chocolates were mostly for rich people. These chocolates often came in expensive packaging. Harold Mackintosh wanted to change this. He wanted to make delicious chocolates that everyone could afford.
His idea was to cover different toffees with chocolate. Then, he would put them in attractive but inexpensive boxes. This way, working-class families could also enjoy them.
Instead of separating each sweet in the box, which would cost more, Harold had a clever idea. He decided to wrap each sweet individually in colorful paper. Then, he put them all together in a decorative tin. He also used a new invention: the world's first twist-wrapping machine. This machine wrapped each chocolate in its own special wrapper.
Using a tin instead of a cardboard box had another benefit. When you opened the tin, the smell of chocolate filled the air! The different shapes, colors, and textures of the sweets made opening the tin a fun, exciting moment for the whole family.
Famous Characters and Global Reach
In the late 1930s, Britain was going through tough economic times. Harold Mackintosh knew that people often looked for comfort and happy memories during hard times. So, Quality Street chocolates were packaged in bright tins. These tins showed two characters dressed in old-fashioned clothes. They were known as Miss Sweetly and Major Quality. These characters were inspired by the play and appeared on all Quality Street boxes until the year 2000.
The first people to pose for these characters were Tony and Iris Coles. They were the children of Sydney Coles, who designed the first advertisements. The artist, Harold Oakes, worked for Mackintosh's and created the famous drawings of Miss Sweetly and Major Quality.
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In 1988, Nestlé bought the company Rowntree Mackintosh Confectionery. This meant Quality Street became part of Nestlé. Today, you can even buy bigger versions of some of the most popular Quality Street chocolates on their own, like a chocolate bar based on "The Purple One."
Quality Street has different names in some places. In Western Norway, it's called "Shetlandsgodt" or "Shetland Snoops." This is because fishermen often brought them home from visiting Shetland. In Iceland, it's traditionally known as "Mackintosh."
What's Inside a Quality Street Box?
The types of sweets in a Quality Street box have changed over the years. As of 2019, there are 15 different kinds of individually wrapped sweets. They are all either chocolate or toffee based.
Current Sweets You Can Find
In the Tin
- "The Purple One" – This sweet has Milk Chocolate filled with hazelnut and caramel. (It has a purple wrapper.)
- "The Green Triangle" – This is milk chocolate with a hazelnut praline filling. (It has a green foil wrapper.)
- Toffee Finger – A long, thin toffee. (It has a gold wrapper.)
- Strawberry Delight – A circular sweet with a strawberry filling. (It has a red wrapper.)
- Caramel Swirl – A circular sweet with a caramel filling. (It has a yellow foil wrapper.)
- Milk Choc Block – A solid piece of milk chocolate. (It has a green wrapper.)
- Orange Chocolate Crunch – An octagonal sweet with an orange chocolate crunch. (It has an orange foil wrapper.)
- Orange Creme – A sweet with an orange-flavored cream filling. (It has an orange wrapper.)
- Fudge – A soft, chewy fudge sweet. (It has a pink wrapper.)
- Coconut Eclair – A sweet with a coconut filling. (It has a blue wrapper.)
- Toffee Penny – A circular toffee without a chocolate coating. (It has a gold wrapper.)
- Coffee Creme – A sweet with a coffee-flavored cream filling. (It has a brown wrapper, found in some stores.)
For many years, the Toffee Penny wrapper was a challenge. The old wrapper would stick to the toffee over time. In 1967, a new type of wrapper was used. It was made of foil-backed paper. This new "Robson Wrap" solved the problem and became a special feature of the brand.
Sweets Sold Separately
Sometimes, you can find special Quality Street sweets sold on their own:
- Lemon Zing – This sweet is usually only in special "fruit cremes" boxes or seasonal pouches. (It has a yellow wrapper.)
- Matchmakers – These thin sticks come in flavors like Cool Mint, Zingy Orange, and Honeycomb.
- Intrigue Truffles – These are sold separately in flavors like Praline, Salted Caramel, and Orange.
In 2013, Nestlé also released chocolate bars based on popular Quality Street sweets, like "My Green Bar" and "My Purple Bar."
Sweets That Are No Longer Made
Over the years, some Quality Street sweets have been stopped or replaced. Here are a few examples:
- The original Purple One (which had a Brazil nut instead of a hazelnut).
- Chocolate Strawberry Cream (replaced by Strawberry Delight).
- Hazelnut Cracknell (red wrapper).
- Honeycomb crunch (stopped in 2018).
- Milk Chocolate Round (replaced by Milk Choc Block).
- Gooseberry Cream (a green cream with gooseberry).
- Fig Fancy (light brown wrapper).
- Apricot Delight (blue wrapper, apricot jelly).
- Toffee Square (a small, very hard toffee).
- Smarties (a special promotion in 2004).
- Toffee Deluxe (replaced, then brought back, then replaced again by Chocolate Caramel Brownie).
- Chocolate Caramel Brownie (stopped in 2021).
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