To think After Eights are not very middle class

[rubberglove]

and they taste pretty awful...

Right, that does it, I'm going to buy a box RIGHT NOW.

I'm sure they didn't used to be nicer. It's just than in ye olden days you thought they tasted great and now you're all grown up they taste like cheap chocolate with a layer of toothpaste in the middle.

When I was a child, I used to think ferrero Rocher were the height of sophistication. Sadly, the marketing people haven't quite twigged that no one thinks that any more.

arf at cheap choc with layer of toothpaste! That's exactly what they do taste like now & I used to loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooove them.

Does anyone remember those Pyramint things? A friend had to eat one off my tummy at another friend's party once, pre-marriage and mummy days. I don't remember why. I didn't know certain chocolates had class attached. Taste is important. I love Hotel Chocolat salted caramels, but equally am happy with mint Matchmakers, Quality Street Big Purple or a bar of Aldi dark chocolate.

Uggghhh at Ferrero Rocher though. Ambassador, you are really spoiling us with these cheap round bites of cardboard

After Eights were considered posh and naice in my very WC childhood. Gran had the silver holder and they were considered a great treat. I hate them but I hate mint chocolate anyway so not really A8's fault. IIRC you were offered the silver things to send away for - it was printed in the box or on a card inside maybe? Ferrero Rocha are so vile no diplomat would ever risk handing them out to other dignitaries. Bound to end in trade sanctions at the very least.

at Art

I still have a silver After Eights holder in my cupboard

Can I please have a definitive answer to this related question? MUST I have After Eights over Christmas as part of Christmas festivities to show that I am Good At Having Christmas?

I grew up in one of England's colonies so I am quite new to all this Proper Christmas stuff.

Just asked English born DH if he always had After Eights at Christmas and he said yes without a nanosecond passing between question and answer .

Surely be to God chocolate is classless?

Alliwantisaroomsomewhere - Once upon a time, circa 70's/80's the answer would have been a big fat yes!

Now you only get them to remind you of times gone by.

So, you lucky thing, you get to choose some nice middle class mint chocolates

Fact: After Eights make me fart like a heifer pumped full of gas.

I didn't say I still liked ferrero Rocher. To be honest, the last time I ate them I was about 10 I think. But to my (very limited) 10 year old experience they were extravagant and luxurious. I find it hilarious that the marketing people haven't realised that the best they can hope for is getting people to buy them for kitch/novelty value. Maybe they're hoping people will buy them to make silly pyramids and offer them to guests in an ironic way.

And no, you don't have to have after 8s at Christmas. I haven't done so for years. A Terry's chocolate orange is timeless though (and you still can't get the bloody thing to break into segments without a hammer, and then it's less segmenty than fragmenty).

Elizabeth Shaw anyone?

Haha, mum has just arrived and reminded me of how Gran used to present the A8s in the silver holder, on a silver tray, accompanied by the sherry in a decanter! I'm going to buy some sherry tomorrow and act like a naice lady this Xmas.

Postbellumbugsy is dead right about after eights not tasting the same any more. As thegrandsophy's dh she told me about this thread as my grandfather was the pioneer of after eights during part of his career at (then) Rowntree Macintosh in York. He used to complain bitterly during his later years that nestle had started using different filling (menthol rather than peppermint) and it didn't taste the same as the peppermint he had sourced for the original after eight which I think was from somewhere in South America. After eight was originally designed as a very aspiration all brand hence the silver holders and so on. I think the start of the devaluation was the introduction of white after eights which he regarded as a huge mistake in diluting the brand. I think he died before they started on other brand-related mistakes which might have included orange ones(?) and if he knew they were available in pound land he would have exploded.

Arbitrary I love a chocolate orange, just the original type mind, none of this freaky white choc orange malarkey, that's just wrong.

I love them but I am half-classed

Oh yes. White chocolate oranges are just Wrong.

Postbellumbugsy is dead right about after eights not tasting the same any more. As thegrandsophy's dh she told me about this thread as my grandfather was the pioneer of after eights during part of his career at (then) Rowntree Macintosh in York. He used to complain bitterly during his later years that nestle had started using different filling (menthol rather than peppermint) and it didn't taste the same as the peppermint he had sourced for the original after eight which I think was from somewhere in South America. After eight was originally designed as a very aspiration all brand hence the silver holders and so on. I think the start of the devaluation was the introduction of white after eights which he regarded as a huge mistake in diluting the brand. I think he died before they started on other brand-related mistakes which might have included orange ones(?) and if he knew they were available in pound land he would have exploded.

After eight mints were a sign of moving from upper working to very lowest middle. Important to understand these distinctions -which still persist if you care about them, that is. Only those unsure will worry, of course.

What would be todays equivalent?

Is it because they use words like 'pardon' and 'serviette'?

The words "middle class" and "serviette" should never appear in the same sentence.

I think once the Brits got the hang of chocolate with a high cocoa count, then all British chocolate became declasse. Me, I never quite managed the move to posh chocolate. I like Twix bars.