To say some chocolates are distinctively middle class?

[lionobserving]

MIL asked us if we thought our ferrero rocher tower was "aspirational" and said she knows ferrero rochers to be the aspirational chocolates of the working class.

This baffled me. My family has always sort of transcended class - my mum was upper middle, my day was very working class. But he was a doctor and she a nurse. We were probably lower middle growing up if I had to put a tag on it, but our mixed extended family meant that we weren't aware of what was "posh" or MC / WC. We certainly wouldn't have known which chocs has the markings of which class.

Therefore MNers - lightheartedly - tell me which chocolates you view as typically middle class? We discussed it as a family and we couldn't come up with a single one!

I had a working class chocolate once. The b*stard wouldn't take his flat cap off, so I had to spit him out. I got my teeth round some middle class buttons the other day [...]

I find upper class Tony's a bit thick. You have to suck them a bit before you get the taste.

I thought galaxy was posh.

Shows you how WC I am.

@Tryagainplease

I thought galaxy was posh.

Shows you how WC I am.

I think what is truly posh, is enjoying what you enjoy and not giving a fig about whether it's posh or not!

Are Elizabeth Shaw mint crisps still going? Haven’t seen them in a while.

The poshest chocolate I ever ate was a gift given to me as we left the Alain Ducasse restaurant in The Dorchester. I’ve never really recovered …. I traipse off down to the shop in Coal Yards now like a junkie when I want a treat.

I am working class and a single mum. I can tell you that ferrero rocher is not affordable at all, so is definitely a middle/up class choc. If you can afford it and don't even notice how expensive that is, you probably middle class or up.

Tony's Chocolony is CRAP and im so annoyed at mumsnet for getting me excited about it.

Genuinely tastes like cheap advent chocolate.

@CarolPortsmouth

I am working class and a single mum. I can tell you that ferrero rocher is not affordable at all, so is definitely a middle/up class choc. If you can afford it and don't even notice how expensive that is, you probably middle class or up.

£2 from poundland for £8. Take quality over quantity.

£2 for 8

I have a three year old grandson so no.. I do not and never would have a Ferrero Rocher tower

On the subject of chocolates......... anything that comes out of a tin at Christmas is tacky rubbish. I know this because I have almost consumed a tin of Quality Street

@CounsellorTroi

Are Elizabeth Shaw mint crisps still going? Haven’t seen them in a while.

I got some in Heron’s a while back, and very nice they were too :)

I am working class and a single mum. I can tell you that ferrero rocher is not affordable at all, so is definitely a middle/up class choc. If you can afford it and don't even notice how expensive that is, you probably middle class or up

In motherland’s Halloween episode FR is handed out by the rich house on the street or something like that , and I’d say all parents in that show are MC.

Growing up FR was neither higher end or low ,
certainly not nestle but still not something like Dalloyau, Fauchon or Godiva those three were perhaps what I’d call posh 80s and 90s chocolates , atleast to the me in my childhood years.
It’s actually quite strange to think of things like Ferrero or Lindt as posh.

Middle class? Working class? What century are we in? I only like Thorntons and Lindt.....what does that say about me?

Hotel chocolat, truffles etc

My son, who was a bit of a Harry Potter fan when young, used to like Ferrero Rochers and called them Golden Snitches!

I miss the old Black Magic assortment. The new one tries too hard.

And having read all the replies here, I am getting up, deliberately bypassing the box of superposh Parisian chocolate we have here and going directly to dig my secret stash of After Eight out of the cupboard.

Not sure whether its mc or not but I definitely don't understand milk chocolate. Seems horrible. My little kid doesn't like chocolate because he thinks it's bitter as we only ever have very dark chocolate in the house. Well my husband only eats 85% cocoa solids and above. Does that judy make us weird

@Newyearoldyou

Was it Audrey choclate on Hove because they produce many chocs for fortnum??

No, this is Artisan du Chocolat in Ashford.

@EchosMum2007

Oh, no doubt the ingredients are mainly the same, one would hope that ANY brand chocolate would have your chocolate butter, chocolate beans, sugar, milk powder, etc... It's not only about the basic ingredients, surely, what separates the proverbial grain from the chaff. It's interesting that Aldi these days have on sale practically identical design luxury chocolates as Artisan du Chocolate used to sell off Sloane Square 10-15 years ago. Totally ripped off! Someone in Aldi marketing team finally cottoned on after all these years, lol.

Aldi aren't 'ripping off' AdC's luxury chocolates, AdC make them for them.
Yes, the basic ingredients of chocolate are the same but there are obviously different types/grades of individual ingredients and different retailers decide which ones they want to go into their products but when a manufacturer ignores this and uses ingredients that have been earmarked for one retailer in another's products there are times when cheaper/ more inferior elements than stipulated by the retailer are used, especially if the manufacturer has under/over ordered something.

@Londoncallingme

^Doesn’t mean they are not ‘Posh’ though - we buy in to the shopping experience, presentation, wrapping, tissue and quality gift bag - all art of the posh-choc experience.
Especially when purchased for gifting, just not the same to give an Aldi bar in a carrier bag!^

If it's just the packaging that makes them 'Posh', then I could buy a basic, generic, cheap chocolate and put it in a fancy box for the same effect.
When my son was at AdC, he gave me one of their own 'luxury brand' chocolate assortment boxes that retails in their London and Dubai shops for approx £96, it looked very nice with pretty patterns on each chocolate but they were no nicer than a supermarket brand, then he told me the retail price and how much he'd paid for them. Now, obviously, as staff, he'd have received a discount but I truly wouldn't expect him to get almost 94% because he only paid cost price of £6.00!
So yes, we're prepared to pay a bit more for our chocolates because they're packaged nicely but this mark-up is ridiculous, then again, if people are prepared to pay it, more fool them.

Thankfully, my son has standards which are clearly higher than their's he got out and went to work somewhere else.

My mum (solidly WC) bought me a lovely little box of 12 handmade chocolates from a local chocolatier for Christmas.

Thorntons were the epitome of posh when I was a child, they didn't taste like greasy shite then either. I remember, my mum had an operation and was given a big* box, it was the most amazing thing I’d ever seen or tasted.

*it probably wasn’t all that big but boxed chocolates were never seen in our house, so I remember it as being massive and taking over the room!

@Queenbee77

Middle class? Working class? What century are we in? I only like Thorntons and Lindt.....what does that say about me?

Aspirational WC - but only because you said Lindt.

Thornton’s is rough. Sorry.

I'm sure brands like Thornton and lindt and Cadbury were far better quality decades agonising than they already now. Packed with cheap nasty rubbish and slimy palm oil.

You have to travel back in time a few years [well, more than a few...] when chocolate choices were more limited from 1960 onward.
I recall Cadbury's Milk Tray to be considered "special", not an everyday purchase and even more, "Black Magic" - that was a birthday or anniversary gift , seen as sophisticated, probably because of advertising images.
I certainly recall when Ferrero Rocher first arrived, they were genuinely seen as rather special, not a traditional box, individually wrapped in the clear box.
I'm not sure it was a "class thing" just that the post-war feeling, of moving past rationing and severely practical things to stuff that was more frivolous.
As an aside, I recall my Dad coming home in triumph when sweets were still rationed with a Mars bar, which he ceremoniously laid on a cutting board and sliced up, handing the pieces to the waiting horde!

@Zipper666

You have to travel back in time a few years [well, more than a few...] when chocolate choices were more limited from 1960 onward. I recall Cadbury's Milk Tray to be considered "special", not an everyday purchase and even more, "Black Magic" - that was a birthday or anniversary gift , seen as sophisticated, probably because of advertising images. I certainly recall when Ferrero Rocher first arrived, they were genuinely seen as rather special, not a traditional box, individually wrapped in the clear box. I'm not sure it was a "class thing" just that the post-war feeling, of moving past rationing and severely practical things to stuff that was more frivolous. As an aside, I recall my Dad coming home in triumph when sweets were still rationed with a Mars bar, which he ceremoniously laid on a cutting board and sliced up, handing the pieces to the waiting horde!

I remember how special it felt to get a box of Terry’s All Gold in our Christmas hamper from grandparents, in the 70s.