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 know it's lighthearted, but at times like this I'm glad I'm from a place where we don't have this obsession with class. Yes, some people are wealthier/have 'posher' accents/are better educated, but we don't bang on about it.

I always associate violet creams with very old people.

@bubblesbubbles11

Basically if you can identify an independent local chocolatiare they will no doubt be pricey but will be streets ahead of mass produced in terms of flavour and freshness. I am not upper class but I imagine these are the kind of places UC would go to. I do not live locally to this but have ordered chocolates here a few times in my long life and I have never been disappointed at the taste (onlly the price tag!!)

www.chococo.co.uk

Chococo are our Christmas chocolates of choice in this house.

And judging by the sheer amount of fart jokes that are told here, we are most definately not posh

I like Leonidas and Neuhaus. I used to love Charbonnel et Walker when each chocolate had a number on the bottom so you could check what you were choosing from the legend. I also order chocolate products direct from Lindt in Germany - the range is huge and the chocolate seems to taste even better (if you like Lindt that is!).

If we are talking about old chocolate selections, who remembers Nestle Home Made Assortment (in a white box with red ribbon), Weekend chocolates and candies and Good News??

I also love Sees Candies from the USA - strangely for American chocolate they are really nice. They are large chocolates with lovely fillings - can't get them here though! Also Laura Secord from Canada are good.

@Beaconoflight

I get my chocolates straight from Bruges, you cant beat the taste! I am a proud french working class lady 😂

The best chocolate I've ever eaten was in Bruges.

There's a shop a few miles from me that sells Belgian chocolates. I love them, especially as you can hand pick the selection and don't end up with a couple of yucky strawberry creams that no-one likes.

Years ago, Terrys produced a box of chocolates called Spartan. They were all dark chocolate and hard centres: chewy toffee, butterscotch, fudge and various nutty ones. They were my favourite, right until they stopped making them.

A doctor isn't working class

@backtolifebacktoreality

A doctor isn't working class

Well, according to Mumsnet lore, the doctor may be working class because class status is determined at birth and cannot be altered. If the doctor was born to working class parents, the doctor is working class as they were raised in a working class environment. The doctor's children, however, will be middle class.

Nothing classier than After Eights.

@Comefromaway

I don’t know about middle class but posh chocolates for me are Venchi & Laderach.

I have them on special occasions and make them last.

I don’t really care what people think to be honest. I eat whatever brand of chocolates I think taste nice. That can range from galaxy to Laderach

Venchi are lovely. I buy them too often from the deli near my gym/office. In fact I bought my very working class father a beautiful tin of them this Christmas. He'd never heard of them but he really loved the tin.

We started going to Belgium regularly about 5-6 years ago. Since then "real chocolates" are the ones we get there from small local shops.
I will have to look up what is the limit we can bring now back with Brexit. I am thinking we usually exceeded the amount deemed proper for a family consumption :)

The one I really hate: hershey's. It has an aftertaste like you have just thrown up.
In general I found it quite hard to buy proper food in the US (tourist, but with kitchen in apartment. But the amounts I could buy were for an army, not a single person)

I think any chocolates that you have to choose from a selection behind a glass counter which are then put into a little white box and tied with a ribbon are what I aspire to . They will also ideally be from a tiny little shop down a Victorian Arcade or in a windy narrow street full of artisan expensive shops. DH got me some of this type from Cahrbonnell and Walker this year. They were gorgeous!

Lindor/Lindt seem to be the choice of 'posh' chocolates from the mass market ones in my circles. But doesn't everyone want a huge tin of Quality streets at Christmas (has to be in th tin though, not a plastic tub as that would just be 'tacky' )

Ferrero Rocher are lush though I have to say and rarely last five minutes in this house!

Toblerone all the way

Lots of fancy chocs quickly go mainstream. Anything that’s gone into all the supermarkets (Thornton’s, Green and Blacks, Monty BoJangles etc) has gone downmarket. Once these were all exclusive to one degree or another and sold in limited outlets. People ‘discovered’ them and contracts made with supermarkets to mass supply. Likewise, Hotel Chocolat supplies John Lewis.

Myself, I’d eat Quality Street through to luxurious individually chosen Belgian chocs from Ypres or Bruges. Sometimes it’s quantity I want (greedy) and sometimes quality.

Waitrose own brand (1) is divine as is Butler’s.

Hotel Chocolat overrated.

Lily O’Briens cheap and nasty.

Tony's chocolonley you need to remortgage to buy a bar so I'd imagine is middle class.

Lily O Briens is lovely chocolate as is Hotel Chocolat. Just once chocolate becomes available to the masses, some people no longer see it as desirable.

Probably that Belgian chocolate brand with the polar bear logo. Can't remember the name though

Class pervades everything in this country. I don't think it's "obsessive" to recognise this and joke about it. I don't think anyone has said there is anything wrong with being any particular class or eating the "wrong" class chocolates.

I find it interesting to see how something as ubiquitous as chocolate can be divided into class, the assumptions that necessitates, and obviously the overlap because it's never that clear-cut.

To me it's weird to deny that class affects everyone - classism is a real issue that needs consciously tackling in lots if situations. Obviously this thread isn't one - but it still gets people expressing disgust at the idea that eg WC people might identify what things are considered MC or UC.

There is definitely some chocolate I don't consider "worth the calories" so wouldn't necessarily eat, but hardly any is inedible to me. Cheapo chocolate coins can be the best sometimes!

The poshest people I know like After Eights, and particularly enjoy eating them by placing them on their foreheads and attempting to manoeuvre them into their mouths hands-free. Posh people don't care what you think!

Working class = Ferrero Rocher, After Eights

Middle Class = Bendicks Bittermints, Hotel Chocolat, Green & Blacks

Upper Class = Charbonnel & Walker, anything handmade from a small artisan shop

Unspeakable = Thorntons, Guylian

But you eat what you like!

I like a Malteser (or 3) with my Dom Perignon.

Pierre Marcolini or Neuhaus.

A lot of this is just marketing.

If you enjoy then who cares what people think. If your goal is to be posher you can’t achieve that with chocolate anyway.. I think

I can't believe someone said Guylains, it's in the pound shops (and tastes rank!).