A must-buy for Christmas is M&S’s Big Mix tin, £12, which is such a strong contender to take over from Quality Street that it’s not even worth putting a bet on: everything about it is better. It’s an actual tin, cram-packed (1.2kg) with brightly wrapped, chocolate-covered toffees, caramels and cremes. Here you have 10 different hard/soft/in-betweeny centres, including your hazelnut in caramel, orange and coffee cremes, eclairs and, of course, the dentist’s favourite: the toffee. The tin is pleasingly heavy, and every house should have one.
While you’re still in M&S (and lucky you if you still have one near you) do look at the Swiss Chocolate Malty Chocolate and Caramel Biscuity Clouds in a dip-into packet. These are bumpy little puddles of malty butter biscuits with caramel pieces covered in milk chocolate, £3.50, and make inexpensive and slightly unusual stocking fillers or rustly bags to take to the pictures; or, if you’re Meghan Markle – I mean the Duchess of Sussex – you can empty them into a muslin bag and pretend you made them yourself for overnight guests. Also drop a few Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Reindeer in your basket, £1, which are insanely moreish (but sweet). Luckily two bites and the reindeer is a goner.
My current craft fave is Chocolarder’s Candied Orange Peel 60% Dark/Milk bar, £7.50. This is a buttery, pleasing, creamy bar with a hint of candied orange – a fabulously classy, Christmassy bar.
Can I mention a fun biscuit? Waitrose has expanded on its super- successful (and delicious) Cinnamon Knot biscuits from last year’s Christmas offerings with Chocolate Knots, £2.25. These have the same crunchy bite but are chocolatey, and delicious.