Quality Street Tub - 550g

In Britain, Quality Street is less a box of chocolates and more a piece of furniture for the season. It turns up on the table, or the floor by the sofa, and stays there until the very last wrapper has been picked over and put back.

Plenty of people in Canada only realise how much it mattered the first year it is not there. It is the thing relatives used to squeeze into a suitcase, and a tub this size is not built for hand luggage. So people go looking for it, usually with a very specific childhood living room in mind.

The 550g tub is a proper sharing size, every chocolate wrapped on its own, so it can sit out for days without anyone fussing. Keep it somewhere cool and well away from the radiator, and put the lid back on between rounds, if anyone lets you.

It tends to go in the basket alongside the rest of a UK Christmas: the pudding, the crackers, a good box of tea for the morning after. Somebody will still ask why there is not a second tub.