Mutiny on the Bounty: new Celebrations boxes exile divisive sweet

With its creamy coconut centre, a Bounty bar claims to taste of paradise, but it seems one person’s heaven really is another’s hell: Mars has decided to trial a “No Bounty” tub of Celebrations this Christmas after its consumer research confirmed their status as the least popular sweet.

The experiment comes after nearly 40% of those polled told the company the Bounty should be permanently axed from the Celebrations line up, where it struggles to compete with the star power of “all-time favourite” Maltesers.

The arrival of big tubs of Quality Street, Roses, Celebrations and Heroes in supermarket aisles signals the start of Christmas, with huge quantities sold between now and the end of December. Each brand has its loyalists and tensions can run high if favourites are not shared out equally – or worse still there are only Bounty bars and coconut eclairs left.

A milk chocolate and (the much superior-tasting, perhaps even louche) plain chocolate Bounty bar. Photograph: Sarah Lee/The Guardian

A fifth of those surveyed told Mars the Bounty was their least favourite Celebration while nearly 60% said it would cause a family argument at Christmas if they opened the tub and found only the coconut treat languishing in the bottom. In chocolate-lover terms it seems there is no such thing as a Bounty hunter.

But all is not lost as the research also revealed the Bounty retained a hardcore of older fans, with close to 40% of over-55s saying it was their favourite.

Mars has been stoking controversy around this Marmite-esque treat. Last year it ran an advert featuring a Bounty bar finding love with another unloved Christmas staple, the Brussels sprout. It also ran a return scheme that let people swap unwanted Bounty bars for Maltesers Teasers in supermarkets in January.

“Last year, we gave customers the opportunity to return their unwanted Bounty chocolates,” said Celebrations senior brand manager Emily Owen. “Now, off the back of public demand, we’re trialling taking them out of the tub altogether.”

Apparently the favourite chocolate in Celebrations is the Malteser. Photograph: Carolyn Jenkins/Alamy

Absence might make the heart grow fonder, Owen suggested. “You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.”

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In the limited-edition tubs, Bounty bars have been replaced with extra Mars, Snickers, Milky Way, Galaxy and Maltesers. However, Bounty haters will have to move fast. Only 2,000 tubs have been produced and they are only available at pop-ups in 40 large Tesco stores around the country in the run-up to Christmas.

Mars is not the only chocolate maker shaking things up this year. Nestlé has swapped Quality Street’s foil and plastic wrappers for recyclable paper. The change marks the first switch away from rustling, shiny plastic wrappers for the brand since it was launched by Harold Mackintosh in 1936 – with the intention of keeping 2bn wrappers a year out of landfill