16-05-2025
Furious Aussie mum's explosive rant over 'changes' to Cadbury's Roses chocolates - and she's not alone: 'Please explain'
An Aussie mum's brutal assessment of Cadburys Roses chocolate boxes has sparked a fierce debate online - and now, the iconic chocolate brand has weighed in too.
Fiona Morris, a cleaning industry business coach from Newcastle, NSW, unleashed an expletive-laden tirade on TikTok, venting her disappointment about the 'lack of filling' in 'modern day Roses'.
'I'd like to speak directly to the head chocolate mother f****** at Cadbury,' Fiona said while brandishing a recently purchased box of the treats.
'We need to talk about modern day Roses chocolates. They're s***,' she continued in the viral video, which has been viewed over 537,000 times and received 29,000 likes.
The entrepreneur proceeded to rant about her specific gripes with the revamped Cadbury Roses, which ultimately boiled down to a perceived overall decline in the quality of the product.
The Cleaning Collective founder's biggest issue was with the reduced filling ratio within the individual treats - which she believed were now '90 per cent plain chocolate'.
'Now, I'm not a big fan of chocolate [alone]. I like the stuff in the middle,' she explained.
To demonstrate her argument about the declined amount of filling, Fiona proceeded to unwrap and bite open a Turkish Delight flavoured chocolate, revealing a sliver of filling inside, which she added had 'no flavour'.
'It's 90 per cent f****** chocolate,' she argued.
'Cadbury, this is literally a block of chocolate dressed up in Santa Claus s***,' she added, gesturing to the brightly coloured individual wrappers.
The video also saw Fiona call out the specific absence of formerly popular Roses flavoured chocolates, which she perceived to have been removed from the revamped boxes.
Her major issue was with the lack of a Cherry Ripe flavoured chocolate.
'Where did the Cherry Ripe go? Please explain,' Fiona said.
She also suggested the boxes were lacking in 'a proper caramel'.
'And where is the one with the nut in the middle?' she asked.
The video shared to Fiona's @CleanBizCoach social media account also questioned the new inclusion of the Passionfruit Delight flavoured chocolate.
'What in the millennial… new age s*** is this?' she ranted.
After tasting it, Fiona conceded that the passionfruit flavour was 'not terrible' – but took issue with the minimal amount of filling. 'Again, all chocolate,' she complained.
The cleaning expert concluded her tirade with a jab about how Cadbury never previously marked down the price of Roses boxes.
'But now they're constantly half price because they're s***,' Fiona said.
The current retail price of Cadbury Roses Boxed Chocolates 420g in both Woolworths and Coles is $20. At Coles, they're on sale this week at a 50 per cent discount, reduced to $10.
The video has blown up online, with thousands of people chiming into the comments, largely in agreement with the Aussie mum's assessment.
'They're so disappointing now,' read one reply.
'They fill them with absolutely hideous flavours and literally zero flavour you're right,' read another.
FEMAIL spoke to Fiona, who said she'd bought the chocolates for herself as a treat around Mother's Day because she had fond childhood memories of enjoying them with her late mother and grandmother.
After posting the video, Fiona said she was stunned by 'the reaction of hundreds of people agreeing'.
'Clearly they've dropped the quality over the years,' she said.
Despite her video specifically calling out Cadbury to address her feedback, Fiona confirmed that the iconic chocolate brand 'hasn't reached out'.
As a small business owner who prides herself on providing a quality service to her clients and customers, Fiona added that she felt her experience serves as a 'timely reminder' to businesses of all sizes to strive to 'listen' to their customers and do 'better'.
A Cadbury spokesperson told FEMAIL the team accepts that everyone has 'different tastes' but hopes to be 'treated with kindness and respect' from customers.
'For more than 75 years, Cadbury Roses have been a simple way to say thank you, share a moment, or show you care,' they said.
'We're always listening to our consumers and understand that everyone has different tastes - not every chocolate will be for everyone and that's okay.
'At the heart of Roses is a tradition of gratitude, generosity and sharing something special, and we hope that same spirit extends to how our team is treated, with kindness and respect.'
With regard to specific issues raised by Fiona about the altered contents of Roses boxes, the Cadbury spokesperson confirmed: 'In 2023, we reintroduced some of the iconic soft centre flavours Australians told us they missed, like Strawberry, Orange and Peppermint Crèmes - alongside a new flavour, Passionfruit Delight'.
Fiona's video attracted a swathe of comments, many wholeheartedly agreeing that they missed the filled chocolates from the original Roses box.
'Where's the strawberry cream? Orange cream? Mint cream?' questioned one commenter.
'They need to bring back the raspberry barrels from the 90s,' said another.
'Don't get me started on the peppermint chip trash replacing the old mint creme!' read another reply.
'The nut with the swirl … where he at?' added another.
In response to the nut comment, another suggested they appeared to have been replaced with a chocolate with 'nut [that] is just crushed up and mixed through'.
They added: '[T]hey should never have changed it as it's not the same.'
Other commenters also offered an explanation to Fiona's claim about the missing cherry ripe flavour.
'It was called 'Cherry Heaven' because it wasn't the shape of a Cherry Ripe, but it was the exact same recipe,' read one reply.
According to the reverse side of the box, Cadbury Roses currently contain ten flavours: Classic Milk, Strawberry Crème, Orange Crème, Peppermint Crème, Hazelnut Swirl, Passionfruit Delight, Classic Caramel, Turkish Delight, Vanilla Nougat and Caramel Deluxe.
