Mark-ups on branded advent calendars mean you could be paying DOUBLE what the chocolate inside is worth
CHOCOLATE advent calendars can contain as little as 70p worth of chocolate - despite being flogged with a £2 price tag.
When you compare the weight of popular choccy calendars to the amount you'd get if you bought the same chocolate on its own, the mark-up is sure to leave a bad taste.
After YouTube star Zoella was slammed for her sparse £50 calendar with just £20 of products in it, we decided to see how your favourite chocolate calendars compare.
And the differences between what you get and what you pay are staggering, the Sun Online can reveal.
For example, a Dairy Milk advent calendar has a recommended retail price of £2 for just 90 grams of chocolate.
But you can get a 200g bar for £1.97 - that's more than twice as much chocolate for 3p less.
If you crunch the numbers based on those prices, a Dairy Milk calendar only contains 89p worth of chocolate for its £2 price tag, meaning £1.11 of that is pure mark-up - presumably for the box.
And that's not even the worst offender in the great advent calendar rip-off.
Mars calendars are sold at £2 for 111g, when you can get a four pack of Mars bars, equal to 158g of chocolate, for £1 at Asda.
This means you're paying £2 for a calendar with just 70p worth of chocolate in it.
TOP OF THE CHOCS? We rank calendars' value from best to worst
1. Kinnerton's Peppa Pig - £2 for £1.37 of choc
2. Galaxy - £2 for £1.10 of choc
3. Thornton's - £2.50 for £1.34 of choc
4. Lindt - £5 for £2.56 of choc
5. Maltesers - £2 for 94p of choc
6. Tesco - 75p for 34p of choc
7. Dairy Milk - £2 for 89p of choc
8. Milkybar - £2 for 84p of choc
9. Mars - £2 for 70p of choc
10. Miniature Heroes - £5 for £1.76 of choc
Meanwhile, Milkybar fans will be forking out for a £2 calendar this year with just 85g of chocolate - less than the 100g Milkybar sharing block you can get for just a quid.
Comparing these prices, you end up with a £2 calendar containing 85p of Milkybar chocolate.
Among the other popular £2 calendars, Galaxy's 110g offering works out as containing £1.10 of chocolate, since you can get a 200g bar for £2.
And a 104g Malteasers calendar contains the equivalent of 94p of chocolate, with a 166g sharing bag of Malteasers priced at £1.50.
Kinnerton's Peppa Pig calendars are popular with parents, sold at £2 for 90g of chocolate.
But when you can get an 85g Kinnerton bar for £1.30, you're looking at a calendar with just £1.37 of chocolate in it.
At the cheaper end of the spectrum, Tesco's Countdown to Christmas calendar is 75p for 75g of chocolate.
But with Tesco's own chocolate available at 45p for 100g, the calendar works out as containing just 34p of chocolate.
Among the pricier calendars, Thorntons' 93g offering is on the shelves at £2.50.
But when you can get an 87g bag of Classic Thorntons for £1.25, the calendar contains just £1.34 of chocolate.
Lindt's £5 calendar is just as bad, weighing in at 160g.
And with a 100g Lindt bar setting you back £1.60, this means the calendar only contains £2.56 of chocolate.
But the Cadbury Heroes calendar is the worst offender.
The £5 product weighs 232g, but you can get a whole 660g tub of Heroes for the same price.
This means you're paying £5 for a calendar with the equivalent of just £1.76 of chocolate in it.
We don't mean to go all humbug on you, but this isn't the only seasonal rip-off to keep an eye on.
Previously, we told how the LOL Big Surprise had been savaged by a furious mum in a scathing review of the £60 must-have toy.
