I really like Revels.

All things considered, they’re probably my favourite confectionery (although my all time favourite would be the sadly discontinued Cadbury’s Spira).

But like many fellow Revel eaters (Revellers?), I have my favourite one (toffee) and an aversion to a particular Revel (coffee).

And doesn’t it always seem that you get more of the ones you don’t like?

Well, I decided it was time to find out once and for all just how many of each is in the average pack of Revels, so, in the name of science, I went round to my local shop and bought 20 packs.

After some funny looks from the shop assistant, and a happy afternoon spent munching through a total of 354 Revels, here is what I discovered.

Note: For the purposes of this study I will refer to the chocolate Revels as Minstrels. I know they are not actually Minstrels (as they do not have a solid shell), but one of the packs contained an anomalous solid chocolate Revel (which I believe was supposed to be a raisin) so to disambiguate the two I will refer to them as Minstrels.

Revel Distribution Per Pack

The average number of each sweet per pack was as follows:

[table id=2 /]



Number Of Revels Per Pack

While the average number of Revels per pack was 17.65, there was a large fluctuation in the actual numbers – ranging from lows of 16, to a high of 22 (the raisin filled statistical anomaly that was Pack 4).



Indeed, 16 was the number of revels per pack which occurred with the highest frequency (6) across the 20 packs.



And based on these figures, we can infer there is a 75% probability that any individual packet of Revels will contain 18 sweets or less.



The Complete Data (All 20 Packs)

Here is a chart showing the distribution of Revels across all 20 individual packs.



[table id=3 /]

Additional Musings

Here are some additional observations and conjectures…

Individual Revels

Orange: The number of orange Revels in a pack was quite varied, with 4/10 packs containing just one Orange, and 7/10 packs containing three. I’m not a huge fan of Orange Revels.

Coffee: Again, the number of coffee Revels was wildly inconsistent, ranging from 1 to 4. It would appear that less coffee generally means more toffee and Maltesers. My least favourite Revel.

Raisin: With an average of 4.55 per pack, the raisin is the most common Revel. Lots of variation (e.g. a crazy 10 raisin Revels in pack 4), but never less than 3 per pack. I don’t mind the raisin Revels, but they are a bit boring.

Malteser: My second favourite Revel and another whose number fluctuated heavily.

Toffee: The king of the Revels and quite consistent, with each pack containing either 2 or 3. Not many though considering it’s the best one.

Minstrel: The only Revel that has a consistent number (3) in every pack. A tasty chocolate treat. Oh, and I’ve now discovered that the Minstrel is in fact a Galaxy counter.

All Chocolate: Only 1 of these in 20 packs and I suspect (based on shape) it was actually a mutant raisin.

The Pack From Heaven

Sadly, it was all downhill after pack 1. That first pack contained the dream combination of 3 toffees (the maximum amount) and only 1 coffee (the minimum), plus a generous serving of 4 Maltesers (my second favourite Revel).

The Pack From Hell

With just 2 toffees (minimum) and 4 coffees (maximum) pack number 4 was difficult to get through. It also had a ridiculous amount of raisin Revels in it (10) which was at least double the amount of any other pack with the exception of pack 20 (6). You will note that this pack actually had the most Revels of any pack (22), but I would always sacrifice quantity for a better mix.

Conclusion

The distribution of Revels in each pack is pretty random (but within certain constraints). Coffee Revels are really not very nice, particularly when you have to eat 50 of them.

In fact, after about 15 packs, no flavour of Revel is particularly enjoyable.