Flicking through You Tube yesterday, I came across this - Inside M&S at Christmas 2025. I LOVE Marks & Spencer - I shop there every opportunity I have and I'm sorry that I didn't spend more time there when we were in England in December. I did notice a few of the items in the video when we were there but didn't spend enough time or I would surely have brought some of them home with me.
I learned a lot in the video - I had no idea M&S has a Christmas Panettone and 2025's dark chocolate and cherry version sounds delicious. I loved listening to Harry, who is in charge of the panettone range, "I love all parts of my job, who doesn't want to eat cake?" 2025's panettone had a perfect elongated crumb and was pillowy and soft. Not sure I've heard of panettone described this way, but I'll certainly look for it in the next one I buy.
Colin the Caterpillar is huge in the UK too. I'd seen Peppa the Pig on the shelves, but I missed Colin. Any mention of a Swiss roll dessert always makes me think of the Great British Baking Show and the sometimes-hilarious attempts to fill and roll a Swiss roll! Each Christmas, Colin gets a new makeover and in 2025, he was a Christmas cracker.
I found the segment on cheese really interesting. I guess I never thought about all the research that goes into selecting a new cheese. I've never heard of a cheese technologist; Amy certainly has a great job, traveling and sampling various cheeses. In her segment with Chris, a specialist cheese buyer. she calls him "a wizard when it comes to cheese". Do you have a cheese board during the holidays? Do you like Manchego? How about Manchego flavored with mushroom, fig, or black garlic?
I love a Sunday roast dinner, and the Yorkshire pudding wraps in the M&S Cafe sound amazing. From something that started out "looking like a dog's dinner" to a wrap that delighted cafe customers, it was a hit.
And finally, party food. Fish and chips in a one bite picky bit with a mushy pea sauce on top. What's not to love? They are shown on the far left of the photo below.
The segment on the renovation and expansion of the Northern Ireland Craigavon M&S was delightful and I just loved Ashley, the manager. I think I could listen to the Irish lilt of the customers over and over again. I'm a sucker for the accent!
I hope you'll check out the video - from the product developers to the test kitchens to the store, it's a behind the scenes look at what makes M&S such a fabulous place, not just at the holidays, but every day.
I will definitely check out the video. I loved M&S and had several "super centers" that I shopped for everything from clothes to groceries. I'm still wearing some black heels from 15 years ago that I bought there, and I continue to order my underwear from them. I just haven't found any that I like better!
ReplyDeleteOhh! M&S is an amazing shop. We only shop there for special occasions and when we have a bit of extra money and want to spoil ourselves, everything is so good though!
ReplyDeleteAhh! The Colin the Caterpillar cakes are so good. There was drama here a few years ago with the supermarket Aldi as they released a Cuthbert the Caterpillar cake and both them and M&S argued on social media for a while which was quite funny!