Remember when Quality Street was THE festive selection to have at Christmas? An undisputed festive icon. The empty tin, with a soldier and fancy lady larking around on the lid, would hang around the house for years afterwards.
Well, times change, and the QS makeover in recent years has meant it’s lost some of its excitement (still love an orange crème though).
Well, M&S are on a mission to fill the gap. I’m not talking about their Big Mix Tin, which is charmingly retro. Or professional attention-seeker Colin the Caterpillar.
The real excitement is with the Munch tins. Look, if you know, you know. But if you don’t, here’s the story so far.
The Munch range started with The Original Very Merry Munch. A loose mix of dark chocolate covered pretzels, white chocolate-covered popcorn, milk chocolate covered peanuts and caramel almonds. Salty and sweet, this stuff is addictive. It has a crazed-looking chipmunk on the tin, who, unlike Colin and Percy Pig, hasn’t been blessed with a name yet.
Next came the sequel, The Original Peanut Butter and Jelly Munch. A mix of peanut butter cups, jelly sweets, pretzels, more chocolate popcorn and malt balls. It’s another from the ‘if it ain’t broke’ school of ideas. There’s a fun bear with a jaunty hat on the tin. Still no name.
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Now for the big news. New for 2026 is The Original Gimme S’more Munch. This addition is a riff on the classic US campfire dessert. S’mores are chocolate and marshmallow sandwiched between two biscuits and toasted until melty.
The S’more Munch tin features cookie fudge clusters, marshmallows (natch), more popcorn, more pretzels (of course it does), chocolate buttons and the all-important digestive biscuits. There’s a hedgehog on the tin. Name? Couldn’t tell you.
So, if you were the type of bright child with unlimited pocket money who ordered a bucket of half-salted and half-sweet popcorn at the cinema then tipped in a packet of M&Ms and mixed it all around with your fist, the Munch tins series are for you.
These cult favourites are going to grow and grow in popularity. If we’re right, those characters are going to need some names. Look out, Colin and Percy.
The Original Very Merry Munch, The Original Peanut Butter and Jelly Munch and The Original Gimme S’more Munch are £10 (544g - 460g) from Marks and Spencer.
Simon is Good Housekeeping’s Content Strategy Director working on content across all platforms. He was previously Lifestyle Digital Director working across GH, Red, Prima and Delish and previously Deputy Editor and Community Content Editor at metro.co.uk.
