American tries Percy Pig for first time but makes 'crucial mistake'
Percy Pigs are a beloved British sweet produced by Marks & Spencer, and an American visiting the UK decided to try them among other popular British snacks – but made one 'big mistake'
An American tried Percy Pigs for the first time, but made one 'crucial mistake.' The UK boasts several iconic savoury and sweet snacks, including Percy Pig. The beloved pig-shaped gummy treat has been a popular confectionary in the UK for many years, enjoyed by both adults and children.
Created by Marks & Spencer (M&S), it has become a favourite for many British people – so much so that visitors to the country will often seek them out. Kevin Escalera, based in Miami, Florida, is a food and travel vlogger who tries popular snacks when visiting different countries. Known as Snack Eating Snacks online, he recently shared a video on TikTok sampling a range of British snacks from crisps to chocolates to sweet treats, like Percy Pig, while visiting the UK.
Kevin said: 'We [have] got the Percy the pig fizzy gummies and these are supposedly super popular here. Everyone told me I had to try them.'
Taking a bite, he remarked: 'Mmmm, they have a great chew to them, a little sour. These are fantastic gummies and I'm a gummy connoisseur.'
Kevin tried the M&S Percy Pig phizzy pigtails, but many TikTok users in the comment section of his post said these are the 'wrong' version of the sweet. One user simply stated: 'Wrong percy pigs.'
Another added: 'Should have got the original Percy pigs and not the fizzy tails. Original Percy pigs are an elite sweet.'
A third exclaimed: 'No not those Percy's! You needed the classic.' A fourth chimed in: 'No one goes to M&S and buys those Percy pigs.'
The original M&S Percy Pig sweets are shaped like smiling pig faces and have a distinctive fruity, sweet taste and chewy texture. They offer a blend of raspberry, grape, elderberry, blackcurrant and mandarin flavours.
Percy Pig was launched in stores in 1992 and has since become a cultural phenomenon. Since 2019, the recipe has been changed to remove gelatin, making the sweets suitable for vegetarians. In 2022, beeswax was removed from the ingredients list, so they can now be enjoyed by vegans as well.
Percy Pig has become a huge brand with 124,000 followers on Instagram and a notable presence on TikTok.
Fans have even been inspired to create their own Percy Pig themed bakes as well as Percy-inspired accessories.
In 2024, Percy Pig collaborated with Dr Paw Paw to launch a vegan lip oil formula and a signature Percy scent.
The brand has also launched a pink nail polish duo set which dries down to release its exclusive scent.
In addition to Percy Pig, Kevin also tried Walkers Monster Munch crisps, prawn cocktail crisps, Tunnock's Milk Chocolate Tea Cakes, Jammie Dodgers and a Cadbury Double Decker chocolate bar.
He compared the tea cakes to a mallow bar in the US but was confused about why they're called tea cakes and wondered if you're actually supposed to eat them with tea.
Despite the confusion, the food reviewer enjoyed all the British snacks he tried and concluded: 'Overall, England, you guys know your snacks.
'I think England might be at the top of the charts of [all] the countries' snack game(s) that I've tried.'
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Telegraph
24 minutes ago
- Telegraph
The best wines to buy from M&S this summer
Between the cyber attacks and fashion editors eulogising about the summer collections, M&S has barely been out of the headlines this year. Food sales are strong, but what is going on with M&S wine? Earlier this spring, I went to the retailer's head office in Paddington to taste some 90 samples from its current drinks range and came out with mixed impressions. Here's what I thought. The first point to make is that the bottles you're inexorably bowled towards by in-store displays, especially in travel hubs, aren't the wines that M&S does best, even if it does sell a lot of them. I'm not a fan of the somewhat sickly Bellante Prosecco and not just because the name reminds me of an unprintable insult rather than a character in Handel's opera Almira. The M&S Garganega Pinot Grigio 2024, Italy (£7), which apparently sells by the bucketload, is made by the very good Cantina di Monteforte and is perfectly fine, though rather sweet (it has more than 6g/litre of residual sugar). My tip? If you like pinot grigio, go to Morrisons and buy Gordon Ramsay Pinot Grigio 2024, Italy (11%, Morrisons, £7.50; also Tesco, £8.75 and still worth that price), which is also made by Cantina di Monteforte but which is dry, peachy and delicious. Back at M&S, other classical styles, such as the Corsican Rosé at £8.50 or the Classics No 14 Spanish Albariño (£13), err on the side of anodyne, which is often my experience of wines at M&S tastings. Strangely, perhaps, for a retailer with a reputation for excelling at basics such as plain cotton knickers and men's crew-neck sweaters, the wines that shine at M&S aren't the ones I might usually look for, they're the ones I didn't know I wanted in my life. A new star to look out for is a beautiful white from the Dão and Lafões regions of Portugal with a slightly textured feel, like pear juice mingled with woody herbs and run through with a salty charge of preserved lemon. That's M&S Found Encruzado 2024, Portugal (12.5%, M&S, £8.50), which is due in stores on June 11. It's fresh enough to drink as an aperitif but it does have good backbone and will sit well with food. Snackwise, I'm matching this with paprika Pringles. Dinnerwise, its combination of texture and tang would be good with the fatty succulence of pulled pork, while its citrus and herbal notes work well with rosemary-and-lemon chicken kebabs. The encruzado is part of an M&S range called Found, dedicated to unusual and little-known grapes, and it's under this label that you will find many of the retailer's best wine buys – and I say this as someone extremely wary of novelty for novelty's sake. Among the Found wines I'd recommend are Feteasca Alba (£7.50) from Romania (also due in stores on June 11), orange Verdil from Spain, and Found Kratosija 2024, Macedonia (13%, M&S, £8.50), a vivid, berry-scented unoaked red that is a cracking buy. My theory is that the apparently cautious approach that leaves me wanting more from some M&S wines is a blessing when it comes to grapes that might otherwise be too challenging. Many Found wines take unfamiliar flavours and wrap them into a wine that is interesting enough but, crucially, approachable and good value – the same approach the food hall has taken for many years. That's not to say Found represents the only wines I'd buy from M&S: other star buys include a cava, an English bacchus and a smoky red from South Africa, all of which you'll find recommended below. Skip to: How we tested Victoria Moore tasted 91 wines at M&S's spring/summer press tasting in April 2025. Why you can trust us Victoria Moore is the author of the best-selling The Wine Dine Dictionary and an award-winning journalist who writes The Telegraph Magazine 's drinks column. With a postgraduate diploma in psychology, she also runs workshops on wine and smell. Her impressive list of awards includes Louis Roederer Wine Columnist of the Year, Louis Roederer Online Communicator of the Year and Fortnum & Mason Drinks Writer of the Year. The Wine Dine Dictionary won the André Simon Special Commendation Award and was also Fortnum & Mason Drink Book of the Year 2018. Follow Victoria on Instagram @how_to_drink.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
I paid a psychic £130 to try and communicate with my dead mother... this is what happened
I don't know what I was expecting… but to be left crying and filled with regret at how much I'd paid wasn't it. A few weeks earlier, I decided to book an appointment to have a one-hour tarot card reading with a woman who describes herself as a psychic and medium. A friend had recently tried it and said how uplifting it was, and a year earlier I'd watched a woman on TikTok discuss her 'eerily accurate' reading. It just so happened they both went to the same place in London - I took it as a sign. Around 40 minutes before my appointment, the psychic - who I shall called Harriet - calls me to apologise that she's running late as there is an issue with the Tubes. Cue my friend's 'she didn't see that coming' text… Alas, another reason I'd wanted to give this a go was down to Michael McIntyre. In his autobiography, the comedian tells how on a whim his then-19-year-old mother goes to a tarot card reading with a psychic who tells her she's pregnant, it will be a son and he will be 'word-famous'. When we finally start, Harriet tells me how honoured she is to be giving me my first reading. Gentle music plays in the background and the room is full of crystals. 'The spirit brings me the right person at the right time.' Harriet assures me she won't deliver 'scary' or ominous news but that 'every message that comes through is what you need to hear' although 'sometimes not what you want to hear.' 'I see you looking out a bus window, wistfully,' she begins. Harriet wasn't kidding about it not always being what you want to hear. 'Most people come in when they are at a crossroads in their life. But you feel like you've got it. You've got an underlying sense of what is going to change and what's coming in. We need some reassurance.' Harriet begins with my career. 'I just get changes,' she says. 'But sometimes not in the way you want - and not in a good way.' Hang on, Harriet. I thought you weren't meant to deliver bad news… 'There's a feeling of 'I need to change'. Maybe relocation.' Hmm, I ponder, I am quite happy in London and have no desire to move from my lovely flat. So where did she have in mind? A cottage in the countryside? A villa in the sunnier climes of Portugal? 'Manchester,' Harriet signals her spirit guide is telling her. Oh. I've never thought twice about that part of the country. I am from the south originally, so Manchester seems quite a rogue choice but you never know in the distant future… 'Two months. End of August,' Harriet confirms. Crikey. I'm locked into a contract on my flat until next year so that could be problematic. 'You're about to jump on that train,' she continues. Note, I have upgraded from a bus. 'I feel like it's the same field, same kind of work but it's just broader. More of a place you can get to the top, that you can spread your wings and develop.' Ok, well this sounds more promising. 'It feels like you have a bit of a coach around you,' Harriet continues as she 'tunes in with my energy and her team of spirits'. 'This spirit pushing you and giving you all these wonderful words: 'that's the name of the game', 'we're going to go for it'. It feels like they've been with you for quite a while. It feels like a female spirit that's around you. Do you feel like that.' Er.. no I don't. 'Sometimes you might be given a message that this isn't the right time and you have to wait six months or so. But opportunities are coming sooner rather than later.' So what are the spirit guides telling Harriet my next career move could be? 'Behind the scenes, I see scripts,' she says. 'Have you ever worked in the theatrical arts? I'm seeing theatre and dialogue. It does feel like it's something unexpected. And colourful, I see a lot of colour around what you're writing. Explosions of colours around it.' I continue to listen, puzzled, I have never worked in theatre and it's never appealed to me. 'I'm also getting the message keep some mystery and secrecy around what you're doing. You've got some really good ideas that are not quite ready to be revealed.' I must already be doing such a good job of keeping some mystery, I'm leaving myself in the dark. 'I'm getting your mum,' Harriet then says. A lump forms in my throat. 'Feels like you have support there.' Now might be the time to confess another reason I found myself sitting in front of the psychic was because of my mum. She died last year from cancer and I have been bereft without her ever since and desperate to somehow feel close to her again. 'She steadies you,' Harriet says. 'Feels like a steady relationship. You can confide in her. And that will be stabilising. 'She feels like she can be an ally through this process. If nothing else really giving you some encouragement. But also she'll catch you if you fall is what I hear. You don't have a lot to lose by taking a leap of faith here. She's got your back.' At this point I'm feeling both emotional and awkward. My mum was all of those things, but I can't bring myself to say anything to Harriet. But then it gets worse… 'I'm seeing your mum again,' she says. 'Have you ever travelled with your mum? Maybe it would be a nice time for you two to go do something nice together, even if it's a long weekend. Because when you're around your mum's energy it does change your reality.' Ah the real kick in the teeth. I'm too polite to say anything. Could it get any worse? Yes. Harriet pulls out the death card… supposedly it doesn't represent death, but the end of something, it follows the marriage card. Reassuring. The card showing people being stabbed in the back also makes an appearance, plus the one showing a man barely able to walk and 'left outside in the cold'. I make a mental note to quiz my friend again who found her reading 'uplifting'. It dawns on me how foolish I was to think my mum would send a message to me via a random woman in a rented room in London, or how she could actually predict my future. I message my brother in tears feeling silly. He swiftly brings me down to earth. 'How much did you pay for that b*******?,' he replies. 'Everything she said is complete chance and guess work. It means nothing.' He's right. Sigh, what a waste of £130 - but a lesson learned*. *Unless in August I am working at a theatre in Manchester after going on holiday with my mum who has returned from the dead…
The Herald Scotland
an hour ago
- The Herald Scotland
'Thrilling and exhilarating': Scottish debut album from 1990 sparkles
It disclosed that a new remaster of The Same Sky, the much-lauded 1990 debut album by the band to which she gave her name, was in the hands of Seabass Vinyl, a vinyl pressing plant in East Lothian. Horse hopes to have copies by June 21, ahead of the launch that night of The Same Sky 35 tour, which kicks off at Paisley Arts Centre. The Same Sky, which was released on EMI/Capitol in June 1990, just as Glasgow's reign as City of Culture was coming to an end, is widely seen as one of the most assured, and soulful, Scottish debuts of recent decades. With lyrics written by the guitarist Angela McAlinden and sung by the powerfully expressive vocalist that is Horse, it reached number 44 in the UK charts. One un-named American journalist is said to have described it as 'the best debut album for years'. Horse, as a solo artist, has since gone on to release, on her own Randan label, several solo albums, the most recent of which is The Road Less Travelled. She was first to bring an orchestra to the Barrowland venue in 1995 – the Scottish Chamber Orchestra – and has collaborated with Lynn Ferguson to turn her true-life stories into Careful, a well-received, one-woman show at the Edinburgh Fringe, which was named after one of the stand-out tracks on The Same Sky. In 2016, interviewed by the Australian magazine, LOTL, Horse was asked for the secret of her longevity. Her answer was revealing. 'Making The Same Sky was thrilling and exhilarating — a real life-changer', she said. 'I've never, ever lost that sense when making music. It brings me great joy. I understand, with hindsight, that from teenage years to now, my music has developed from within me by way of osmosis and absolute heart, not head. It has quite literally saved me. It has been my solace and comfort, a companion and a great healer. 'My idea of success and longevity has completely and utterly changed over the years that I have been making music', she added. 'Because I put so much of myself into my music, it's obvious why I would take it personally when commercial 'success', or rather, the widely held view of what success is, may have eluded me. However, I reached a place personally and professionally, long ago of being happy with my success. The great sense of achievement and pleasure from still making music and having a true and positive impact on people is incredible. I feel very lucky'. Horse was born in Newport on Tay, in Fife, and grew up in Lanark. She once explained to the Los Angeles Times, 'I hated my birth name, don't ask me what it is. I grew up thinking it was a punishment, so when I was about 14, I changed it to Horse. Almost overnight I became a new person'. In interviews she spoke of having a terrible time growing up, being attacked and bullied because she was gay in a small town, and, eventually, forcing her to leave. Music, and writing her own stories, proved to be her salvation. 'Writing songs in my little back bedroom was a way to close the door on all of that and escape to another world,' Horse told Billy Sloan a few years ago. 'It became a means of taking care of myself and also releasing lots of unhappiness, anger and tension. What began to happen was a kind of osmosis, almost. My emotions became the root of the songs, which makes them all quite heartfelt.' In the Eighties, she met Angela McAlinden, and they began working on songs together, and over the years other musicians joined them. Horse, who wrote the melodies, and Angela, who composed the lyrics, made a formidable team. A tape made by the band came to the attention of the producers on The Tube, a wildly popular TV music show at the time. 'We were really just thrown on', Horse told The National, the Herald's sister paper, in 2022. The band guested on the show in March 1987. 'The soundcheck was the camera check – and there were cameras everywhere! My mouth was so dry and I could hardly sing. However, in those days there was no social media or way of contacting the show other than phoning in and they told us that the switchboard had been jammed with people asking about 'that' band. "At that point we had no management, and we really weren't equipped to 'go'. It was such a lost opportunity but what a great experience for us. A mass audience of over five million meant when we were back in Scotland people did start to look and point at me in the street. Not for bad reasons either'. Read more After more demo tapes being sent to publishers and labels a publishing deal was finally secured with the giant EMI. Sally Perryman organised a showcase in Glasgow for the top record labels at what was then the Third Eye Centre (now the CCA), and from this they signed to Capitol. The two women began crafting the 10 songs that would appear on the album. The production was in the hands of Pete Smith, for whom the band first showcased the album's songs in a gig at Paisley Arts Centre – the very place where the Same Sky 35 tour begins in a fortnight's time. The recording of the album was, however, interrupted by an unforeseeable development; realising that something was amiss with her voice, Horse consulted a doctor, then a specialist, who told that she had a node on her left vocal cord. The singer wanted to delay an operation until after the album was finished, but the specialist recommended otherwise. The operation took place, and she had to remain silent for 10 days. The recording of her vocals was put back for two months; in the meantime, the band continued to put down the tracks. The 10 songs on The Same Sky have so many highlights, as signalled by the opening, soaring one-two of …And She Smiled, and The Speed of the Beat of My Heart. Careful, the poignant closing track, was recorded with a 12-piece string section and arranged by Audrey Riley. It was the ultimate single from the album, it would later be covered, solo and with an acoustic guitar, by Will Young. Horse is in superb voice throughout, and the emotional impact of Angela's lyrics can't be overstated. One track, Sweet Thing, expresses a sense of longing, and also gives rise to the album title: 'Can our hearts synchronise, my baby? / Miles of distance come between us like years/ Covered by the same sky but so separately…' It also happens to be Pete Smith's favourite track on the record. He's especially proud of the build-up into the chorus, as he told Davie Scott on the latter's BBC Radio Scotland Classic Scottish Albums series in 2022. 'Sometimes you get something eighty per cent right, sometimes you get things fifty per cent right. I got that a hundred per cent right'. Horse, in subsequent interviews, spoke of her lasting pride in the record, noting with pride that a lot of people had said it remained their favourite albums of the Nineties. But there is perhaps a sense that greater success might have been yielded by The Same Sky. There were several time-consuming issues with the record label, Capitol UK, and frustrations with the way that Horse herself was marketed. 'We were never part of any clique', she reflected as she discussed the album with Davie Scott. 'We were never part of the Glasgow crowd, like Postcard [Records], but we were around at the same time as Hue and Cry, Deacon Blue, [the Pearlfishers], H20 – a really successful seam of Scottish artists – but we always just never seemed to pass Go and collect £200. 'For me, with hindsight, some of it was to do with two women being at the front of the band – particularly myself, being gay, being lesbian, and very obviously lesbian, because I was very androgynous … so I think we didn't tick the boxes that lots of other people ticked, and something that could have been incredibly powerful in terms of media, or just a real marketable brand thing, was Marmite. Ultimately, I just wanted our music to be heard". Read more On the Record It took another three years before the follow-up album, the equally fine God's Home Movie was released on MCA/Universal, in November 1993, and peaked at 42 in the British charts. Speaking to the Evening Times in August 1993, Horse said: 'We've always been very optimistic about our music and knew that sooner or later we'd be able to put problems into the past. Playing live during the last couple of years has been great for us. Despite the fact that we couldn't solve the record-company hassles, we knew there were a lot of fans out there who hadn't forgotten about us. They really kept us going and made us doubly determined to succeed.'' The Herald's David Belcher predicted at the time: 'It would seem that Horse McDonald, the woman, and Horse, the band, are on the verge of becoming Horse, the big-time pop phenomenon'. It didn't quite work out like that, unfortunately, and the band eventually broke up. But Horse has continued to successfully release her own music since 1999. The most recent album was The Road Less Travelled in 2024. The Same Sky 35 anniversary tour, and the 2025 remaster, will add lustre to the reputation of an excellent debut album. * For full dates of the Same Sky 35 tour, see
