A Franchise on Ice
Colin the Caterpillar has long since escaped the confines of his original cake box. The M&S mascot is a franchise in his own right, appearing on everything from gummy sweets to miniature cake rolls. It was only a matter of time before he reached the freezer aisle.
The real Colin the Caterpillar ice cream, launched in 2022, translates the cake’s core components into a tub format. It’s a simple combination. The base is a vanilla ice cream, which is layered with chocolate sauce and chocolate-coated puffed rice balls intended to mimic the cake’s shell. The tub is topped with solid white chocolate Colin faces, the character’s most recognisable feature. This established format provides a clear template for any potential seasonal variations.
The Halloween Takeover
This new concept takes the existing product and gives it an autumnal, specifically Halloween-themed, twist. The flavour here is pumpkin spice, a blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves that has become the definitive taste of the season. This concept brings it squarely into the dessert space. The packaging retains the familiar green M&S branding and Colin logo but adds autumnal leaves and a graphic of Colin wearing a small pumpkin as a hat.
This is a familiar tactic. The tub also describes the contents as a “marshmallow rocky road ice cream”, suggesting a much more complex base than the current plain vanilla. It points to a product with more texture and different components mixed in. The caption that accompanied the image was direct: “M&S Colin the Caterpillar Pumpkin Spice Ice Cream is everything we need this autumn!”
A More Complex Mix
Where the original Colin ice cream is built on simplicity, this Halloween concept proposes a far busier scoop. A marshmallow rocky road base implies a significant departure. Standard rocky road includes biscuit pieces and marshmallows, bound together with chocolate. Translating this into an ice cream format, alongside a prominent pumpkin spice flavour, creates a product with multiple distinct elements.
It’s a combination more commonly seen in American ice cream parlours than in UK supermarket freezers. The flavour family is complex. Pumpkin spice itself is a blend of aromatics, marshmallow adds sweetness and a chewy texture, and the rocky road elements would introduce crunch. The design suggests a product aimed at the peak of the autumn seasonal market, when demand for these specific flavours is highest.
Frequently asked questions
- What is in the real M&S Colin the Caterpillar ice cream?
- The genuine Colin the Caterpillar ice cream sold by M&S has a vanilla ice cream base, swirled with chocolate sauce. It also contains chocolate-coated cereal balls and is topped with several white chocolate Colin faces.
- Is pumpkin spice a common ice cream flavour in the UK?
- It is not a mainstream flavour in UK supermarkets, which tend to favour traditional options. However, pumpkin spice ice cream does appear in smaller, artisanal shops as a limited seasonal special during the autumn months.
- Is the M&S Pumpkin Spice Colin the Caterpillar ice cream real?
- No, this product does not exist. It is a Snackfish — a mockup created by the online design page UK Snack Attack — and is not sold in M&S or anywhere else.
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You have been Snackfished!
Snackfish :
[sn-a-ck-fish] verb
A snack that lies about its legitimacy as an official product online for internet clout and attention. Most commonly fabricated in Adobe Photoshop or using the unofficial Snackfish AI