As the clock strikes midnight to herald the arrival of 2026, singletons will be sitting under tables munching on exactly 12 grapes in a bid to invite love into their lives in the New Year – and Tesco is cashing in.
The UK supermarket has launched a pack of 12 seedless grapes especially for New Year’s Eve, priced at £1.25 – or just £1 if you happen to be both single and a Tesco Clubcard member.
The trend stems from a century-old Spanish tradition, which is believed to bring a person good luck and prosperity if they eat 12 grapes at midnight on New Year’s Eve.
Each grape represents the 12 months of the year, and sweet grapes are said to mean that the month will be filled with good luck, whilst a sour grape may indicate that it will be a difficult month.
However, the tradition is slightly different in Latin America, where it involves eating the grapes while sitting under a table in order to usher in a year of love and romance.
The ritual went viral on TikTok at the beginning of 2025, and now, even more lonely hearts are planning to take part with Tesco’s help.
The retailer’s new product has garnered mixed reactions from social media users, with some branding it as a ‘genius’ way to hop on the trend while others condemn it as a pinnacle of ‘consumerism’.
On TikTok, one person interpreted Tesco’s 12-grape pack as a sign of how dire the dating scene was in 2025.
‘Nothing says “UK dating crisis” like Tesco selling women 12 grapes to eat under the table,’ TikTok user Jenny Ferjay wrote in her video showing the package in store.
She added in her caption: ‘How did we get here?’
Another content creator, Hasti Mostofi, also shared a video of herself buying the grapes and lamented: ‘Dating in the UK is so bad Tesco [is] selling 12 grapes to eat under the table on New Year’s Eve. I hope it’s better than Hinge.’
However, some people were in disbelief that the product even existed.
‘Consumerism is mad, Tesco hopped right on that,’ a TikToker named Paris wrote in her video post.
Another who goes by the handle @robynburke05, shared a photograph of herself side-eyeing the trend and said: ‘Tesco selling a pack of 12 grapes… Please tell me we are not sitting under a table wishing for a MAN going into the new year.
‘Release me. Why is no one talking about how insane this is? Set your intentions right for the new year PLEASE.’
On X, a social media user condemned the supermarket for creating and selling the 12-grape pack.
‘That’s it, I’m declaring WAR on Tesco,’ she wrote.
‘A quid for TWELVE grapes, wrapped in plastic. All so some girls on TikTok can eat 12 grapes under a table at midnight on NYE.
‘Consumerism final bosses,’ she added.
A content creator named Maria McVey also took to TikTok to reveal how her 2025 went after she took part in the trend last year, declaring that she would not be doing it again.
‘There’s one thing you will not catch me doing on New Year’s Eve [and that] is sitting under the table and eating those 12 grapes,’ she said in her video.
Maria explained that she was under the impression that eating the 12 grapes at the start of 2025 would bring her good luck.
However, she said the past year has ‘brought me nothing but bad luck’, which she blamed on the grapes.
‘To be honest with you, I’m thinking, burn the grapes from the house for the whole of 2026, because I have no other explanation how this year went so horribly wrong.’
The custom of eating grapes at New Year’s originates in Spain, where it is known as ‘las doce uvas de la suerte’ or ‘the 12 lucky grapes’.
The tradition is thought to date back to the turn of the 20th century, when a group of grape farmers in Alicante tried to get rid of their surplus stock.
Another theory states that a group of Madrid residents decided to eat grapes to mock the aristocratic custom of drinking wine on New Year’s Eve.
Some believe that the custom actually came from France, but was later popularised in Madrid, while others eat the grapes in an attempt to ward off evil spirits.
