Taking the biscuit

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Biscuits. Apparently the British are obsessed with them.

http://www.countrylife.co.uk/food-drink/britain-takes-the-biscuit-83950

Which is your favourite?

For me in restricted somewhat, but I can have hobnobs, chocolate chip hobnobs, jammy dodgers, gingernuts and... I forget. My favourite, chocolate chip hobnobs, like the others I have listed they are vegan luckily. But I grew up loving mcvities digestives with a slide of fresh wensleydale cheese on it and failing that, the malted biscuit or a slice of Yorkshire shortbread.

The best-selling biscuit at Bettys is its Yorkshire shortbread, made with lashings of butter, but these melt-in-the-mouth morsels aren’t the only biscuits that are big news in God’s Own County. The same Waitrose survey that exposed Brighton’s Kit Kat obsession revealed that Yorkshire folk are potty about custard creams.

Launched in about 1908, these are very much a product of the Edwardian era: a decorous exterior conceals a vanilla-scented filling that’s ever so slightly exoticrisqué, even. And those swirls in the biscuits themselves are actually fern fronds (very William Morris).


So culturally significant is the Bourbon that it has its own entry in the Oxford English Dictionary (noun, a chocolate-flavoured biscuit with a chocolate-cream filling). Of all the biscuits we buy in bulk, it comes the closest to Continental sophistication and
its name hints at a rather glorious gilded past.

The truth is that, back in the 1930s, a manager at the Peek Freans factory in Bermondsey, south London, decided that a chocolate buttercream sandwich called the Creola was long overdue a rebrand. Dusting off his history books, he alighted on a name that would suggest entirely falsely that it had once been nibbled by the ruling families of France and Spain.

Midlanders show regional solidarity by buying malted-milk biscuits, which were developed in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, shortly after the First World War, and in the tea-obsessed North-East, ginger nuts (next to diamonds, the hardest substance known to Man) reign supreme. This makes sense: you can only really get through one of them without breaking your teeth if you have a mug of something to hand for dunking.

Most intriguingly, perhaps, the Waitrose census showed that the rivalry between Oxford and Cambridge doesn’t just manifest itself on the river. Scholars in the two cities are apparently at loggerheads over whether the dark-chocolate digestive (Oxford’s preference) is tastier than its milk-chocolate cousin, the favourite in Cambridge.

I don’t know about you, but, for me, there’s something very reassuring although not entirely surprising about the fact that the country’s finest minds have pronounced views on this sort of thing. Pass me the tin, won’t you?

...

 

[Corzhens]

We buy lots of biscuits during the Christmas season as part of our giveaway gift basket to close relatives. They are mostly Danish biscuits in cans and also in cartons. But here at home, they also like Mcvities which is one of my husband's favorites (not really for the taste but for the sentimentality because that was the biscuit that his grandmother bought for him). Our usual biscuits are the local crackers that we give away to the garbage collector for consolation to their service to us.

 

[Caribbean girl]

Over here, we call these biscuits 'sweet biscuits.' They are also called cookies, but sweet biscuits is the more popular name for them. From the ones shown in the photo, my favourites are Chocolate bourbon, Digestive, Rich tea, and Custard cream. I will also go with wafers, but not pink. I prefer chocolate or vanilla wafers. I also like chocolate chip cookies and Ovaltine biscuits.

 

[Diane Lane]

Those are called cookies here in the U.S. My favorite would depend on the time of day, what I've eaten (or whether I've eaten), and what I'm having with them. I love the digestive and rich tea type cookies/biscuits with a nice cup of tea when my stomach is acting up. If I want something sweet, I would select the cream filled. I don't remember what they're called, but we have something similar to the Garibaldi, and I haven't had them in ages. I'm going to look for them next time I go shopping, because I'd forgotten about them, and I loved them when I was younger. I will occasionally get a craving for the pink ones. We have those in vanilla and chocolate as well, but sometimes I will get a particular craving for the strawberry variety.

 

[kgord]

We call biscuits cookies here of course. I am pretty sure we could get some of the type of "biscuits" you are talking about though like at a World Market store. They specialize in selling foods from around the world. I have been in the UK before, and I am not sure I ate any. I did try a number of delcious crisps aka potato chips though and chocolates. I had had some of the candy bars you have there, when I was in Canada, naturally they sell more British made goods.

 

[cupcakechef]

100% my most loved are Australian - Tim Tams! They're such a classic Aussie thing, the perfect ratio of biscuit to chocolate...they're just so good! Dangerously good.

I've heard Oreos are vegan - I can't remember where I read it or if it's factual, but I could have sworn I saw that somewhere.

 

[Diane Lane]

We call biscuits cookies here of course. I am pretty sure we could get some of the type of "biscuits" you are talking about though like at a World Market store. They specialize in selling foods from around the world. I have been in the UK before, and I am not sure I ate any. I did try a number of delcious crisps aka potato chips though and chocolates. I had had some of the candy bars you have there, when I was in Canada, naturally they sell more British made goods.

I love Cost Plus World Market and other similar stores. I grew up around a lot of small delicatessens and other shops that would carry a wide variety of both American and international products. The city and area where I grew up was a true melting pot, and the stores would stock products from areas the locals derived from, and so I learned to appreciate a variety of foods. Most of the shops here, particularly when I first moved down here, only carried standard foods. The exception was Mexican products, which I learned to love. Nowadays, thankfully, there is more diversity in flavors and types of foods, but World Market has always fulfilled my need for variety.

 

[classic33]

Crunch Cream's for me.