Christmas biscuit bloggery

Hey there biscuit fans! And a very merry christmas/yule/hannukah/wintery celebration to you all! I hope you are all feeling festive just like me!! Anyway, so its christmas day and I opened a present from my good friend Anna to find this beaut:

With its Panda mascot, going by the name of Vinnie, these are sure to be a tasty treat! Expect reviews of these biscuits in the new year!!! Thanks so much, Anna!!


In other biscuity news, in my family we always buy a few boxes of these chocolatey delights every year and there is always a scramble to be the first to pick a biscuit to choose the one with the most chocolate on.

Here's what it looks like on the inside! : 

Don't they look tasty??? Bet you're all jealous! they are a tasty delight. Unfortunatley, I am too lazy to blog about every biscuit in the packet, and I'm not sure if I'd be able to try every single one! So, I am a biscuit martyr... ok, a little melodramatic. And probably not true either. If anyone's interested, I chose this biscuit: 

What a swirly, chocolatey delight! it was extremely tasty, and seemed to be as much chocolate as biscuit. What a treat!! One more thing, biscuit fans. These vastly chocolatey biscuits are often enjoyed post-meal in my house and without beverage for full enjoyment of the biscuit experience!!

Merry Christmas, Biscuit buddies.

Until next time!!

R

xx

Featured Biscuit: The Bahlsen Milk Choco Leibniz

Hey there Biscuit Fans!! This is what my biscuit tin looked like the day before I left university to go home:

So it was high time for me to go back home! Apologies for my lack of postings lately! I've been getting busy and festive, and coming home, so today this blog post comes from my family home in the North West of England rather than Wales :) Its been a very busy few weeks, hence my almost two week break in biscuit bloggery! In honour of the festive season, I have decided to blog about a biscuit that is technically avaliable the year round, but I don't really have them outside christmas time... so here we go!

Size:

This lovely tasty biscuit is a fantastic size! Unusually for me, a rectangular biscuit. good tesselation, providing maximum biscuits per pack ratio... however, they come in a tray arrangement, rather than a stack in a pack arrangement... meaning that there are 9 biscuits per pack. However, they are quite a treat of a biscuit, so I'm not too upset that they wern't that cheap. Not unaffordable, but still... Yeah, good size!! 

Dunkability:

So yeah. Having such thick chocolate on it, I had suspected this might be a disappointing dunk experience. Yet, I have never been more happy to be wrong. Perhaps it was the fact that it was a continental german butter biscuit, and that the chocolate was thicker at the edges than at the middle, the chocolate melted a little, but not too much! And the biscuit did not become overlogged with beverage. a very very good dunking experience. This biscuit is on to a winner. 

Crumbliness:

As seen in the photo, a suprisingly few crumbs for a biscuit such as this. One could reasonably compare this biscuit itself to a rectangular rich tea biscuit, but its slightly crunchier and more buttery. I am impressed by the satisfying crunch and the chocolate to biscuit ratio. Unlike a chocolate digestive, the chocolate does not crumble with the biscuit, but is thick enough to have a snap of its own. However it is not so thick that it makes it bad to dunk, but it was thicker at the edges, making it rather pleasant to nibble off! :)

Tastiness:

This may be suprising to some reading this, but the biscuit was very similar to that of a rich tea, but thinner, slightly crisper and with a distinctly buttery taste. The chocolate melts very nicely and can be nibbled at the edge! How satisfying! They are very moreish so its probably a good thing that there aren't many in a pack, but this is highly recommended! 

Overall Awesomeness:

For a rectangular biscuit, it has far exceeded my expectations when analysed under the biscuity lense of my eye. Germany, I salute you and your biscuity ways! Making butter a key ingredient in the biscuit, definitely makes a difference on the taste, and it makes me wish that more biscuit manufacturers used butter rather than vegetable fats or palm oil. Although, perhaps they could add a little salt to bring out the flavour of it all nicely. I think I have fonud my first 5 STAR BISCUIT! 

Until next time, biscuit fans, have a merry christmas/yule/hannukah/anything you might feel like celebrating :) Enjoy the festive season!!

R

x

Featured biscuit(s): Fox's Golden and Ginger Crunch Creams

Hi there Biscuit Fans!

So I've got most of the day off, and we're halfway through our run of His Dark Materials - and its awesome. But I always have time to kick back and enjoy a biscuit inbetween rehearsals, sleep, and watching science programmes. Yup. Nerd here. I'm already feeling christmassy here in Aber, which is unusual- I'm not normally feeling christmassy until about the 17th (my mum's birthday!) and then the Yuletide feelings would kick in. Anyway -  Here are the biscuits of the day!

So the reason I'm doing both is because my friend Danny suggested that I do fox's crunch creams on the blog, but I bought the wrong kind. On my next trip to Morrisions, I phoned him whilst in the biscuit aisle and he told me which ones I should get. Ho ho ho. What a jape. 

For reference purposes, in the following photos, the golden crunch cream is on the left, whilst the ginger crunch cream is on the right.

Size:

....So these bicuits don't look particularly big... until you see THIS picture

these are THICK biscuits. They may not have the largest diameter, but wow. These triple decker biscuits are quite something. They even come in a reasonable sized packet! I'm not sure how many are in a packet because I only had a few... but better value than my last two featured biscuits!! Yes! 

Dunkability

Being a cream filled biscuit, I was dubious about the suitability for dunking. However, I found the dunking to be a most pleasant experience! The biscuit did not overlog with beverage and the cream did not soften too much. What a good dunker!! I'm so suprised!! No wonder they came with high recommendations from Danny. 

Crumbliness

This biscuit suprised me. It definitely lived up to its crunch name. It was very crunchy. But its small size made it difficult to break into small peices for this attractive photo. However, lets face it- you're not really going to be breaking this biscuit apart, you're going to be biting it. Its awesome. 

Tastiness

Ok- so.... the golden crunch cream describes itself as "crunchy golden biscuits filled with yummy vanilla cream" ....the bit that worried me most was the vanilla bit. Because vanilla is code for boring. However - these biscuits were very tasty! I was glad that it was vanilla cream rather than vanilla flavour cream, because that would've just been like....no. Just no. REAL FLAVOURS NOMNOMNOM.

The ginger crunch cream, I must admit was better than the golden crunch cream. Simply by having a more interesting flavour. A little bit spicy is better than a bit mellow when it comes to biscuits, in my opinion. Feel free to disagree, but if there is a non-nutty alternative to vanilla, I will always take it- because more often than not, its just better.

Overall Awesomeness

Having never reviewed a sandwich biscuit before (because of the inevitable problems of how to eat it - layer by layer, or chomp across??) I was worried about taking this big step on my biscuity journey. But I was glad to have you biscuity people following as I feel we have really become close on the biscuit front. So with encouragement, I stepped outside my biscuit comfort zone and embarked. These two biscuits, whilst very similar, boast distinct differences from each other making very different biscuit experiences. The golden crunch cream was the sort of biscuit you could give to a friend without bother. The ginger crunch cream however, was the sort of biscuit you'd be more careful about handing out- much like a story a friend told me where he was most upset that somebody had put his hobnobs (a particular favourite of his) into the public biscuit tin in his house where all were free to snaffle them.
All in all, I was pleasantly suprised by the quality these biscuits offered. I will be trying Fox's biscuits again, make no mistake! I have eaten Fox's biscuits before my biscuit bloggery days, and knew previously of their awesomeness, but this time I will record the awesome!

I give the golden crunch cream a respectable 3 stars. To the ginger crunch cream I award 3.5 stars.


A few of my friends have suggested that I begin a "classic biscuits" review month. I am considering doing this in the new year, but time will tell what happens! Stay tuned to biscuityblog!

Cheers, biscuity people.
See you next time

R
x

Featured Biscuit: The Cadbury's Bournville biscuit.

Hello there, biscuitoids! Again I must apolgise for my apalling lack of biscuit bloggery recently. As penance, I am drinking coffee after dark to do this for you. As the nights are drawing in, you may argue that it is hardly an acheivement, but I for one feel very strange drinking caffeine in the dark hours, unless its still dark when I get up in the morning. However, if I am lucky I may be able to get TWO biscuits reviewed this week! So you're all wondering what this week's biscuit is? Well, as promised, and as you can probably see from the title, its the cadbury's bourneville biscuit. Jolly good show.

Size:

Again, Cadbury's your biscuit size : biscuit per packet ratio is letting you down :( sad face. Yes it is thick and chocolatey but at this price, even when on offer, I still feel you should be giving us more biscuits. Only buy these biscuits if you are a true biscuit devotee such as myself, or you can afford to fritter away precious pennies on tasty treats such as these. What I didn't mention in my last post was that Cadbury's biscuit range not only includes the Crunchie and Bournville brothers, but also the Dairy Milk, Turkish Delight and Caramel varieties. Two packs for £2? hmm.... as they fit nicely in the hand but begin melting quickly, I suggest a thumb and index or middle finger holding technique.

Dunkability:

Dear friends... much like the Crunchie biscuit, this is woefully unsuitable for dunking. However, if you insist on dunking your biscuit, PLEASE for the love of all that is good DO NOT DUNK LIKE THIS:

As you will be left with a small pile of melted chocolate, and not the dampened biscuit you require from such dunking practices. Melted chocolate runs down your hand if you are a biscuit nibbler, causing you to be in a terrible mess. If you are a biscuit biter, it requires you to take either a larger than nescessary bite or an oddly shaped bite, leading to a textural confusion of the palette. So if you really do insist on dunking this biscuit, please- break it in two before dunking : 

 ....Dunking rant over. Still, I think these are best enjoyed alongside a beverage.

Crumbliness:

Very few crumbs from either a bite or a snap on this biscuit! Even fewer than on the Crunchie biscuit! They are not as crumbly as I was expecting given the picture on the packet, and I was somewhat disappointed. Also, the packaging does not advertise in its picture of a biscuit that the inside of the biscuit is chocolate, but that it contains a "chocolate flavour cream". Describing itself as "Sumptuous cadbury classic dark chocolate biscuits with a gorgeous chocolate flavour cream centre" I felt somewhat deceived, as the picture on the packet clearly shows a plain biscuit, something more in line with your common or garden digestive. Confusion! 

Tastiness:

Let me begin by saying, despite what I am about to say, I really did enjoy this biscuit. Those who prefer dark chocolate on their biscuits will certainly appreciate this. However, I was a bit disappointed with its flavour. Aside from shirking the work and having a chocolate "flavour" cream centre instead of having a proper chocoalte cream centre, it also had something of a nutty aftertaste, which to a person who has a severe allergy to nuts such as myself could cause some alarm. As a self confessed lover of dark chocolate over milk, it pains me to say that I cannot condone buying these biscuits a second time. With comparatively few dark chocolate biscuits avaliable, I am yet to find anything that can satisfy my dark chocoalte biscuit cravings as well as the mcvities dark chocolate digestive can. However, there are a lot of dark, unchartered, biscuity waters, so lets see what I find! :)

Overall Awesomeness:

Overall, I have to say I am ....I'll say it again, disappointed by this biscuit. It is above a standard fayre biscuit, so it has one star for that, and has chocolate so gains a further star in that respect. But with its after tastes, false flavours, small biscuit number per packet, and expensiveness, I cannot give it any more than 2 stars. Sorry, Cadbury's, but this time you have let me down :(

Next time, Vinnie has sent me for the good stuff. I'll be trying out the Fox's Ginger Crunch Creams, in honour of Danny, who suggested them.


Thanks biscuit lovers!!
R
x

Featured Biscuit : The NEW Cadbury's Crunchie Biscuit

Well hello there, Biscuit Fans! I'm so sorry I've not been posting very recently. I am a bad blogger. But in my defense, I am a 3rd year student. Anybody who has done this knows that third year is a busy busy time!  Never mind, because here is a SPECIAL BISCUIT REVIEW! At the request of my friend Marjanne, I have decided to review these:

"Not a McVitie's biscuit!!!" I hear you cry! Well, not to worry because there are lots of other GREAT biscuit manufacturers. I am not biased! And this shall prove it.


Size:

Not a huge biscuit. But its quite a thick one, and has lots of chocolate which makes up for its small size. However, great consideration must be put into purchasing these biscuits as there are only 8 per packet! At the supermarket of my choice, there was a new range of cadbury's biscuits on a 2 for £2 offer. Meaning that you'd get 16 biscuits for £2. Only after having bought them did I consider the value for money thing.... never mind! 

Dunkablilty: 

Owing to the thick layer or milk chocolate on the outside of this biscuit, I have come to discover that not all biscuits are suitable for dunking. This being a prime example, for if you dunk the biscuit without having broken it first to reveal its crunchy innards, you are left with a melty bit of chocolate on a crunchy biscuit. However, some people like that in a biscuit, in which case, good for you for sticking out of the dunking crowd and jumping off the bandwagon! I chose a second dunking after breaking the biscuit in half as seen here-

This offered a somewhat more varied dunking experience, and although the biscuit itself was very tasty, the Crunchie cream filling does not mix well with a hot beverage. In all honesty, I think we should all just keep out Crunchie biscuits out of our cups and mugs. That is not to say that dunking this biscuit is forbidden, just ill-advised.

Crumbliness: 

This biscuit does not crumble, but good lawd does it crunch. I suppose thats why its a crunchie biscuit. Because it has crunchie in. For those who do not like crunchie, I would still give this biscuit a go, because its still dead tasty and a treat for a cold morning such as today. Again, I suspect that the chocolate (and in this case the crunchie filling also) gives the biscuit structural integrity allowing it to resist crumbling even from the most chompy of mouths. 

Tastiness:

NOM. This is a tasty biscuit. All the goodness of a crunchie, but in biscuit form?? YES PLEASE! However, if you don't like milk chocolate, stay away from this one. I will be reviewing its brother biscuit the cadbury's bournville biscuit in due course. Yes, its very nice. However, the crunchie biscuit tends to leave a strange aftertaste in the mouth. Not unpleasant, but it lingers longer than one might like. That is why these biscuits are best ALONGSIDE a beverage rather than in one.

Overall Awesomeness: 

On the outside: A normal chocolate coated biscuit. But what's this unusual thickness?? Could it be an extra biscuity dimension?? why yes it could! Its is! Its crunchie flavoured filling and honeycomb peices nomnomnom (disclaimer: I DO know what real honeycomb is and would rather this sugary imitation was not called honeycomb, but I don't know what else to call it other than "sugary ....stuff" so for now we shall just call it honeycomb) All round a good biscuit. However, it falls down on the small number per packet and the unsuitability for dunking, something for which my father will be pleased, as he views biscuit dunking as an abhorrent practise. I would give this biscuit.... 3.5 stars out of 5.

If you've tried these biscuits, leave me a comment letting me know what you think of them. Also, if there are any biscuits you want me to review, leave that in a comment too! :) 

Until next time, Biscuit Fans!!

R

xx

The Featured Biscuit : RICH TEA FINGER

Hello there Biscuit fans! Apologies for my recent lack in postings, but I've been very busy making daemons and being in rehearsal for His Dark Materials lately. Anyway! ON WITH THE BISCUITS!!

Size: 

Not very big, but deliciously moreish. Satisfyingly thin! An unusually sausage shaped biscuit.

Dunkability:

Although called the rich TEA finger, I not a tea drinker myself, so have chosen to commit the heinous crime of dunking a rich tea finger into a cup of coffee. Please feel free to send me hate-mail regarding this despicable act. My advice when dunking a rich tea biscuit, whether round or finger is to have a spoon at the ready incase of the biscuit breaking apart and falling in your beverage. After much experimentation, I've concluded that the ideal dunking time for the rich tea finger is JUST ONE SECOND. Yes, biscuit friends, anything more than this could cause your well earned biccie to turn into a sodden mess. If you prefer a softer dunking for the biscuit, you could be permitted to dunk for 2 seconds. Anything further than three seconds requires a rescue mission with a teaspoon, having had the submerged part of the biscuit turn into a sodden mess at the bottom of your cup or mug. 

Crumbliness:

This biscuit is suprisingly uncrumbly, but its rounder biscuit brother, the regular rich tea, is rumoured to be extremely cumbersome when it comes to crumbs. It has a satisfying light crunch before dunking, but can be a bit mushy if dunked for too long. Quite an ideal biscuit for tea time.

Tastieness: 

The rich tea finger is sweeter than its chocolateless appearance would have you beleive. It is however a bit of a bland biscuit with no real flavour other than sugar. But all the same, I still like it :) Its small crumbs however, have a habit of getting stuck in the back teeth and require drinking lots of water to get rid of. Or just sitting there and licking your own teeth. Which is weird...but it works better. Also it goes well with many things. A friend of mine told me that they go well with chocolate philadelphia. She was right. A tasty treat for those long nights writing essays like us students so frequently avoid doing. Thanks Harriet! I suspect that they'd also go very well with nutella and blackcurrant jam. However, I cannot verify this, being allergic to hazelnuts and not having any blackcurrant jam. 

Overall Awesomeness: 

I think this biscuit is vastly underrated. However, it could do with a little spicing up, perhaps with the addition of cinnamon. Would you buy a cinnamon rich tea? You heard it here first. 3 out of 5 stars. 

Next time I'll be reviewing the much asked for CUSTARD CREAM!

Thanks, Biscuit lovers!!

R

x

Gregynog Biscuits - update

So here are the biscuits that we had at Gregynog. What a lovely selection!

Thanks again, Biscuit buddies

R
x

Public Biscuits and biscuit etiquette

Hi there biscuit lovers!

  So I was recently away for a couple of days with my university group for a production we'll be doing in december at Gregynog. Aside from feeding us a huge number of times (breakfast, elevenses, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner - all very tasty ) I had tried to control my biscuit addiction, and taken minimal stocks of my faithful tasty snacks. With me I had taken 9 gingernuts. And although I'm not going to be reviewing biscuits in this post, I'll still put some pictures up

However in the morning, we discovered that elevenses (for my American pals who may not know, elevenses is a snack-sized meal served in the mid morning) we were confronted with a VAST tray of biscuits. I could hardly believe my eyes! (I think a picture was taken of me with the tray of many biscuits and as soon as I know who took it, I'll ask them if I can post it on here)

But then I was faced with two very complicated questions. Which biscuits to choose, and also how many was it polite to take at a time? I had thought that the answer to the second question was obvious- No more than three at any time. You can go back for more if you have had more than half of your hot beverage, whether tea, coffee, or hot chocolate. However, whilst my friends mainly seemed to stick to these vague, unspoken rules, I had seen some carrying MORE THAN THREE BISCUITS AT A TIME. I was stunned. How was this possible? Was I being unreasonable? Was the etiquette different here?? WHAT WAS I SUPPOSED TO DO? Eventually we chatted about it and decided that we would leave it to the blog readers to decide- 

How many biscuits is it polite to take when offered? Let me know in the comments! I mean, its all very well and good to take a bzillion biscuits when you're on your own in your room contemplating the title of your next best selling novel, but when they're biscuits you are being offered, it can be quite a conundrum! 

To summarize my version of public biscuit etiquette -

- no more than three biscuits at a time

- always have more than one type

- always get to the chocolatey ones before someone else does

- seconds is allowed after half a beverage, no sooner. 

Thanks, biscuit lovers

R

x

p.s. For those interested, the biscuits I chose were the faithful bourbon, the fruit shortie, and the double choc-chip cookie. Gregynog had a splendidly wide variety of choice. Top marks, Gregynog!

  

FEATURED BISCUIT: McVitie's Dark Chocolate Caramel Digestive (limited edition)

Limited edition? And on special offer? I couldn't let these bad boy biscuits go to waste! 
Size:

This is slightly smaller than I like to see in a chocolate biscuit, but it may make up for it in other ways. Its slightly thicker than its non-caramel parents and sits well in the hand. Both chocolate and caramel remain with suprising integrity during the biscuit eating process, particularly with regard to not melting between the fingers depending on how quickly you like to eat your biscuits. Overall, a bit of a runt sized biscuit. If I worked for McVitie's, I would increase the diameter of this biscuit by one centimeter. 

Dunkability: 
Ten seconds is far too long a dunk time for this biscuit. Though the chocolate melts very easily (being thinner than the average chocolate digestive), the caramel does not melt and remains chewy. However 10 seconds will turn your biscuit into a soggy, dissatisfactory lump of mush topped with caramel and some melted chocolate. Doubtless I will find crumbs in the bottom of my mug when I'm done. 5 seconds is a superb dunking time for this biscuit, allowing for sufficient moisture absorption without comprimising that cruch that we all love. 

Crumbliness: 

I was suprised by how few crumbs came off this biscuit, both from a snap and a bite. I think it was probably the caramel holding the biscuit together that performs this seemingly miraculous little trick. This definitley makes up for it being a runt-sized biscuit. 

Tastiness:

 This was a tasty biscuit. The bitterness of the dark chocolate balances out the sweetness of the caramel, creating a pleasant taste sensation. The biscuit itself uses wheatflour that can occasionally leave an irritating little bit of grain husk stuck to the teeth, but this is easily dealth with a toothbrush or your tongue. I'd say overall, just what anybody would be looking for in a tasty treat with a cup of hot beverage! 

Overall Awesomeness:

  Overall, I think this biscuit is quite awesome. But get it whilst its still around! Its limited edition! Not an every day biscuit, but a tasty treat for rainy days like this. Could only be improved by being slightly bigger, thus shedding its runt-sized biscuit status. 4 stars.

Let me know what your everyday biscuits are in the comment section! And don't forget to leave recommendations of what biscuits I should review in future posts! 

Cheerz, Biscuit lovers.

R

x

Welcome!

Well hello there, biscuit lovers!


Seeing as I was getting many comments about how much people liked my biscuit updates on facebook, I decided to make a biscuit channel on youtube. Having thought about this, it was a silly idea, it would just be me eating biscuits on camera going "mmmm!" and seeing as I don't like being watched when I'm eating, a blog would be more sensible :P However, this blog is far from sensible and will be entirely devoted to biscuits.

Future posts will include THE FEATURED BISCUIT!
and ratings for:

-size
-dunkability
-crumbliness
-tastiness
-overall awesomeness


Unfortunately, I'm allergic to nuts, so I'd be getting someone else to try those particular biscuits out for me. If you trust their biscuity opinions as you do mine, then we should all get along spiffingly!

Please recommend a biscuit for me to try this week! I'm going shopping today and will be buying BISCUITS.



Cheerz everyone

R
x