McVities Chip 'n' Chunk Cookies
Monday 19 Sep 2005
	The McVities brand makeover continues even if their own web site is cheerfully still talking about the one before last. It even goes on to natter on about those defunct McV Cookies that edged us towards the other side of the Atlantic. Well that was all some time ago and now they've adjusted their cookie sights (if not their web-sites). It would appear that McVities are going after the Maryland cookie with their latest offering. So what are we looking for in such a high profile new biscuit? I would say quality, innovation and good old fashioned cup of tea appeal. As far as quality goes then everything seems to be in place. As befits a new recipe in the 21st century the hydrogenated fat has been left out. This leads to a much crumblier biscuit, which is also a bit prone to going stale. So if you don't plan on seeing them all off in one go then a proper airtight biscuit tin is going to be needed. Still full marks to McVities here for giving us all one less thing to worry about, especially at such an important de-stressing moment as the cup of tea and sit down. Now to innovation. This is obviously a big play for the choc-chip cookie sector of the market which has always belonged to in the UK to the Maryland cookie. Too much in the way of original thought and McVities may well end up missing out on converting Maryland eaters to McVities. Yes, they haven't strayed too far away from the genre and in fact have resorted to the oldest trick in the book when it comes to competing for the top slot in choc chip cookies, they've put more choc in. Rather than get into an ugly slanging match about percentages McVities have moved the goal posts by creating chip 'n' chunk cookies, which have both plain choc chips (18%) and larger milk chocolate chunks (6%). This is as far as the innovation goes for today. As far as flavours so far we've spotted Milk chocolate chunk, Choc 'n' Hazelnut and White chocolate chunk. So it comes down to good old fashioned cup of tea appeal, and here I think we've stumbled at the fence. The anticipated biscuit cull that usually accompanies the arrival of steaming mugs of tea failed to materialise. To set the stage the chocolate bits are all very chocolately as one would hope for, but the biscuit part seems to have taken a step back to become a simple foil to the chocolate. The cookie to fair to it probably works best with milk. For the sake of rigour I tried that hoping for a minor revelation. It never came. Ultimately my attention remained un-grabbed, and I think that was due to the in-substantive nature of the biscuit holding all those chunks together. If you like your biscuit to obligingly dissolve in your mouth to expose whatever its payload is then this is for you. I prefer mine to put up a bit more of a fight before succumbing to the the molars of inevitability.

Cadbury's Fingers
Tuesday 6 Sep 2005
	About time too, I'm sure many of you are thinking as you spy this weeks biscuit, the Cadbury's Finger. How has such a classic remained un-reviewed for so long? Explain your self Nicey, and make it good. Well the first thing I would like to trot out by way of defence is that I was brought up to view the Cadbury's Finger as some form of decadent luxury item. There were so many things about it which elevated to the level of oppulent living. To begin with, it came in a box, with little compartments to hold a couple of bunches of fingers. When all other biscuits in my universe at the time were wrapped in cellophane, possibly with a bit of cardboard in there for support, the Cadbury Finger seemed very grand. I felt Cadbury's Finger moved in the same social circles as the After Eight Mint, even turning up at some the same events such as Boxing Day tea with the turkey sandwiches and mince pies. Then there was its crowning glory and simulataneous strength and weakness, an entire and seemless coat of Cadbury's chocolate. Of course this made it an object of sweet desire. However, in the wrong hands, typically anybody under the age of ten, it could be used as an object of destruction. In this case the destruction of clean clothes, upholstery, carpets and so on. In a competitive envirnment such as a plate of them at a birthday party, things were actually fairly safe as it was imperative to all taking part that the chocolate fingers were scoffed in record time. This was to ensure your fair quota. In slightly less pressured environments, such as being a bit spoiled by one of your Aunties, things could get a bit messy. One could experiment with techniques for chocolate removal safely going unoticed in cacophony of gossip. Nibbling, licking and slurping all resulted in some form of unwelcome post biscuit personal cleansing. Frequently taking the form of a damp dish cloth in the face. So oddly I've never really spent my adult life buying Cadbury's fingers, but not because I don't like them. Probably more to do with not having sufficiently auspicious tea drinking occasions to merit their appearence. Also melted chocolate plays havoc with ones keyboard. When I bought the review pack I had quite a time tracking them down, due to their spawning of several subspecies. There are now giant fingers, mini fingers, white chocolate fingers, caramel, crunchy fingers and combinations of said. I wanted proper straight forward original ones, which I eventually found. My suspicions were aroused immediately by the box, which was a long rectangular affair rather than the squarish ones of old. Inside the sheet of shiny dark brown paper over the top of the compartments, is no longer to be found. What we do find is that today's Cadburys finger is a much smaller affair than its forbear, hence the different shaped box. Perhaps the effort of giving birth to giant and mini ones has left it stunted. Now this could simply be the Wagonwheel effect at work but I'm sure that they are genuinely smaller. However, they still seem to taste the same which was a welcome relief. The pale biscuit core quietly goes about its business, providing a crunchy vehicle on which the chocolate can ride. Its always known its place and doesn't attempt to interfere with the flavour of Cadbury's chocolate. However, the role of the biscuit shouldn't be downplayed given the number of people who have told us that they like to use theirs as a drinking straw. It begs the question: Which came first, the Aussie Tim Tam slam or British Cadbury Finger Straw? Now to its performance as a finger. Really its main rivals in the finger arena are the Rich Tea finger and the Sponge finger. The rich tea finger is actually very poor when it comes to looking like a finger, and therefore makes a woeful finger substitute. The sponge finger, does much better looking like brutish but sugar frosted fingers. As such it can lend its self to structural duties in desserts and the like. It also does a good job of confounding the whole naive biscuits go soft cakes go hard argument. As for the Cadbury finger its very possibly a bit too slender, however, it can often surpass itself as an integral part of birthday cakes, helping to create wooden forts, pirate ships and even spiders legs. For this alone it deserves our utmost respect and deference.  Your feedback 3 messages

Breton Biscuit Super Review
Monday 22 Aug 2005
	Since the younger members of staff joined the NCOTAASD team our fact finding missions to continental Europe have been somewhat curtailed. This year, however, we felt that their training for such a mission was at an end and it was time to put what they have learnt into action. Where better to aim for than the one place in France where all carefully gathered biscuit information had been pointing to. The Bretagne region, or Brittany as we like to call it. On a previous strike mission we had secured a pack of Galette Bretone, or French butter biscuits which uncharacteristically for France were superb with tea. French contacts in the UK (Mattiew from the 21st Century Fig Fest) had also informed me of the Palet Bretonne, a much thicker bulkier biscuit. So we arrived in Brittany with a simple plan of attack. Find more examples of the Galette Bretonne and track down the Palet Breton in its wild state. Field HQ for NCOTAASD was the northen Breton town of Plouha, where we took up a strategic position just 30 meters from the nearest boulangerie. From here we could make between 2 to 3 daily sorties to stock up on bread, pastries and cakes. Up the hill was a well stocked super market which even had packs of PG Tips, McVities Digestives and Weetabix. Despite coming away with 80 pyramid bags, this removed a huge amount of 'running out of proper tea bags' tension that I had been struggling to overcome. The Bretons identify themselves with other Celtic races, the Scots, Irish, Welsh and Cornish. This gives them noticeably different out look on life to the rest of France. Their Patisseries and Boulangeries all have the local Breton specialities available which appear to be: Far Breton, a rich custard tart with prunes in; Kouign Aman, an impressive butter toffee covered layered pastry; Rice pudding, found in vast bowls on the counter next to the till and Galette Bretonne a la maison. All this stuff was thoroughly tested by the younger members of staff and myself until we were sure what its agenda was. The two supermarkets in Plouha were amply stocked with the biscuits we sought. I adopted a moderately rigourous approach to the Galettes and chose three different packs which seemed to be steeped in Breton baking tradition, and all appear to have been baked in Brittany too. As for the Palets Bretonne Wifey choose them because they came in a nice little wooden chest a picture of a lighthouse on it and starfish stuck on the side. Of course the bonus was that it contained the biscuits I needed to inspect. As we have previously reviewed the Galette Bretonne I'll be brief and note that happily all three test subjects were indeed different. The Tanguy were much as I had experienced before with a sweet egg glaze over a crisp biscuit whose pure butter combines with its sugar to give an almost butterscotch flavour. Indeed the Pleyben the thinnest of the three put me in mind rattling around the bottom of a pack of Butterkist Toffee Popcorn. The French call this sort of stuff 'croustillant' which means crunchy or crusty depending what its finding itself applied to. The third member of the trio made by Mere Poulard (translation: Mother small-Chicken (possibly a Bantam)). Although being glazed by eggs that are apparently 'extra-fresh', being embossed with a little picture of Le Mont St Michel and being packed in a lovely box, these were perhaps my least favourite. They just seemed to lack rustic charm of the other two. However, that said, they still followed same basic recipe of butter, sugar, flour, eggs, a little raising and maybe a drop or two of vanilla essence. With ingredients like that your biscuits are going to be tasty. So to the Palet Bretonne and the first thing of note and seeing how we were just talking about is that the ingredients are fairly much the same for the galettes. The Palets are however about half an inch thick. The best way of describing them is like a very well baked piece of Victoria sponge that has ceased to spongy. It has about the same density and possibly flavour although once again the butter contributes greatly to this. As a dunker in warm tea the Palet is going to be quite interesting but in piping hot tea its romantic French construction is going to let it down. All in all we had a very successful tea tour in France, and in our next news letter I'll be going in to depth on the formidable and highly impressive Kouign Amann cake.  Your feedback 2 messages