Least favourite

My workplace supplies biscuits for morning tea

Not all places where I've worked do offer morning tea for staff and one place asked for a financial contribution to cover this civility.

Anyway, I noticed the tearoom near my office had only Shortbread Cream left.

Usually I don't pay attention, because I bring almonds and dates to snack on during the day and find that combination is more appealing than chocolate or cake or most things on offer.

But I got curious and checked the downstairs tearoom and noticed the Shortbread Cream also appeared to be consumed less often. 

(That's a row of them on the left of the plastic tray.)

It led me to research Arnotts and I was surprised this biscuit went on sale in 1908 but I expect palm oil has changed their recipe.

Then I discovered that Kingstons have been around since the 1920s.

I'd always assumed they were a bastardisation of an Anzac biscuit, but it turns out they were around before parliament passed legislation about what can be called an Anzac.

(And Kingstons don't have oats, so I've learned something today.)

The chocolate one doesn't compare to an Oreo, although the look very similar.

If I had to pick one, it might be the Monte Carlo.

Their dry biscuit and addition of a jam-like flavour with the cream gives it more complexity, I think.

Now I think about it, the cream is what makes all of these taste terrible and the biscuits are no good for dipping in a cuppa as they leave a weird oily residue and usually fall apart after two dunks.

Belgian Chocolate Virtuoso

Belgium make great chocolate, so when I saw these biscuits heavily reduced at the supermarket I bought a couple of packs

I'd never seen these before and worried they'd be like a Tim Tam. However, this fear was unfounded.

The chocolate was buttery and without the gritty sweetness that sometimes coats biscuits. There was a hint of praeline.

Biting into it revealed a slender biscuit that was dry and little spicy in a slightly gingerbread sorta way.

Having now finished both packets within a couple of days, I'm disappointed that I didn't buy more.

Coles Custard Creams

When I was a child I had a scented eraser that resembled these biscuits, so maybe I've a sentimental interest in Coles Custard Creams.

Their smell is how I remember that erasers' scent. There's the same ornate design but this biscuit is larger in size.

The Custard Creams' buttery shortbread exterior encases a powder-y cream, which although sweet has something egg-like like custard.

There are two ways to eat this style of biscuit.

The first is to first dip it in tea, usually three times to achieve an optimal balance between saturation and structural integrity.

The second is to split the layers of the biscuit and place each cream-side down on one's tongue.

Arnott's Shapes

Maybe it's a coincidence but I've noticed Arnott's Shapes biscuits being sold at heavily reduced prices lately, down from around $2.70 to around $1.50, and also notice they're shrinking the weight of these products.

Vita-weak

Vita-weat launched a rice cracker earlier this year and, being something of a rice cracker connoisseur, I was curious to see how they compare because the different brands all manage to do something different with the format. My favourite rice cracker is Sakata, especially the wholegrain varieties, but sometimes I like the sweeter brands with their fluffier biscuits, like Fantastic and Trident. However, it would be nice if a company would produce a plain cracker that was actually plain and not covered in salt since I usually dip them in something which also has salt in it.

Anyway, the Vita-weat cracker is quite satisfying. The sesame seeds add a nuttiness and the brown rice has a denseness that seems filling and gives them a very crunchy texture.

As the supermarket reduced the biscuits and then heavily discounted them as they passed their use-by date, I wondered if they hadn't connected with shoppers. They were asking more for Vita-weats than the other rice crackers but the "100% natural" branding suggested they were looking for people who want to pay for good quality. So why not promote being GM free or low GI?

Also I was surprised that Arnott's thought to extend the Vita-weat brand into the rice cracker market. They mightn't spell wheat properly and there seems to be only a minuscule amount of wheat in the rice cracker yet it's enough so they aren't free from gluten. In comparison the original Vita-weat crackers are 85% wheat.

Italian woodfired pizza Shapes

Just noticed we're down to our last pack of Shapes' Italian Woodfired Pizza flavour. These had been reduced and looked like the line wasn't being continued, sadly.



Their flavour was surprisingly complex for a savoury biscuit. They had some of the hyper tomato you taste in the Barbecue Shapes but also green parsley or oregano note in that spot between taste and smell. Then a smokey cheddar sort of finish.