From Custard Creams to Jaffa Cakes: My Verdict on British Biscuits 

Here's some Jaffa Cake nerdiness: biscuits go soft when stale, whereas cakes go hard and brittle. Jaffa Cakes go hard and brittle when stale, therefore... 😉

I love how you look at the Malted Milk biscuit multiple times and fail to notice the name written on it! 🤩

A biscuit without tea is like a hug without a squeeze!

Bourbon is not pronounced like the whisky, it’s pronounced bore bonn like the type of vanilla pod that is used to flavour them. If it is a biscuit we dunk, cakes we don’t.

Surely there should be a follow-up video? Same biscuits but with a nice, hot cup of tea.

You definitely need a part 2 of this video including Ginger Nuts, Ginger Creams, Viennese whirls, Cadbury's Chocolate Fingers, Fox's Half-Coated Milk Chocolate Cookies, Penguin, Rocky, Fox's Viennese Raspberry Creams and I'm sure many more!

Was hoping to see ginger nuts on the list,ace with a nice cuppa yorkshire tea.

Bourbon "borb-on" biscuits are my favourite biscuits and Jaffa Cake my favourite cake 😊

I'm a firm believer that everyone is entitled to their own opinion but I have to say, you're objectively wrong about Jaffa Cakes. 😂

Jaffa Cakes are definitely cakes. They are made out of cake batter and they are amazing.

Digestive biscuits with a nice sharp cheddar 👍 Also, chocolate hobnobs are the greatest biscuits. Also also, Peter Kay's bit on dipping biscuits in tea is one of the funniest pieces of comedy!

Nothing can beat a chocolate hob nob or should I say packet of chocolate hob nobs, much as I love many of the others including Biscoff, Jaffa Cakes and all the cream biscuits.

Jaffa cakes are literally my favourite 😂

My fave bikkie, The Mint Viscount. But re the McVitie digestive, their relative neutral flavour makes them great as savoury treats too. Try one buttered, with a slice of cheddar (other cheeses are available 🙂) with a splodge of Branston pickle on top. A great combo.

There's nothing wrong with calling a maryland a cookie , apart from giant cookies you can buy in supermarkets we've always called biscuits biscuits and mary land cookies specifically cookies

“Let’s take a minute for a second “ lmao 😂😂 I’m watching this video from a hospital bed in Spain ( I moved from the uk) the more I watch the more I want a mug of tea!! Totally impossible to get in my situation. It’s killing me.

If you like biscuits with cream filling, Alanna, I think you’d like lemon puffs. They are also traditional, but you don’t see them so much these days. They’re made with puff pastry and filled with lemon cream. They’re delicious.

Rich tea biscuits with tea are the best (sometimes the simplest things are wonderfully rewarding) 😊

Digestive biscuit with Philadelphia cheese on is heaven.

I make it a rule never to trust anyone who doesn't like The Beatles, Monty Python or Jaffa Cakes 😵 At Christmas I eat the whole 'Yard of Jaffa Cakes' that they sell in a long festive box all in one sitting. Truly the food of the Gods 😍

I can demolish a pack of Nice biscuits in one sitting. Who am I kidding, I could demolish any of these.

The custard cream will never be topped, undisputed biscuit GOAT

A rule I heard for 'is it a biscuit or a cake?' Biscuits go soft when they become stale whereas cakes go hard when they become stale. A Jaffa cake becomes hard when it goes stale so it's a cake. 😉

Try some mature cheddar with the digestive. A company named 'BORDER' makes ginger biscuits covered in dark chocolate, amazing.

Alanna your videos are such a vibe!! I will know what biscuits to try when I move to London!

Jaffa Cakes, if you leave a biscuit and a cake out in the open, a cake will go hard, and a biscuit will go soft, a Jaffa will go hard, that's how they won there case ❤️✌️

Bourbons all the way. Also, Digestives with Brie, Camembert, Stilton, strong Cheddar, absolutely delicious.

I once went on a factory tour at Fox’s a billion years ago. Best day ever.

I have to say, we do biscuits very, VERY well in this country. I would happily eat every single one of the ones you tried. - Chocolate HobNobs are loved by everybody. They weren't around when I was growing up, but they just work - have never tried the Biscoff creams, but will deffo give them a go - Custard Creams are so sweet, but they are also SO nostalgic that I still love them - those raspberry cream ones are delicious. I prefer Happy Faces, which are similar, but have cream and jam! - Jaffa Cakes are a cake, because as they age, they dry out and become like rock (just like any other cake). When biscuits age, they go soft - glad your partner corrected you on the pronunciation of Nice biscuits! - the only classic one you didn't try was Rich Tea biscuits, but on their own without a cuppa they are dry as hell - my favourite-ever biscuit (which you can't buy anymore) were Gypsy Creams. They were like Bourbons crossed with the Fox Crunch Creams - rich but not sickly, bags of flavour, delicious!

Having lived in the UK for 20 years, you sure made my mouth water today

I love your videos Alanna, thank you for sharing! I've been binging your content recently because I'm planning on going to school in the UK and your videos really feed my excitement.

We used to have a 'tuck shop' at school in the morning break, and Jammie Dodgers were a penny each (1d - an old penny!), and also Wagon Wheels, and I swear they were both 10 times bigger than the latest ones!!

Alanna, you're way too polite, Maryland Cookies are a one hit job, all in at once!!😂😂

Oh! Sorry for the second comment, but Biscoff is Belgian, not British. We have a bit of an addiction to them here (and they're accidentally vegan, so the British vegan community went NUTS for them when they first came out over here about a decade ago). If you mix the Biscoff spread with vanilla buttercream icing and whack it in the freezer overnight, you can chop it into slices and it's a delicious quick and easy dessert. Although it is VERY sweet so I've only ever been able to eat tiny slices of it. My friend does the same with peanut butter instead of biscoff, and you can also chop up chocolate bars or whatever and mix it in. The Caramilk bar works well for it. Num num num.

Rule of thumb if it goes soft when uncovered and left out, biscuit, if it goes hard, it's a ckae, therefore Jaffa cakes are a cake.

Shortbread with Malted Milk written on them 😮 Must be a collectors piece.😊

Hey Alanna - many years ago, when the Maryland Chocolate Chip cookies first arrived in the UK, they were much bigger, much more 'rugged' and were almost kind of dome-shaped. Sadly, I think they have been a victim of the insidious trend for making the product smaller/less substantial while maintaining the same price. Oh, and I can totally vouch for your sponsor - I've slept on an Emma mattress for the last couple of years and it is AMAZING.

Hi Alanna, fun video! Now I'll have to look for some of those British biscuits! Thank you for sharing, take really good care, stay well! Lots of love Kathy x 🌷🌸🌺🌼🌻(Ontario, Canada)

Hey as an Englishman the more I watch this young lady the more I think she has such a British personality and humour! Uncanny? She is wonderful, hey she would be good on a night out with my granddaughters. Keep smiling!

Alanna: "let's take a minute for a second." Me: "this lady knows her biscuits but seems a bit confused about the passage of time."

who else thought that was a long time, when she said the Hobnobs lasted a couple of DAYS,

Great video Alanna! Can't have a biscuit without a nice cuppa. I am a big fan of a ginger nut :-)

Oooo !, a bit of a biscuit feast this week Alanna , love it. In my opinion a biscuit that makes a good "Dunker" is always a good choice and any biscuit with a filling is great, that is as long as it's not one of your own that has fallen out bit into it. When it comes to Jaffa cakes I agree with you, they just need to be left in the box. ☕🍪😊

Excellent video Alanna your tasting videos are always entertaining. My favourite biscuit is Hobnubs.

Yum!! Now you have many biscuits to have a cup of tea with. We have the jammidoggers in Canada but I don't think they are called that and they are in with the Peak Freans. My mum said when she was a kid she would take two of them and put them over her eyes and freak her younger siblings out 😆

There's always been debate about which way up you should eat a half-covered chocolate biscuit. Personally, my family, and everyone I know have always eaten them chocolate-side-up, but apparently the official line is that you should eat them with the chocolate side down, so that you get the flavour of the chocolate as it rests on your tongue.

You might enjoy the book Nice Cup Of Tea And A Sit Down. It's about having a sit down with a cup of tea and a biscuit with detailed guides for all three aspects including a run down of all the main biscuits.

The Fox's biscuit factory is near us and the whole town often smells of fresh baked biscuits. Did you know they also make many of the supermarkets own brand biscuits? Oh, and Jaffa Cakes - yum!

chocolate chip cookies are the only biscuits you can legitimately call cookies!

Maryland cookies are quite morish. You open a packet and, before you know it, you've basically inhaled the whole thing. Dangerously tasty.

It is interesting. Many North Americans really dislike the mixture of chocolate and orange flavours. It is often also the case that they dislike sultanas, or dried grapes generally. Very odd. I love both.

From what I've seen online, the closest to digestives in America and Canada are Graham crackers, so take a digestive and put a marshmallow and chocolate on it, and another digestive and microwave it, you have the British version of smores. I know Bourbon in America is pronounced like berbon but bourbon creams are pronounced like borbon. Nice biscuits are pronounced like the place in France, as the story is that Queen Victoria went to the town in France and a baker there made the biscuits for her. She liked the so much the biscuits became popular and were named after the town.

Well, that was a real adventure in my life! I began watching and you liked so many biscuits that I was starting to feel that it was downright unfair tha I had to sit here at home and watch one wonderful cookie after another being enjoyed right before my eyes when I had nothing to eat along with them. Alanna I had to put you on hold in the middle of the episode while I walked over to the grocery store and bought my favorite cookie (Walkers plain Scottish shortbreads) so I would not feel left out during the rest of the episode! A nearby supermarket here does carry several shelves of British biscuits including some from McVities and I will soon be examining all of them to see if I come across any on your perfect list that I should take home. Maybe you could post some kind of warning next time you're enjoying a lot of very appealing food. Like Warning, this espisode contains decadent scenes of a woman savouring wonderful food. You may wish to be prepared with some food of your own at hand during the video so you don't become excessively hungry watching such yummy consumption happening right in front of you. Be safe.😊😊😊😊😊❤❤❤

You need a Tunnocks caramel wafer and a Tunnocks tea cake

Nice biscuits are the best for dunking in your tea 💞

My favourite biscuit is a chilled penguin biscuit with a corner bitten off on opposite corners and hot coffee sucked through like a straw then quickly eating bliss !!!

I ordered some McVitty's Digestive Biscuits after watching how they're made on Inside the Factory. Delicious! 🍪🇬🇧

Where's your cuppa???

You hugging those cookies, errr biscuits 🥰 Also, you are kind of getting good with the advertising thing 😆👍

McVities Difedtives make the perfect cheesecake base ....300g finely crushed , 80g melted butter , 1 tablespoon runny honey

Bourbons are definitely better than custard creams, because of the chocolate flavour. Also: How could you?!? Jaffa cakes are brilliant! I thought you were becoming one of us, but if you reject Jaffa Cakes, I really don’t know.

The chocolate hobnob, the king of biscuits. Loved the video👍🏻

Fun as always. I’m a bit of a Ginger Nut, nut. With you on the Fox’s Crunch Creams and Jaffa Cakes. Fox is sort of a hug in biscuit form, while Jaffa Cake is sort of a hug you wished hadn’t happened.

@adventuresandnaps there are loads more that need testing...Ginger nuts, garibaldi, fruit shortcake, rich tea, Lincoln, party rings etc!! Need a part 2!

So many biscuits! I’d eat them all except the Nice! Like most biscuits, Chocolate Malted Milks are better than the plain ones 😂 Fave has got to be the Custard Cream! I’m probably gonna have to go buy some now lol

Biscoff aren’t British but they’re the best biscuit by a country mile, also love a custard cream, and digestive and malted with tea! Your correct now I’m hungry

British biscuits. Design with a cup of tea in mind. Every biscuit has a definite CRUNCH.

In the past, I have had some of the Choc Chip Cookies, ginger nuts, Rich Tea (with a cup of tea), Custard cream, bourbon, pink waver, viscount, Jaffa cakes (definitely a cake), fondent fancies, but lately I have a cuppa and just that on its own, I'm having problems with my throat. Btw, seven years! Where's the time gone, wow, nice to see you are ok and still making videos. Stay safe and well.

Jaffa cakes by mcvitties 😘😘😘

The fox's jam and cream are lovely and at 79p a packet in sainsburys very affordable if you eat them all very quickly 😂

13:29 "Let's just take a minute for a second" 🤣

My favourite biscuits - ginger nuts, digestive with a mature cheese, and fig rolls. There was a great tv advertisement yonks ago with the ditty: a drink's too wet without one. It was for McVitie's Rich Tea biscuits

My fav is a fox's butter crinkle crunch. So good. Also can't beat a rocky bar.

yay! you brought your rating system back! :P hehe, also, you hit the pinnacle with crunch creams! keep up the good work canadianado, big love to all people :)

Always enjoy your posts Alanna. My favourite biscuits are plain chocolate digestives. There are soo many tempting biccies though it's so tough to choose! Also, I always enjoy your rather random but always fun scoring system...😂👍

They all look so delicious!

C is for cookie. My favourites are Dare Lemon Creme and Golden Oreos. President's Choice used to have Peanut Butter Persuasion cookies which were amazing. I've seen Biscoff at Dollar Tree and also heard the Tesco Malted Milk were a good substitute for graham crackers.

I agree. Plain digestive are a tad bland but I love them with either cheese spread on ,or real peanut butter ( not the cheap stuff with palm oil in)

I enjoy shortbread biscuits, but my favourite BY MILES is Tesco Finest Triple Chocolate Shortbread (4 Pack). If you haven't tried them yet, they will blow your mind!!!

Love a Jaffa cake, but I also love a M&S biscuit. The round one covered with the thick Choc and a whole in the middle. Almond thins are also good. I love all biscuits

Hi Alanna, love all the biscuits there. The first two biscuits look a lot like biscuits here in Australia, though they have different brand names here. My favourite biscuit would have to be Arnott's creamy chocolate, though they are quite difficult to find regularly here in Melbourne. Arnott's Creamy Chocolate biscuits are more readily available up in Sydney and they can easily be eaten by the barrel load!!! I also like Griffin's Chocolate Thins, which is a New Zealand biscuit. We have the custard cream biscuits here. Absolutely delicious. We also have the circular jam biscuits, but once again under a different brand. The Nice buicuits are also available here as well. We have a Malted Milk biscuit here, though it is quite different to what you have there. Anyway, take care. Rob in Melbourne Australia.

Being of a certain age, reminds me that NICE biscuits were usually kept by grandma in order to serve with sweet sherry when the vicar came. It never occurred to me that the vicar, visiting several parishioners in one afternoon, might have an alcohol problem. However life was much simpler before colour television

Crunch creams are my favourite! Theyre so good! I also agree with you on jaffa cakes

There is a proper and safe way to dunk a biscuit and safely bring to the mouth. I’ve noticed you dunk and then lift it up flat side down. Like this 🫓 the weight with the tea in is now pulling down and sure eggs is egg the biscuit will break with the weight in the middle and flop (note the description flop) straight into your tea mug, it’ll splash and you sit there bereft of your full portion of biscuit!!! The approved method of doing the lifting of the biscuit is instead of flat to the table hold it as if you have a wheel in your fingers and rotate it to the upright and carefully move it to the mouth and let the biscuit flop onto the tongue. Easy cream and you’ll have less flops to the mug or table, or with a bigger biscuit - over your hand hitting your sleeve and one half on your trousers and half on the carpet, don’t move you’ll grind it into your carpet Cheers Alana with this safe knowledge happy dunking Hang on you like dunking in bed and I bet you’re over due a big “Flop” on yer pillow. Pink biscuits - I bet a pink biscuit in your minds eye now go admit it Cheers Aah Kid

Biscoff CREAMS?! Now that's a game changer! Must try it! I recently had a huge Biscoff cookie in Utah that was filled with Biscoff cookie butter and had white chocolate chips in it. It was AMAZING!

Ah, Alanna, what a great vlog featuring such iconic choices! McVitie's Digestive - warm and cuddly, for all its relative dullness; try it with tea, but it's also good with coffee, I reckon. (Dove's Farm Organic Digestives are worth trying to compare.) Maryland cookies - that's what it says on the packet, so don't apologise for calling them that! Tesco Shortbread - not a patch on proper Scottish shortbread, but good with coffee nonetheless. Custard creams - stuff of my childhood, and I'll say no more because your summary was spot on. Bourbon creams - I have mixed feelings about those, for there was a time when I disliked them. I don't dislike them now, but I prefer the custard creams. Malted Milk - also the stuff of my childhood, often on the plate at my grandparents' house when biscuits were being offered around, and also in my school lunchbox from time to time. I used to enjoy biting them one letter at a time - "Alted Milk ... Lted Milk ... Ted Milk (etc.)" Fox's Jammie Dodgers - that's essentially what those are, just with a different name. I would say they're a bit sickly to my taste. Nowadays I would rather spread actual jam onto a digestive biscuit. Lotus Biscoff - they weren't a thing when I was growing up either. I've come to them only recently and like them, especially with coffee. In fact, they are very much like the little biscuits you sometimes get with coffee on the Continent - in Italy or Holland, for example. Nice biscuits - another one from the grandparents' biscuit collection, so another aspect of my childhood. The flavour nowadays strikes me as being more chemical than coconut. The Chocolate Hobnob - possibly the only thing better than a plain Hobnob, but you can only take so many in one go. Fox's Crunch Creams - just the thing to elevate your blood sugar after having sampled ten other biscuits beforehand...! Jaffa Cakes - they have been featured on many a biscuit plate (or in many a biscuit tin) so they can count as biscuits if you wish. There are some cafes not far from me that serve chocolate-orange sponge cakes that are not labelled as Jaffa Cakes but might as well be. I don't suppose you'll be trying them, on the basis of your reaction here....

I’m from the US and while in England last year I had Jaffa Cakes. I think they’re awesome!

I literally had those exact Biscoff creme cookies here in Canada this week. Found them at the grocery store with the other cookies. No special section or anything. I polished off the last one just yesterday.

Hobnobs are much more recent than many people think. McVitie's launched Hobnobs in 1985 and a milk chocolate variant in 1987.

Chocolate hobnobs are my elite. I've always been fond of malted milks as well, but I love anything malted so that's that. Am also partial to a Garibaldi and a ginger nut.

love all these biscuits i agree with you on shortbread especially the big tins marks and Spencer sell at Christmas

When I first started working in The Nessie Shop, in Drumnadrochit, Scotland, I was told that the best shortbread is Walkers....always check for a high butter content.

You begin with a cup of tea !

One more comment, Alanna: if you're a biscuit fan, you _have to_ go on a weekend trip to Holland to try their cookies (Dutch: _koekje,_ which I think is where American cookies get their name). They as very different to British biscuits, but amazing! Buy a couple of bagfuls to bring home and also try some fresh _koekjes_ in bakeries too.

If trying shortbread, you must include Duncan’s of Deeside, it’s a purple packet. You can get it in Tesco here in Scotland

When I was in Uni I used to live off of those digestives and Pound Shop tortilla chips.. Favourite biscuits though Gingersnaps/Ginger Nuts.. oh and Jaffas are awesome

I love them all!!!! Mmmmm biscuits! 😁

I was just at a British shop yesterday and now I’m regretting that I didn’t pick up a packet of Fox’s Golden Crunch creams when I was there. I love those! But I did get Dark chocolate covered HobNobs 😋 Love those too.

Digestive biscuits are great when you put some vanilla ice cream between two of them. As far as the Fox's Golden Crunch Creams go, you should be aware they do them in several flavours. You can also get Salted Caramel, Ginger and Double Choc Crunch Creams.

Love traditional ones you had, but my faves are Oreos, hobnobs, Fox's Ambers, Nutella biscuit and Mcvities blissfuls!! Mmmmm so freaking goooood and FULL OF NUTELLA! YUM!!! Yorkshire gold tea I agree is the best!