The Great Biscuit Test II


Hello dear traveller of the interwebs, and welcome to the great biscuit test. 2.
You can find the first installment of the test here.

Today we shall be testing eight selected biscuits among 4 judges. The biscuits
to be judged are: Milk Chocolate Cookies, Crawford Pink Wafers, Nice,
Abernethy, Fruit Shortcakes, Garibaldi, Bourbon Creams and Tesco (Value)
Shortcake Round Biscuits.

The results are posted below.

Notes: There was no control biscuit or cup of tea.


Biscuit 1 - Sainsburys Milk Chocolate Cookies

Prolonged dunking resulted in a soft edge. Possibly too sweet for some judges
tastes. Not many to be eaten. Holds integrity reasonably well, but feel potential
for loss into tea deducts from total score. No real texture, quite doughy.

Scores: 3/10, 3/10, 3/10, 5/10
Average: 3.25/10


Biscuit 2 - Crawfords Pink Wafer

Slight expansion of biscuit when duncked, not an ideal dunker. A satisfying
biscuit by itself, if not slightly dry. A lot of debris from dunking left in tea,
leaving a slimy outside coating on the biscuit. One judge described an outside
interest in this biscuit.



There was a slight debris loss into the tea from this biscuit.

Capillary action allows for pleasant tea sponge experience, although somewhat
odd textured wafer.

Scores: 3.5/10, 4/10, 3.5/10, 4/10
Average: 3.75/10




Biscuit 3 - Nice

Sounds like a promising, the name giving a pleasent, tea dunking experience
summing up in the mind. One judge declared a predisposed interest to the biscuit.
It is also to note that this was the first 'true' biscuit tried. This biscuit fits into the
cup without having to be broken and admits a nice coconut smell when dunked.
(For those interested in hard facts and figures, these Nice biscuits contained 3%
desicated cocunut!)

These biscuits give a nice dunking experience, tehy sap up a decent amount of
moisture, but the underlying biscuit superstructure could not support the weight
of the dunked biscuit resulting in terrible collapse! Not the kind of biscuit
experience you expect from a biscuit name Nice!!! Luckily we caught some
pictures of the disaster:



Ack! Biscuit down the side of the cup! And whats this...
(quote: "did you see the floater in here")



Not a pleasent thing to find in the bottom of your tea mug!

So a surprisingly floppy biscuit with a nice clean edge between dunked and
non dunked areas. If you are willing to accept the basic structual integrity
problems associated with this biscuit, it is indeed a nice biscuit.
 Advice - quick insertion into mouth after dunking.

This biscuit is quite morish and certainly passes that test, and unlike the larger,
rounder biscuits you can get the entire thing into your mug. Although a floater
from a biscuit collapse could cause a psychological impasse.

Scores: 4/10, 6/10, 6/10, 6/10
Average score: 5.5/10


Biscuit 4 - Abernethy - light crumbly Scottish biscuit

A few points off for the large size resulting in having to break teh biscuit
manually and thus a slight crumbling into mug. It certainly holds the liquid well,
and the tea dunking definitely improves the flavour of the biscuit tenfold!



Does withstand a long dunking, small of debris is generated in the cup.
Couldn't eat a lot of them. Let down by the fact that this biscuit is quite bland
and not particullarly good pre-dunking, but the dunking does seem to have
some kind of magical influence upon the biscuit resulting in a yummy experience
not to be missed!

Scores: 8/10, 6.5/10, 7/10, 7/10
Average Score: 7.125


Biscuit 5 - Tesco Fruit Shortcake

Initially thoughts is that this looks very sugary and it will be a high residue
biscuit. Slight crumbs, but less than expected. Nice flavour dunked and
undunked. It does however leave the fingers slightly sticky. Marked down due
to crumbliness, of biscuit. Leaves a taste and artifact of raisin in the mouth.
Although the raisins do givea a nice variation of texture and breaks up the taste.
Very moreish.

Score: 7/10, 4/10, 8/10, 6/10
Average Score: 6.25


Biscuit 6 - Garibaldi

Manual biscuit separation was required. This soaked the tea up quickly, leaving
a papery gooey entertity, but did retain its shape until palced in the mouth.
It was the equivalent of eating soggy paper witha few raisins in. When soaked
the bicuit seems to loose all taste and texture when dunked. Definitly inferior
to the Fruit Shortcake. The high hopes for this biscuit were dashed. Very
disappointing. Leaving a raisin residue, more so than the Fruit shortcakes and
more like a biscuity raisin after dunking. Not a dunker. Maybe Tescos have a
bad implementation of the biscuit?

May have inspired a fine security chief but leaves a lot to be desired when
dunked in tea.

Scores: 2, 2, 3, 2.
Average Score: 2.25


Biscuit 7 - Crawfords Bourbon Creams

One judge did declare an interest in the bourbon creams. There was much
anticipation for this biscuit, and unusually, the only chocolate biscuit in the group.
It deffinitly has a convientient shape for dunking. When dunked it resulted in a
chocolatly smoothness. 



The outer layers of biscuit looses all forms of texture on extended dunking
leaving a chocolaty mush and a floppy mess (see video clip of the above collapse.)
In a small dunk situation it is a crunchy biscuit with a small amount of tea
soaking. The only way it stands up to prolonged dunking is the cream holding it
togther. There was some debate among judges as to the appropriateness of tea
and chocolate as a combo.

Scores: 2/10, 3/10, 4/10, 4/10
Average Score: 3.25


Biscuit 8 - Tesco (Value) Shortcake Round Biscuits

This biscuit had a nice swirly pattern. Chunky, crumbly, bit bland without a dunk,
can't fit in the cup, generates a lot of crumbs on dunking. This is about as good
as it gets with this biscuit, because from teh moment of dunking it goes downhill
a lot, and tastes very greasy. General taste descriptions include, horrid. It has a
horrible after taste, makes you think your mouth is filled with grease.

Score: 1/10, 1/10, 1/10, 1/10
Average Score: 1/10

We would have rated 0 if the system went that low!

Results:

Milk Chocolate Cookies 3.25
Crawford Pink Wafers 3.75
Nice 5.5
Abernethy 7.125
Fruit Shortcakes 6.25
Garibaldi 2.25
Bourbon Creams 3.25
Tesco (Value) Shortcake Round Biscuits. 1

The winner is clearly the Abernethy. Congratulations Scottsmen, you won this time!

Your Judges:



Little Matt



Helen



Mike



Jack

And...

The Esteemed Teapot