Is THIS the Best British Biscuit? | Easy English 71

Hello, welcome to Easy English.

Let’s eat biscuits.

In December we made an episode about  how to make the perfect cup of tea

that you can watch up here.

And we missed a vital factor of  enjoying your perfect cup of tea.

The cornerstone to a great  brew is a complimenting biscuit

and thanks to viewer Luis  Franca we will now find out

what the best biscuit is.

So, let’s meet the contestants:

Name:

Milk Chocolate Digestive.

Origin:

Scotland.

Ingredients:

Coarse brown wheat flour and milk chocolate.

Nutrition:

Around 70 calories per biscuit.

Strength:

Ideal width for dunking efficiency.

Weakness:

Risk of crumbs.

Interesting fact:

Digestives have been described by  American travel writer Bill Bryson

as a British Masterpiece. And in 1969  were centre to an argument between

John Lennon and George Harrison  during the recording of the bands

penultimate album Abbey Road.

Yoko Ono reportedly helped herself  to one of George's digestives

causing George to lose his temper.

Name:

Choc-Chip Cookie.

Origin:

US.

Ingredients:

Wheat flour and milk chocolate chips.

Nutrition:

Around 50 calories per biscuit.

Strength:

No melting issues.

Weakness:

Bit small.

Interesting fact:

The chocolate chip cookie was  invented by American chefs

Ruth Graves Wakefield and Sue Brides in 1938.

During WWII, soldiers from Massachusetts  who were stationed overseas

shared the cookies they received  in care packages from back home

with soldiers from other  parts of the United States.

Soon, hundreds of soldiers were  writing home asking their families

to send them some Toll House cookies  and Wakefield was soon inundated

with letters from around the  world requesting her recipe.

Thus began the nationwide craze  for the chocolate chip cookie.

The recipe for the chocolate chip  cookie was brought to the UK in 1956.

Name:

Shortbread.

Origin:

Scotland.

Ingredients:

Wheat flour and butter.

Nutrition:

Around 90 calories per biscuit.

Strength:

Absorption strength. Weakness:

Bit dry.

Interesting fact:

In Scotland, it was traditional to  break a decorated shortbread cake

over the head of a new bride on  the entrance of her new house.

Name:

Custard Cream.

Origin:

England.

Ingredients:

Wheat flour and buttercream (traditionally).

Nutrition:

Around 60 calories per biscuit.

Strength:

Can customise to double up vanilla layer. Weakness:

Unstable design.

Interesting fact:

They usually have an elaborate  baroque design stamped onto them,

originating in the Victorian  era and representing ferns.

Name:

Cadbury’s Fingers.

Origin:

England.

Ingredients:

Wheat flour and milk chocolate.

Nutrition:

Around 30 calories per finger.

Strength:

Cadbury’s chocolate.

Weakness:

Melting issues.

Interesting fact:

Established in Birmingham,  Cadburys is the second largest

confectionary brand after Mars  and even has an amusement park

called Cadburys world. There  are no rollercoasters though.

Name:

Jammie Dodgers.

Origin:

England.

Ingredients:

Wheat flour and raspberry jam.

Nutrition:

Around 80 calories per biscuit.

Strength:

Acceptable kids party biscuit.

Weakness:

Jam in tea? Nah…

Interesting fact:

Named after the character Roger  the Dodger from The Beano comics.

Name:

Milk Chocolate Hobnobs.

Origin:

Scotland.

Ingredients:

Oats and milk chocolate.

Nutrition:

Around 90 calories per biscuit.

Strength:

Great for dunking.

Weakness:

Not enough in a pack.

Interesting fact:

To hobnob or hobnobbing is  defined as spending social time

with people from the higher classes of society.

Name:

Jaffa cakes.

Origin:

England.

Ingredients:

Sponge, chocolate and orange flavoured jam.

Nutrition:

Around 50 calories per biscuit.

Strength:

You’re secretly eating a cake.

Weakness:

It’s not a biscuit.

Interesting fact:

In the United Kingdom, tax is payable  on chocolate-covered biscuits,

but not on cakes.

So McVities defended its  classification of Jaffa Cakes as cakes

as opposed to biscuits even though  they are packaged like biscuits,

and they are marketed like biscuits.  

The court found in favour of McVitie's  and ruled that whilst Jaffa Cakes

had characteristics of both cakes and biscuits,

the product should be considered a cake,

meaning that VAT is not paid  on Jaffa cakes in the UK.

Now, another important  factor is dunking efficiency.

A dippy biscuit is a cultural phenomenon in the UK

and the very last thing you want  is to see is your soggy biscuit

breaking off into your tea under pressure.

Noooooo!

So, I’m going to put all  of our biscuits to the test

and give you a guide on how  long each biscuit can survive,

you can thank me later.

And now we're joined by Isi.

Hello. - She's going to take  a taste test and let you know

which is her favourite biscuit.

Isi, are you ready? - Yes, I got the hard job.

So Isi, you've gone for the Jammy  dodger as your first biscuit.

Thoughts? - Sticky.

It's okay… if you like sweetness, it's good.

And, a bit dry, dry and sticky.

It's not bad. - Out of ten?

Three. Three out of ten.

Thant's pretty bad, okay.

Next biscuit.

So now you've gone for the  Jaffa cake. What do you think?

Do you know it? - I know it,  I know the style. Erm… better.

Erm… I'm not a big fan of this,  because I don't like those…

jelly, marmalade jam combination  with cookies that much.

But it's fresh,

the chocolate on top; never a  bad thing. So, would say six.

It's a cake, nearly.

It's a cake.

Next biscuit.

The Cadbury's finger. - Cadbury's finger.

That's more my style. - Yeah?

Just, plain, nice biscuit dough.  Put over some nice milk chocolate.

Cannot do anything wrong with that. - Out of ten?

Well, it can get better, seven then.

Okay, one more than the Jaffa cake.

Next biscuit.

That one is a Digestive, that one is a Hobnob.

Oh…

Have a good feeling about this.  It looks good. It looks healthy.

Mmm… - Yeah? - Mmm…

Oh… ill it beat the (Cadbury's) finger?

Definitely. - Wow. - I don't  know if I can give a ten yet.

No, or? No.

No, no, eight is good, yeah.  The Hobnob gets an eight.

Next biscuit.

Oh… d'you know what that is? - Something-lemon?

Custard cream, oh custard, okay.

Custard cream.

Mmm… - no, not happy? - I am hap… py… but it doe…

Lets also give it a seven. - Okay.  - It's a good seven, it's okay.

No, six point eight (6.8). - Okay. - Okay.

The… so, what was that? The  Custard cream got a six point eight

out of ten, very specific.

Next biscuit.

The milk chocolate Digestive.

They are just really good.  - Yeah. - Simple. - Yeah.

Good chocolate layer. - Hmm…

So simple, but so good. That's a nine. - A nine?

Hold on, so… 'cos it's very similar to  the Hobnob, which you gave an eight.

But, what's the diff… the difference is no oats…

Maybe it's an eight as well then. -  Okay, so it's a draw for top spot between

The Hobnob and the chocolate  Digestive at the moment. - Yes.

Next biscuit.

D'you know what it is? - A  chocolate chip biscuit? - Exactly.

I tell you what. - Yeah? - The  look; not impressive. - Oh…

First bite; not impressive because, it's  very… sticky as well and you're like,

kinda, eurgh! Getting into an old biscuit.  - It's a bit chewy… almost. - Chewy.

Mmm… nice. - Not nice. - I like  chewy. - I don't like that. - Okay.

But then, you get those…  chocolate chunks that's quite big.

You get into that, and then obviously  chocolate wins and it's quite nice.

Also an eight, I would want to put  those two (Hobnob & Digestive) on nine

and this (Chocolate chip) on eight. Okay so,  the Digestive and the Hobnob have moved up,

to nine out of ten. - I've touched them  all anyway. - The finger stays at seven

and the Choc chip goes to nin…  er… goes to eight. - Last one.

Okay, last biscuit.

I was never a fan of Shortbread. I  always thought it's dry, it's boring.

It looks boring.

And then, my mum, hello mum. - Hello  mum. - Is a big fan of Shortbread.

And we brought her a lot to Germany…  Shortbread, lots of Shortbread.

And then I tried it again because I thought,  there must be something about Shortbread then.

And it's actually really good. - And  are you gonna give it a good score then?

Erm… an eight as well. Because it's…  it tastes not as boring as it looks.

There is a really nice, rich taste  in it, because of all the butter.

Okay, so it sits in the same level  as the chocolate chip cookie, okay.

But wait! We have no ten.  Where's my perfect biscuit?

Yeah well, maybe erm… maybe we missed  it. There's plenty more which people will

probably be annoyed that we didn't include.  I know that my dad would be annoyed

that we didn't include Fig rolls,  which I think are disgusting.

We have a joint winner between the chocolate  Hobnob and the chocolate Digestive.

Thanks for watching this weeks video,

let me know any of your favourite  biscuits that I've missed out

and we'll see you next week, bye.