Picture the scene. It’s 10am and you’ve spent your first hour at work meticulously sifting through emails. Now it’s time to reward your hard work with a cuppa and a couple of biscuits on the side, what are you going for?
If you’re feeling a bit boring on this dull Wednesday, you could go for a Rich Tea biscuit. They’re simple, yet they get the job done. They’ll keep hunger from the door until lunch time like a good old reliable biscuit should.
Or, if you’re feeling like throwing caution to the wind you could mix it up with a chocolate digestive to give you that little spike of sugar-fuelled energy to see you through a dull morning at the desk.
No matter what your choice would be, today is National Biscuit Day, which means it’s a day to celebrate the diverse range of biscuits we can get our hands on, from Hobnobs to custard creams.
In celebration of the iconic day, CDA has reached out the nation to find out what our favourite biscuit of all time is, and I must warn you, the results may shock you.
The brand surveyed more than 1,000 people and taking the top spot was… the Jaffa Cake.
Yep, I’m just as confused as you are. Don’t get me wrong, the combination of soft cakey base, orange jam and milk chocolate is the stuff dreams are made of, but the clue is in the name. Jaffa Cake, emphasis on the cake, after all, it’s not called a Jaffa Biscuit.
In fact, if we’re going to get all technical about this, it’s worth pointing out that McVities fought to have Jaffa Cakes classified as a cake for tax purposes in 1991. The reason being that if a biscuit is covered in chocolate, it automatically becomes a luxury item and therefore a blanket 20 per cent tax is applied, which doesn’t apply to cakes.
Therefore, it’s pretty inconceivable that the nation has gone the law of the land in voting the Jaffa Cake the UK’s favourite biscuit.
With an impressive 17.8 per cent of the vote it seems like Brits just don’t care because the Jaffa Cake tastes too damn good to adhere to the so-called rules.
In second place is Shortbread, which despite its name, is in fact a biscuit and not a bread, duh. Taking up the third place is the Bourbon, closely followed by the chocolate digestive with custard creams coming in at fifth.
That’s more like it, biscuit lovers of the UK. And after all that, it’s time for another brew, perhaps with a Jaffa Cake or two on the side.
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Emma Rosemurgey is an NCTJ trained Journalist who started her career by producing The Royal Rosemurgey newspaper in 2004, which kept her family up to date with the goings on of her sleepy north east village. She graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in Preston and started her career in regional newspapers before joining Tyla (formerly Pretty 52) in 2017, and progressing onto UNILAD in 2019.