Rich tea is a type of sweet

biscuit A biscuit is a flour-based baked food item. Biscuits are typically hard, flat, and unleavened. They are usually sweet and may be made with sugar, chocolate, icing, jam, ginger, or cinnamon. They can also be savoury, similar to crackers. ...

; the ingredients generally include

wheat flour Wheat flour is a powder made from the grinding of common wheat used for human consumption. Wheat varieties are called "soft" or "weak" if gluten content is low, and are called "hard" or "strong" if they have high gluten content. Hard flour, or ...

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...

vegetable oil Vegetable oils, or vegetable fats, are oils extracted from seeds or from other parts of edible plants. Like animal fats, vegetable fats are ''mixtures'' of triglycerides. Soybean oil, grape seed oil, and cocoa butter are examples of seed ...

and

malt Malt is any cereal grain that has been made to germinate by soaking in water and then stopped from germinating further by drying with hot air, a process known as "malting". Malted grain is used to make beer, whisky, malted milk, malt vinegar, ...

extract. Originally called Tea Biscuits, they were developed in the 19th century in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

, England for the upper classes as a light snack between full-course meals. One of the best-selling biscuits in the

British Isles The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Outer Hebr ...

, the biscuit is also popular in

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

and Cyprus. The plain flavour and consistency of rich tea make them particularly suitable for dunking in

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of south-western China and nor ...

and

coffee Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...

McVitie's McVitie's () is a British snack food brand owned by United Biscuits. The name is derived from the original Economy of Scotland, Scottish biscuit maker, McVitie & Price, Private company limited by shares, Ltd., established in 1830 on Rose Street ...

has used the brand name "Rich Tea" since 1891 and remains the most well-known manufacturer in the UK. Since 2000, most major

supermarket A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. Strictly speaking, a supermarket is larger and has a wider selecti ...

s sell an own-brand version of the biscuits. They are also sold as a finger variety and, as Rich Tea Creams, a long thin rectangular version with vanilla cream sandwiched between two biscuits (made by Fox's). The Morning Coffee biscuit is rectangular rather than round but is similar to the rich tea. In 2011

Prince William William, Prince of Wales (William Arthur Philip Louis; born 21 June 1982), is the heir apparent to the British throne. He is the elder son of King Charles III and Diana, Princess of Wales. William was born during the reign of his p ...

chose a

groom's cake A groom's cake is a wedding tradition that originated in Victorian England, but is more frequently observed in the American South. While a wedding cake may often be light in texture or color and decorated in white, the groom‘s cake can take a ...

for his wedding reception made from 1,700 McVitie's rich tea biscuits and of chocolate.

References

External links

Review
of biscuit on

Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit Down ''Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit Down'' is a website which mainly discusses tea and biscuits, with content including news and reviews of biscuit brands. It is owned and maintained by Stuart Payne and his wife Jenny Payne, who live in Cambridge, England, ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rich Tea Biscuits British snack foods Yorkshire cuisine

See also

References

External links