Type | Oat |
---|---|
Place of origin | United Kingdom |
Region or state | Scotland |
Created by | McVitie's |
Main ingredients | Rolled oats |
Hobnobs (sometimes stylized as HobNobs) is the brand name of a commercial biscuit. They are made from rolled oats, are similar to a flapjack-digestive biscuit hybrid, and are among the most popular British and Irish biscuits. McVitie's launched Hobnobs in 1985 and a milk chocolate variant in 1987. [1] The plain variety is manufactured at Tollcross factory in Glasgow, and the chocolate variety is made at the Harlesden factory in north-west London. [2]
They are primarily sold in the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and Ireland but are available in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and several European and Asian countries (e.g. Taiwan, China, and Hong Kong). In Italy they are now marketed as a variety of digestive biscuits, having previously been known as Suncrok. They were also released in Canada in November 2012, made available in Wal-Mart's British modular section in their food aisles. The McVitie's Hobnob is the third-most-popular biscuit in the UK to "dunk" into tea, with its chocolate variant sixth. [3] In 2014 a UK survey declared the Chocolate Hobnob the nation's favourite biscuit. [4]
The commercial recipe for Hobnob biscuits was introduced by McVitie's in the UK in 1985. [5] A best seller, demand for the plain Hobnobs led to the introduction of a chocolate variant in 1987. [5] The biscuit is available in many varieties, including dark chocolate, chocolate orange, and Hobnob bars. Other Hobnobs-branded snacks include a Hobnobs flapjack. Hobnobs contains approx 0.16 g of sodium per biscuit. [6]
The name Hobnob comes from the verb 'to hobnob', which means to spend time being friendly with someone who is important or famous. [7] Channel 4's Secret World of Biscuits programme claims that the name comes from the two words "hob" (suggesting home-cooked on a stove) and "knobbly" referencing the texture. [8]
Plain Hobnobs are made at the Tollcross factory in Glasgow. The chocolate variety is made at the Harlesden factory in north-west London. [9] The basic ingredients for Hobnobs are oats.
The original tagline of the Hobnobs was "one nibble and you're nobbled", [10] and was removed. It has since been brought back, but slightly changed by adding "hob" to the beginning of the last word. [11]
The tagline "Chocolate now has Hobnobs underneath" was used for the introduction in the UK of chocolate Hobnobs.
A cookie or biscuit is a baked snack or dessert that is typically small, flat, and sweet. It usually contains flour, sugar, egg, and some type of oil, fat, or butter. It may include other ingredients such as raisins, oats, chocolate chips, or nuts.
A biscuit, in many English-speaking countries, including Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, India, and South Africa but not Canada or the US, is a flour-based baked and shaped 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. Types of biscuit include biscotti, sandwich biscuits, digestive biscuits, ginger biscuits, shortbread biscuits, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate-coated marshmallow treats, Anzac biscuits, and speculaas.
A digestive biscuit, sometimes described as a sweet-meal biscuit, is a semi-sweet biscuit that originated in Scotland. The digestive was first developed in 1839 by two doctors to aid digestion. The term digestive is derived from the belief that they had antacid properties around the time the biscuit was first introduced due to the use of sodium bicarbonate as an ingredient. Historically, some producers used diastatic malt extract to "digest" some of the starch that existed in flour prior to baking.
Cadbury Dairy Milk is a British brand of milk chocolate manufactured by Cadbury. It was introduced in the United Kingdom in June 1905 and now consists of a number of products. Every product in the Dairy Milk line is made with exclusively milk chocolate. In 1928, Cadbury's introduced the "glass and a half" slogan to accompany the Dairy Milk chocolate bar, to advertise the bar's higher milk content.
United Biscuits (UB) is a British multinational food manufacturer, makers of McVitie's biscuits, Jacob's Cream Crackers, and Twiglets. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. In November 2014, the company was acquired by Yıldız Holding and is now part of Pladis.
McVitie's is a British snack food brand owned by United Biscuits. The name is derived from the original Scottish biscuit maker, McVitie & Price, Ltd., established in 1830 on Rose Street in Edinburgh, Scotland. The company moved to various sites in the city before completing the St. Andrews Biscuit Works factory on Robertson Avenue in the Gorgie district in 1888.
To dunk or to dip a biscuit or some other food, usually baked goods, means to submerge it into a drink, especially tea, coffee, or milk. Dunking releases more flavour from confections by dissolving the sugars, while also softening their texture. Dunking can be used to melt chocolate on biscuits to create a richer flavour.
The Bourbon is a sandwich biscuit consisting of two thin rectangular dark chocolate-flavoured biscuits with a chocolate buttercream filling.
Rich tea is a type of sweet biscuit; the ingredients generally include wheat flour, sugar, vegetable oil and malt extract. Originally called Tea Biscuits, they were developed in the 19th century in Yorkshire, England for the upper classes as a light snack between full-course meals. One of the best-selling biscuits in the British Isles, the biscuit is also popular in Malta and Cyprus. The plain flavour and consistency of rich tea make them particularly suitable for dunking in tea and coffee.
A gingersnap, ginger snap, ginger nut, or ginger biscuit is a biscuit flavoured with ginger. Ginger snaps are flavoured with powdered ginger and a variety of other spices, most commonly cinnamon, molasses and clove. There are many recipes. The brittle ginger nut style is a commercial version of the traditional fairings once made for market fairs now represented only by the Cornish fairing.
A custard cream is a type of sandwich biscuit popular in the British Isles filled with a creamy, custard-flavoured centre.
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The Jacob Fruitfield Food Group is a company that once produced food products in Ireland, but is now mainly a brand for imported foods targeted at the Irish market. It was formed by Fruitfield Foods' acquisition of the Republic of Ireland portion of Jacob's Biscuit Group in 2004 from Groupe Danone. The CEO and part-owner is Michael Carey. Other major shareholders include Lioncourt with a 36% stake.
Charles Edward Price was a Scottish biscuit manufacturer who served as a politician in later life. He served as Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for Edinburgh Central from 1906 to 1918.
Club is a range of chocolate covered biscuits, sold in the Republic of Ireland under the Jacob's brand name and in the United Kingdom under McVitie's.
Pladis Global is a British confectionery and snack foods company encompassing United Biscuits, Ülker, Godiva Chocolatier and DeMet’s Candy Company. It was formed in January 2016 as a subsidiary of Yıldız Holding with its headquarters in London, England. The company operates 24 bakeries in 11 countries and its products reach approximately 4 billion people worldwide in 120 countries across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas.
Sir Alexander Grant, 1st Baronet was a Scottish businessman, biscuit manufacturer and philanthropist. He was managing director of McVitie and Price Ltd., developed the recipe of the McVitie's digestive biscuit, and gave an endowment of £200,000 to help establish the National Library of Scotland.
Crawford's is a brand of biscuits.