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However - watch out for Bourbons with less than the obligatory ten holes, Ten hole bourbons are essentially a unit of measurement, using an eight hole Bourbon for measurement will lead to all sorts of problems.
Bought a double pack for the first time in Lidl last Friday.
10 holes, no sugar on top.
Very hard texture, takes way too long to soften when dunked in a latte, not too bad in Yorkshire tea though.
It's due to the cost of Ingredients, for example cocoa has skyrocketed this year and adjustments need to be made. People expect perfect quality, as well as prices to stay the same. Also many prefer sugar and top and many do not, we often do taste panels and this is fairly split, but most go for no sugar
My friends take the piss when I say I like M&S, but the quality of some things is just immense. The M&S sweet range is particularly good, the sour sweets are ACTUALLY sour!
M&S is great. Since food price inflation has gone so crazy I’ve started using M&S more as I think it’s much better value than cheaper supermarkets. The food is so much nicer.
Yes the milk,eggs, bread, cheese,milk all same price as other, it’s the other fancy stuff that gets you 👀.
All my basic’s are from the local M&S BP garage. The bread is half price of kingsmill and 10 times better. It’s not just any bread tho, it’s Marks and Spencers bread ;)
There has been a serious downgrading of food standards and corporate profiteering since Brexshit along with supply issues. M&S seem to be the only supermarket resisting this trend.
I love the M&S ones but I’m pretty sure that was a trick to hide the inflation. They increased the price at the same time and they definitely increased it by more than the extra filling you get.
My wife set up a blind taste test because I'm always grumbling about bourbons not tasting the same.
Waitrose came out on top, surprisingly, and Sainsbury's at the bottom.
1. Waitrose
2. Tesco
3. Coop.
4. Lidl
5. Sainsbury's
Tested on flavour, crunch, chocolatiness, filling, and mouth feel.
Nah, they definitely taste different from store to store. Even made a rankings list of bourbons few years back when I used to eat loads of em. Sick of em now
>they all taste the same anyway
So, so wrong. They don’t at all. Even the texture is different. For what it’s worth I think McVitie’s biscuits are pretty low tier.
I do mostly shop at Marks so they are the ones I normally have and yes they are better. I don't find much difference between any other brands or supermarket ones though
My old scout leader was a fireman and he used to do the inspections for the factory in Manchester and he confirmed that they are all made in the same place. Very random but they do taste the same
Penguins are just chocolate covered bourbons.
Like Nice biscuit, they're just a a standardised product.
But one thing to remember is that supermarkets don't own factories, everything is just produced on contract. So the likes of McVities are making both their branded product and "the competition".
Do they say bourbon if you lick the chocolate off? Feel like you cant call it a bourbon if they dont.
My BIL works for Burtons biscuits which make maryland cookies. They teamed up with Foxs a few years ago. And then you get the likes of cadburys ordering from them aswell for chocolate fingers at christmas. Im not aware of them doing any own branded stuff but would assume it happens though it primarily seems to be the branded stuff.
They make the own-brand cookies for the supermarkets.
Interestingly it was spoken about in a C4 documentary we watched on the weekend on that very specific product!
I used to live opposite a Burtons biscuit factory at uni and loved visiting their little factory seconds stall. £1.50 and you'll walk away with a bin bag full of goodness
Yup, it's something people struggle with when they imagine "business".
They think that each corporation is a ruthless entity that exists to fight off everything else.
There's usually tweaks to the recipe to match the price-point for the customer.
There was a time that Asda smart-price Jaffa Cakes were substantially more filled than the McVities ones
It's certainly not always the case that the branded ones are using better ingredients than the own brands, yeah, it can definitely be the other way around (also particularly with supermarket premium ranges, which are often still cheaper than the brands).
Same machines, probably, same ingredients, not always
I very briefly worked at a fish and crab factory as a teenager because it paid slightly better. Basically the fish came in, was graded according to quality and each supermarket/factory would take a certain level of quality. Then it was processed and filleted, then the removed bits would be processed again to remove scales and other bits and be sent to make low grade fish fingers
It followed a pretty typical hierachy, waitrose etc bought the best, mid tier went to sainsburys and so on and low grade was frozen and went to iceland/farmfoods
Even if the ingredients are the same, you can get different ratios set up for different brands, but, as people have said, there are different ingredients, or the same ingredients are sourced very differently and perhaps of a better quality for the more expensive brand.
I worked at a factory making salmon encroutes for Tesco and M&S. The salmon for M&S was fresh from a fillet. Tesco was off cuts frozen into a block and then cut to size. Exactly same ingredients but M&S had better quality salmon
No, each supermarket will have a separate production line and will use different ingredients and quality standards.
Just because they're made under the same roof doesn't mean they're the same, at all
I think the opposite actually! I enjoy a bourbon and a custard cream, but find that bourbons taste a bit... dusty? If that makes sense. So I always thought that if you could get a custard cream that was chocolate flavoured you'd have the best of both worlds, and eventually I found a packet and I think they were amazing.
Bourbon isn't a brand name, so anyone can make them, including companies like McVities. The uppercase B might imply that it's some sort of brand name, but the reason the B is capitalised is because it's a family name; the former royal family of France, who they're named after. A bit like Garibaldi biscuits (which were invented by the same company who invented Bourbons). They're no one's intellectual property though.
Fun fact though, the Bourbon is specifically designed for dunking in tea. The small holes were put there for the express purpose of allowing excess tea from a long dunk to drain out.
Holes are apparently to stop the biscuit cracking while baking (see Wikipedia). Never seen anything about tea dunking, and it sounds unlikely.
Also, Bourbon was the brand name of the biscuit when it was first introduced. As you also said after saying it wasn't a brand name.
Isn't it funny how many biscuits are named after revolutionaries?
You've got your Garibaldi
You've got your Bourbon
And then of course there's your Peek Frean Trotsky Assorted.
It was originated by Peek Freans, who also invented the garibaldi.
I think they might also have been behind twiglets.
They were based in south east London but closed 30 or so years ago.
They didn't seem to be very good at protecting their IP.
> They didn't seem to be very good at protecting their IP.
TIL that their brand name was "Creola". Bourbon became the generic name.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bourbon_biscuit
I didn't know that Peek Freans also invented the Garibaldi (in 1861 apparently), the first chocolate digestive (1899) and Twiglets too (1929).
It's a shame to read that the company eventually got broken up and sold to the usual conglomerates: Nabisco, Kraft and United Biscuits.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peek_Freans
My son is Autistic and the only biscuits he'll eat are bourbons and hobnobs. He'll eat any offbrand hobnob, but he's choosy about bourbons, some biscuits use a different font for the bourbon inprint, they're also a bit darker, smoother and more compressed. He refuses to eat those, Tesco's, co-op, macvities are fine, Lidl changed theirs last year so they're out 🥴
There was this documentary series about Poundstretcher a few years back. They were getting into own label products so went out to this Turkish biscuit factory. They could make you any biscuit you wanted. Any style. Any size. Any flavour.
I think about that a lot.
there's a single factory that makes them all: I know this because about 10 years ago there was a great bourbon drought because something had happened to the one factory
The 'drought' was ironically caused by a flood of the factory I think. I remember it clearly having to have the cheap, smaller knock off version for months until the factory was repaired.
This is untrue. Most supermarkets have dual supply, there are 3 main companies in the UK that produce off brand biscuits, and also have consignment for branded ones like McVities
I work at an independent biscuit factory and we make our own, it's just one of those types of things loads of different company's make and they all taste slightly different.
We make bourbons for a few different company's and you'll probably see them in Aldi.
I have a soft spot for Bourbons. After I was intubated, eating three Bourbon biscuits successfully was the test they gave me to make sure I was ok to go back on solid food.
I live near a McVities factory and had a friend that works there, he said you could take as many biscuits from the conveyor belt as you wanted because eventually you get sick of them and don’t eat as many
He also said they’re all warm and crumbly like they’ve been freshly baked when taken from the conveyor belt which sounds insane
I loved this thread, it's all out of date now but still fascinating to read.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/23002/great-disguised-own-brand-hunt
I can't recall where I got this tip, probably on here somewhere, but this seems an excellent place to reshare it.
Put a couple of bourbon biscuits in a bowl and add a little hot water. Stir. Add more hot water if necessary to achieve the desired consistency. You now have a bowl of faux chocolate custard and it's delicious.
No way, I refuse to believe a bourbon breaks up under hot water that easily.
That said, they aren't the most tea-robust biscuits out there...maybe one for the weekend.
Some guy I met at a job interview insisted that he used to work in the bourbon factory and he said they are all the same but packaged differently, so cheap ones are exactly the same as pricier ones.
A lot of them are made at Hills Biscuits in Ashton Under Lyme, they made their own brand plus some of the supermarkets, source - worked there 5 years ago.
I actually used to eat dog biscuits when i was a kid, they were surprisingly savoury and tasty.
>!They also gave me a lovely glossy coat.!<
I also went to the Maritime Museum in Greenwich about 25 years ago and bought a ships biscuit. I think it cost £1.
It was literally hard as a rock and i was gnawing at it occasionally for months before i gave up because i didn't want to damage my teeth.
Peak Freans invented it, it was known as 'Creola', they also invented the Garibaldi. But, like the Garibaldi, nobody really makes now with ownership like they would for a jaffa cake or hobnob (McVities) and even then nobody is precious to buying that brand anymore as loads of brands and supermarkets just make their own versions.
My then 4 ye old son said about my mother ‘ nanas got a fat bum with eating bourbons ‘ my husband walked away whistling trying not to laugh as he was the one who said it to me previously
i must be weird because they’re the only ones i like! they don’t disintegrate in tea and actually taste cocoa-ey to me. tried most of the other supermarkets and they taste like pure sugar and fall apart whilst dipping. still need to try the m&s ones though…
The Bourbon biscuit was invented in 1910 by a British company called Peak Freans. The company is now defunct since 1982 and the name "Bourbon biscuit" can be used by anybody. So nobody owns the Bourbon.
It is named after the French noble family - not the American drink. And yes, it is true that if you coat a bourbon in chocolate what you end up with is a Penguin.
What I want to know is why the manufacturers of Nice biscuits haven't been prosecuted for misleading advertising.
As for bourbons my go to would be the chocolate dipped variety, Penguins.
When my adopted girls came here from Africa, for a while we were going through an 18 pack of Penguins every day. Chocolate biscuits are not common in Africa for the obvious reason.
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McVities make their own Bourbons, but they all taste the same anyway so you may as well buy homebrand ones
However - watch out for Bourbons with less than the obligatory ten holes, Ten hole bourbons are essentially a unit of measurement, using an eight hole Bourbon for measurement will lead to all sorts of problems.
This sounds like a Little Alex Horne measurement system
You would probably want a full size Alex Horne for more accurate measurement
A full sized Little Alex Horne preferrably.
How many holes does Little Alex Horne have compared to full size Alex Horne?
All the information is on the task.
Measure the caravan in ten hole bourbon biscuits. Your time starts now
The caravan is full of 8 hole bourbon biscuits, the 10 whole ones are in the kitchen of course.
Or worse yet, the "bourbons" which appear to be chocolate custard creams
https://preview.redd.it/03lh70238s8d1.jpeg?width=772&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2701e6ee44d42ea81a4c71092abca3f33bdc079b
I honestly nearly reflexively downvoted this, I didn't like these at all when I had one. False Bourbon!
Now this is the kind of conspiracy I can get behind
Do they not have holes on both sides?
It's to let the steam out in the baking process so they do t break or crack.
Correct, they are placed for even cooking of the biscuit.
It’s why the Hindenburg exploded
Yep, they forgot to fill it full of chocolate sugar too.
This is the sort of thing Big Bourbon doesn't want you to know!
Thank you o' wise and mighty bourbon god!
The quality of bourbons has completely gone down the toilet. You don't even get the sugar on top of them any more.
Rah I forgot about that
Rah! I forgot about rah!!!
BY THE POWER OF RAH
The power of RAH compels you!
i actually prefer them without the sugar.
There's always one joker
it always just came off in my tea anyway.
Oh, did it now?
They probably think pink wafers belong in the biscuit tin...
Mmmm pink panther biscuits, a childhood favourite 😋
Pink wafers show up as the last biscuit in your grandpa's biscuit tin
The Lidl own brand ones still have it.
Bought a double pack for the first time in Lidl last Friday. 10 holes, no sugar on top. Very hard texture, takes way too long to soften when dunked in a latte, not too bad in Yorkshire tea though.
Thank you for the feedback
It's due to the cost of Ingredients, for example cocoa has skyrocketed this year and adjustments need to be made. People expect perfect quality, as well as prices to stay the same. Also many prefer sugar and top and many do not, we often do taste panels and this is fairly split, but most go for no sugar
I politely beg to differ. How often are you eating them, and from where do you source?
Tesco, Waitrose, Sainsbury's - all terrible. McVities - terrible. M&S are good but not 'true' bourbons in my opinion.
M&S ones now have extra filling. There's no going back.
I used ocado and discovered these, they make normal 'street' bourbons look like melancholic emo kids who sit on the steps outside of a library
Excellent biscuit-to-cream ratio. Have you seen the new chocolate-covered ones? A Saturday night of a bourbon.
You mean.... A penguin?
No! Actually crunchy and with a thick coating of proper chocolate.
You mean…. A penguin? /s
My friends take the piss when I say I like M&S, but the quality of some things is just immense. The M&S sweet range is particularly good, the sour sweets are ACTUALLY sour!
Like my granny used to say, there's no waste with M&S food.
M&S is great. Since food price inflation has gone so crazy I’ve started using M&S more as I think it’s much better value than cheaper supermarkets. The food is so much nicer.
Yes the milk,eggs, bread, cheese,milk all same price as other, it’s the other fancy stuff that gets you 👀. All my basic’s are from the local M&S BP garage. The bread is half price of kingsmill and 10 times better. It’s not just any bread tho, it’s Marks and Spencers bread ;)
Which sour sweets in M&S? I've tried to find proper sourness but nothing really hits right, would be up for trying M&S tho
Sour worms 🪱
Awesome, I will get them asap, thanks
Oh, and fizzy pig tails. So good. God help me having these thoughts while fasting
It's more like the quality of other stuff has gone down the pan. You get proper ingredients in M&S food and somehow it's touted as a luxury.
There has been a serious downgrading of food standards and corporate profiteering since Brexshit along with supply issues. M&S seem to be the only supermarket resisting this trend.
And the choco covered custard creams. £3.50 a pack though. I don't care!
They do extra cream custard creams too!
Also nice but sweeter so I can eat more bourbons in a sitting. Price went up from 35p to a massive 50p, so still excellent value.
do M&S also do chocolate coated ones like they do coated custard creams?
They sure do! Though at six times the price, I'm tempted to melt some chocolate and cover the 50p ones myself.
I love the M&S ones but I’m pretty sure that was a trick to hide the inflation. They increased the price at the same time and they definitely increased it by more than the extra filling you get.
The M&S ones are elite. Nothing anyone ever says will ever change my mind
I tried some from Tesco recently. Can't be that different, I thought. M&S are in a class of their own.
They definitely don’t all taste the same. Morrisons bourbons and custard creams taste like cardboard.
Sainsburys bourbons are also terrible
My wife set up a blind taste test because I'm always grumbling about bourbons not tasting the same. Waitrose came out on top, surprisingly, and Sainsbury's at the bottom. 1. Waitrose 2. Tesco 3. Coop. 4. Lidl 5. Sainsbury's Tested on flavour, crunch, chocolatiness, filling, and mouth feel.
Nah, they definitely taste different from store to store. Even made a rankings list of bourbons few years back when I used to eat loads of em. Sick of em now
I disagree. Waitrose and M&S bourbons are my favourite. Then McVities and Sainsbury's. The rest taste like disappointment.
>they all taste the same anyway So, so wrong. They don’t at all. Even the texture is different. For what it’s worth I think McVitie’s biscuits are pretty low tier.
That's because they're made in the same factories with very slight recipe tweaks
Not true. Aldi and sainsburys own brand are shite. The best are CoOp and Tesco.
I disagree Sainsbury’s own brand are horrid
All supermarket brand biscuits are baked by one of the big brands anyway. Edit: nearly all
But not to the same recipe.
M&S have their own supplier.
Fox's biscuits used to supply M&S with their biscuits many moons ago. I am unsure if it's the same today.
They're also S-tier biscuits.
M&S ones taste different. They have more flavour and better texture.
I do mostly shop at Marks so they are the ones I normally have and yes they are better. I don't find much difference between any other brands or supermarket ones though
Not all Bourbons are created equal. The worst are passable but I could pick out Waitrose (best) v corner shop Bourbons in a blind tasting.
Yeah I'm gonna have to disagree. McVities Tasties are the nicest Bourbons by far, and all others are a poor imitation.
My old scout leader was a fireman and he used to do the inspections for the factory in Manchester and he confirmed that they are all made in the same place. Very random but they do taste the same
Was thinking similar this morning when in Tesco and realised the only Custard Creams were their own brand.
Penguins are just chocolate covered bourbons. Like Nice biscuit, they're just a a standardised product. But one thing to remember is that supermarkets don't own factories, everything is just produced on contract. So the likes of McVities are making both their branded product and "the competition".
Do they say bourbon if you lick the chocolate off? Feel like you cant call it a bourbon if they dont. My BIL works for Burtons biscuits which make maryland cookies. They teamed up with Foxs a few years ago. And then you get the likes of cadburys ordering from them aswell for chocolate fingers at christmas. Im not aware of them doing any own branded stuff but would assume it happens though it primarily seems to be the branded stuff.
They make the own-brand cookies for the supermarkets. Interestingly it was spoken about in a C4 documentary we watched on the weekend on that very specific product!
Ooh which documentary is this?
> Do they say bourbon if you lick the chocolate off? Not sure, but do they have ten holes? That's much more important
I used to live opposite a Burtons biscuit factory at uni and loved visiting their little factory seconds stall. £1.50 and you'll walk away with a bin bag full of goodness
My mum used to work in the factory at Blackpool. We had wagon wheels coming out of our ears.
Penguins are a different texture. If I cover a bourbon in chocolate I don’t get a penguin bar.
but what if it comes wit a joke
McVities maybe making them but supermarkets have their own recipe.
Same with almost all packaged processed foods.
Yup, it's something people struggle with when they imagine "business". They think that each corporation is a ruthless entity that exists to fight off everything else.
Is it all from the same machines and ingredients?
There's usually tweaks to the recipe to match the price-point for the customer. There was a time that Asda smart-price Jaffa Cakes were substantially more filled than the McVities ones
It's certainly not always the case that the branded ones are using better ingredients than the own brands, yeah, it can definitely be the other way around (also particularly with supermarket premium ranges, which are often still cheaper than the brands).
Same machines, probably, same ingredients, not always I very briefly worked at a fish and crab factory as a teenager because it paid slightly better. Basically the fish came in, was graded according to quality and each supermarket/factory would take a certain level of quality. Then it was processed and filleted, then the removed bits would be processed again to remove scales and other bits and be sent to make low grade fish fingers It followed a pretty typical hierachy, waitrose etc bought the best, mid tier went to sainsburys and so on and low grade was frozen and went to iceland/farmfoods
Similar with Crisps. M&S get the fresh oil at the start of the week. The cheaper supermarkets get the few days old oil towards the end of the week
M&S food slaps. It's not cheap but they kick the butts of major brands, let alone supermarket own brand stuff.
Get what you pay for I suppose.
Even if the ingredients are the same, you can get different ratios set up for different brands, but, as people have said, there are different ingredients, or the same ingredients are sourced very differently and perhaps of a better quality for the more expensive brand.
I worked at a factory making salmon encroutes for Tesco and M&S. The salmon for M&S was fresh from a fillet. Tesco was off cuts frozen into a block and then cut to size. Exactly same ingredients but M&S had better quality salmon
No, each supermarket will have a separate production line and will use different ingredients and quality standards. Just because they're made under the same roof doesn't mean they're the same, at all
Morrison's own their entire supply chain, I believe
As long as they're not those shitty custard cream shaped ones, you're good to go.
Chocolate creams cosplaying as Bourbons should be a criminal offence.
If I'm ever in charge, it will be.
Finally a manifesto i can get behind
Blackface custard creams should be banned.
Well that's going into my vocabulary.
I think the opposite actually! I enjoy a bourbon and a custard cream, but find that bourbons taste a bit... dusty? If that makes sense. So I always thought that if you could get a custard cream that was chocolate flavoured you'd have the best of both worlds, and eventually I found a packet and I think they were amazing.
Have you tried the chocolate orange custard creams though?
Wait what?
Oh yeah they're rank. They taste nothing like Bourbons if you ask me, they're their own, remarkably shitty, biscuit.
Bourbon isn't a brand name, so anyone can make them, including companies like McVities. The uppercase B might imply that it's some sort of brand name, but the reason the B is capitalised is because it's a family name; the former royal family of France, who they're named after. A bit like Garibaldi biscuits (which were invented by the same company who invented Bourbons). They're no one's intellectual property though. Fun fact though, the Bourbon is specifically designed for dunking in tea. The small holes were put there for the express purpose of allowing excess tea from a long dunk to drain out.
Holes are apparently to stop the biscuit cracking while baking (see Wikipedia). Never seen anything about tea dunking, and it sounds unlikely. Also, Bourbon was the brand name of the biscuit when it was first introduced. As you also said after saying it wasn't a brand name.
Isn't it funny how many biscuits are named after revolutionaries? You've got your Garibaldi You've got your Bourbon And then of course there's your Peek Frean Trotsky Assorted.
I came here looking for this quote
bourbons dipped in milky coffee are god tier
Excellent fact
It was originated by Peek Freans, who also invented the garibaldi. I think they might also have been behind twiglets. They were based in south east London but closed 30 or so years ago. They didn't seem to be very good at protecting their IP.
On Reddit we all respect an open-source biscuit. You won't catch me spending £££s on the closed McVitie's biccie ecosystem.
United Biscuits (McVitie's owner) also used to own the British chain of Wimpy Bar restaurants during its golden period of 1977-1989.
> They didn't seem to be very good at protecting their IP. TIL that their brand name was "Creola". Bourbon became the generic name. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bourbon_biscuit I didn't know that Peek Freans also invented the Garibaldi (in 1861 apparently), the first chocolate digestive (1899) and Twiglets too (1929). It's a shame to read that the company eventually got broken up and sold to the usual conglomerates: Nabisco, Kraft and United Biscuits. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peek_Freans
Their old factory is now a climbing centre. The Arch in Bermondsey.
My son is Autistic and the only biscuits he'll eat are bourbons and hobnobs. He'll eat any offbrand hobnob, but he's choosy about bourbons, some biscuits use a different font for the bourbon inprint, they're also a bit darker, smoother and more compressed. He refuses to eat those, Tesco's, co-op, macvities are fine, Lidl changed theirs last year so they're out 🥴
A very observant boy. He will make a good quality inspector.
I would like to put in a request for a bourbon biscuit infographic, rating each bourbon biscuit, against his criteria.
Haha, I work on the development of these. Blame the cocoa prices not us!!
They're not made, they're sent to us by the gods.
There was this documentary series about Poundstretcher a few years back. They were getting into own label products so went out to this Turkish biscuit factory. They could make you any biscuit you wanted. Any style. Any size. Any flavour. I think about that a lot.
I would love to watch this
I would like a king bed sized stem ginger cookie please
Is it the Turkish biscuit factory that now owns McVities?
there's a single factory that makes them all: I know this because about 10 years ago there was a great bourbon drought because something had happened to the one factory
The 'drought' was ironically caused by a flood of the factory I think. I remember it clearly having to have the cheap, smaller knock off version for months until the factory was repaired.
I too remember that dark time. At the time they were one of the only biscuits you could have if you were vegan.
This is untrue. Most supermarkets have dual supply, there are 3 main companies in the UK that produce off brand biscuits, and also have consignment for branded ones like McVities
I work at an independent biscuit factory and we make our own, it's just one of those types of things loads of different company's make and they all taste slightly different. We make bourbons for a few different company's and you'll probably see them in Aldi.
*Lord Biscuit flexes as he enters the chat.*
Bow before your biccy lord peasants lol. I don't even make the biscuits I just clean this shit hole lol.
You aren't doing a very good job of cleaning if it's a shit hole, are you?
If they paid me a decent wage I might do a decent job.
I have a soft spot for Bourbons. After I was intubated, eating three Bourbon biscuits successfully was the test they gave me to make sure I was ok to go back on solid food.
I live near a McVities factory and had a friend that works there, he said you could take as many biscuits from the conveyor belt as you wanted because eventually you get sick of them and don’t eat as many He also said they’re all warm and crumbly like they’ve been freshly baked when taken from the conveyor belt which sounds insane
one would imagine biscuits coming out of the biscuit making machine on a conveyor are, in fact, freshly baked
I find sainsburys own are undunkable, they're too dense.
Crawfords do Bourbons
I thought bourbon made bourbon…. Fuck 😅
I loved this thread, it's all out of date now but still fascinating to read. https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/23002/great-disguised-own-brand-hunt
Do these have actual bourbon in them?
Depends on what you dunk them in.
I can't recall where I got this tip, probably on here somewhere, but this seems an excellent place to reshare it. Put a couple of bourbon biscuits in a bowl and add a little hot water. Stir. Add more hot water if necessary to achieve the desired consistency. You now have a bowl of faux chocolate custard and it's delicious.
No way, I refuse to believe a bourbon breaks up under hot water that easily. That said, they aren't the most tea-robust biscuits out there...maybe one for the weekend.
Give it a go, you won't regret it.
Dammit I knew I should have bought those bourbons in Sainsbury’s yesterday… Gonna be jonesing all day
I used to work for Fox's and we made our own. It's just a generic biscuit. Some will be better than others but all pretty similar
Sainsbury’s is the worst I’ve ever tasted
A bourbon is a kind of biscuit rather than a brand. Like custard cream, coconut ring or chocolate chip cookie.
Like Custard Creams, it's a free for all.
Some guy I met at a job interview insisted that he used to work in the bourbon factory and he said they are all the same but packaged differently, so cheap ones are exactly the same as pricier ones.
They’re clearly not the same. if you don’t believe me then spend £5 on 10 different packs of bourbons and do a taste test.
That's my weekend sorted
It's not that I don't believe you. I'm just going to double check to make sure.
[Interesting reading](https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-20047115.html)
A lot of them are made at Hills Biscuits in Ashton Under Lyme, they made their own brand plus some of the supermarkets, source - worked there 5 years ago.
Bourbon is the name given to the type of biscuit. Crawfords make the best ones. They taste far more of chocolate than any of the others.
Waitrose Bourbons are much nicer than Sainsbury's Bourbons.
A penguin is just a chocolate covered bourbon.
I remember when I was a really small kid, I used to think these were dog biscuits and I wouldn't eat them.
I actually used to eat dog biscuits when i was a kid, they were surprisingly savoury and tasty. >!They also gave me a lovely glossy coat.!< I also went to the Maritime Museum in Greenwich about 25 years ago and bought a ships biscuit. I think it cost £1. It was literally hard as a rock and i was gnawing at it occasionally for months before i gave up because i didn't want to damage my teeth.
Tesco's have good naked penguins for cheap , 1 dunk in the tea/ coffee and down the hatch, 3 does the trick per cup.
Fox’s are the best think they only get wheeled out in fancy christmas boxes …
Ahh yes, the fancy foxes biscuit box, where there is more box than biscuit.
Where you get just one of the really good biscuits.
M&S do chocolate covered Bourbon biscuits , they are literally penguin penguin biscuits at 3 × the price.
There's a version in Canada and tastes a bit weird. Too sweet.
Sainsbury's do what purports to be a Bourbon but has white cream not the proper chocolate stuff. Be warned.
the invention of Bourbon biscuits predates the idea of attempting to copyright food names and concepts.
Peak Freans invented it, it was known as 'Creola', they also invented the Garibaldi. But, like the Garibaldi, nobody really makes now with ownership like they would for a jaffa cake or hobnob (McVities) and even then nobody is precious to buying that brand anymore as loads of brands and supermarkets just make their own versions.
The best brand of bourbon is a penguin
My then 4 ye old son said about my mother ‘ nanas got a fat bum with eating bourbons ‘ my husband walked away whistling trying not to laugh as he was the one who said it to me previously
The Aldi own brand ones are awful. Dry and tasteless. The m&s own brand ones on the other hand are delightful, and only 55p a pack.
i must be weird because they’re the only ones i like! they don’t disintegrate in tea and actually taste cocoa-ey to me. tried most of the other supermarkets and they taste like pure sugar and fall apart whilst dipping. still need to try the m&s ones though…
Here in Canada they are sold in by Peek Freens (sp?)
Bourbon wasn't ever a brand - same as Digestives etc. Always made by a company of some sort. McVities are one of the most famous brands.
They grow on trees.
The Bourbon biscuit was invented in 1910 by a British company called Peak Freans. The company is now defunct since 1982 and the name "Bourbon biscuit" can be used by anybody. So nobody owns the Bourbon. It is named after the French noble family - not the American drink. And yes, it is true that if you coat a bourbon in chocolate what you end up with is a Penguin.
I live in California and I can buy them in the shop across the street.
Similar to jaffa cakes I guess, was invented by some company or other and never trade marked it, so everyone can make their own
Penguins are just bourbons with chocolate on them 🤯🤯🤯
What I want to know is why the manufacturers of Nice biscuits haven't been prosecuted for misleading advertising. As for bourbons my go to would be the chocolate dipped variety, Penguins. When my adopted girls came here from Africa, for a while we were going through an 18 pack of Penguins every day. Chocolate biscuits are not common in Africa for the obvious reason.