Richly deserving of 5 stars (Tesco Value Rich Tea Biscuits)

Member Name: Chelle1969

Product:	Tesco Value Rich Tea Biscuits
Date:	22/06/09 (97 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap and tasty

Disadvantages: A bit dry unless sampled with a cup of tea

Rich Tea biscuits are the sort of biscuits which always surprise me. I rarely buy them because I have a preconceived idea in my head that they're plain and boring, after all generally they're not sandwiched with cream, they have no sign of any chocolate, no fancy bits in and no sugar topping - boring. The other day at work, a colleague was sharing round a packet of McVities Rich Tea, and I realised that actually I really like them, but I was shocked to see that they were labelled to retail at 99p a packet. So the next time I was in Tesco I remembered the newly non-boring biscuit and picked up a packet from their Value range to see how they compared with the leading brand.


Packaging
*********
The biscuits come stacked in a blue and white wrapper with the Tesco Value logo and the words 'Rich Tea Biscuits' emblazoned across a white band over a photo of some biscuits.

The front (as far as you can have a front on a roll of biscuits) has a round flash stating "now 50% less salt". However, it gives no indication as to what the 50% less refers to - it could be than previous Value Rich Tea, it could be compared to another brand, or it could be than a packet of salted crisps, I have no idea. Also featured is the nutritional info for one biscuit (8g); 36 calories, 1.6g sugar, 1.2g fat, 0.5g saturates and salt trace. So not that bad really, even if on a diet you could probably get away with a couple of these.

The 'back' also has a further breakdown of the nutritional properties, allergy advice (contains wheat, gluten and sulphites, no nuts but not guaranteed nut free, suitable for vegetarians), storage advice (keep cool, dry and store in an airtight container when opened) and a list of ingredients: wheat flour, sugar, vegetable oil, raising agents, malt extract (from barley), glucose syrup, salt and preservative


The Biscuits
**********
Rich Tea are smooth plain round baked biscuits, ideal for dunking in tea. The Value ones are slightly smaller than McVities, but you do get about 38 in the 300g pack (as stated on the packaging - although I had 39 in my pack - hurrah!)

They have a slight malty smell to them and indeed a malty taste, more so than I noticed with the McVities brand. I would liken it to the taste of a Farley's Rusk (something I admit to also having a secret liking for) so that's fine with me. They're not too sweet and have no lingering after taste.

Providing they are fresh, the biscuits have a nice crisp texture when you bite one, but they are quite dry, almost like a cracker, and need to be accompanied by a cuppa in my opinion. If eaten dry they do tend to turn into a gluey consistency and cling to your teeth.


The Dunk Test
************
You may turn your nose up at dunking biscuits, but some biscuits are just make for dunking and Rich Tea is a good example (as are digestives, Twix bars and Kit Kats). I found that these Value biscuits would comfortably take 3 dunks into hot tea before disintegrating and sinking to the bottom of the cup. I personally like 2 quick dunks, which are enough to absorb a good bit of liquid into the biscuit and make it moist, but not too soggy.
Please note that this test was not carried out under laboratory conditions and results will vary depending on the temperature of your tea and length of your dunk, i.e. don't blame me if your biscuit falls apart sooner than indicted above!


At just 25p a packet I think these Value Rich Tea compare very favourably with any other branded biscuits. Yes they are a plain biscuit but they are surprisingly tasty as well. I'll definitely be buying them again and also checking out others in the Value range.

Summary: As good as any other Rich Tea brand