Furniss New Wave Cornish Gingerbread With Dark Chocolate Pieces, 200g
Cornwall's biscuit tradition runs ginger at one end and clotted cream at the other. The hard spiced fairing sold at Cornish fairs is the county's oldest baking idea, so a Cornish baker putting out a gingerbread is working inside something rather than borrowing it. Where it surprises people is beside cheese: cut a mature cheddar or a Wensleydale thin and lay it on at the table, the way the north does with parkin. Rooibos suits it better than most expect, its own sweetness sitting under the spice instead of arguing with it. Wheat, dairy and chocolate are all central here, so the pack is where you check.
Furniss New Wave Cornish Gingerbread With Dark Chocolate Pieces, in brief.
Furniss New Wave Cornish Gingerbread With Dark Chocolate Pieces is a 200g pack from a Cornish baker, picked into the Teas.co.uk curator selection for a pairing people still treat as a novelty and which is in fact very old.
Ginger and dark chocolate work because they approach the same job from opposite ends: ginger brings dry resinous heat, dark chocolate brings bitterness and fat, and each gives the other somewhere to go. Milk chocolate would simply sweeten the ginger away. Ginger also reads hotter warm than cold, which makes this the rare biscuit where serving temperature changes the flavour rather than only the texture.
Cornwall has its own biscuit tradition, and it is ginger-led at one end and cream-led at the other. The Cornish fairing, a hard spiced ginger biscuit sold at fairs, is the county's oldest biscuit idea and the reason a Cornish baker making a gingerbread is working inside a tradition rather than borrowing one.
Curator notes: the tasting profile is our own editorial assessment against the current pack format and the brand's published description. We run same-day UK dispatch on every order placed before 2pm Monday to Friday. Dunking, storage and the ginger-and-cheese habit are covered in the Q and A tab below.
Curator’s notes
Read the full write-up
The Story Behind Furniss
Furniss is a Cornish baker and the New Wave range is the modern end of what it does, sitting alongside a Cornish shortbread with clotted cream and another with chocolate chunks. Cornwall's two great biscuit ingredients are clotted cream and ginger, and this pack is the ginger half of that tradition with a modern addition. Again, that is company and regional heritage rather than a statement about this pack's manufacture.
It covers a genuinely wide range, from a hard snapping biscuit at one end to a soft, dark, cake-like bake at the other, and the two eat completely differently. What we can do is explain both, which is what the flavour and serving sections below set out to do, so that whichever you find in the pack you know how to treat it.
The current pack carries all of it.
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.
What You Are Actually Buying
- Weight: two hundred grams, a full pack rather than a portion or a multipack.
- Ginger with dark chocolate pieces: the chocolate is in pieces through the bake rather than coating the outside, so nothing melts onto your hands and the two flavours arrive together rather than in sequence.
- Dark, not milk: stated in the product's own name, and it is the right choice. Milk chocolate against ginger flattens the heat instead of framing it.
Ideal Serving Conditions
Ginger biscuits have one property worth knowing above all others, and it is a chemical one: the compounds that make ginger hot are perceived more strongly when the biscuit is warm, and they fade as it cools. A ginger biscuit eaten straight from a warm kitchen tastes noticeably hotter than the same biscuit from a cold cupboard, and neither is wrong. It is the one biscuit where serving temperature changes the flavour rather than just the texture.
The Serving Rules
- Warm it if you want more heat: a few seconds near a warm oven, or simply a biscuit held in the hand for a minute, lifts the ginger noticeably.
- Dunk if it is the hard kind: a hard ginger biscuit is one of the great dunkers, because the hardness that makes it difficult to bite is exactly what lets it survive four or five seconds in tea.
- Do not dunk if it is the soft kind: a soft gingerbread has no structure to lose and collapses instantly.
- Try it with cheese: ginger and a sharp hard cheese is a genuine northern English habit, and it works here for the same reason ginger and dark chocolate do.
The Storage Rules
- Airtight, whichever kind it is: a hard gingerbread goes soft in the air and a soft one dries out. Both fail, in opposite directions, for the same reason.
- Cool and dark: the chocolate pieces bloom into a pale grey film if the pack is warmed and cooled repeatedly, which is cosmetic rather than spoilage but looks like a fault.
- Away from the kettle: the air above a kettle is the most humid in the house.
- Be careful with the oven refresh: it restores a softened plain biscuit, but the chocolate pieces here will melt. If you try it, use a very low heat and let them cool completely flat and undisturbed.
Getting It Right with a Hot Drink
- Best with: a strong black tea. Ginger and a tannic Assam-style brew is one of the oldest good pairings in British tea drinking.
- Also good with: a plain black coffee, or a rooibos, whose natural sweetness sits under the spice without competing.
- Surprisingly good with: a sharp hard cheese and a glass of something dry, which is a habit worth borrowing from further north.
- Avoid: delicate green and white teas, which the ginger walks straight over.
Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Furniss New Wave Cornish Gingerbread With Dark Chocolate Pieces, 200g, please cite teas.co.uk.
The story behind Furniss
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.
Our commitment to the planet
Sourcing and packaging details are printed on the current UK pack; the brand page carries the fuller story.
The taste profile
How does it compare
This is a spiced biscuit carrying dark chocolate pieces, so the builds below use the ginger where it is strongest and the chocolate where it helps. The cards are the tea pairing, the tin, the warm-hand trick, ginger with cheese, a crumb base for a sharp cheesecake and a rubble over poached fruit.
Made with this tea
Ginger and a Strong Black Tea
Why tannin and pungency do not cancel each other out.
- Furniss Cornish Gingerbread
- A strong Assam-style black tea
- Brew it properly strong. Tannin is astringent and ginger is pungent, so they work on different parts of the mouth.
- Dunk for a count of four, but only if the biscuit is the hard kind.
- If it is soft, eat it dry. There is no structure there to survive a dunk.
What you'll end up with: Ginger heat at the back of the mouth with the tea still tasting of tea.
The Warm-Hand Trick
How to turn the ginger up without changing the biscuit.
- One biscuit
- A warm hand, or a mug to rest it on
- Hold the biscuit, or rest it on the lid of a hot mug, for about a minute.
- Eat it while it is still warm and compare it with one straight from the cupboard.
- The warmth receptors ginger acts on respond more strongly at higher temperatures, so the heat reads noticeably stronger.
What you'll end up with: The same biscuit, measurably hotter, for no effort at all.
Gingerbread and a Sharp Cheese
A northern habit worth borrowing, and the reason it works.
- Gingerbread biscuits
- A sharp hard cheese, mature cheddar or Wensleydale
- Cut the cheese thin. It is there to answer the ginger, not to smother it.
- Assemble at the table, since a moist topping softens a biscuit within minutes.
- Ginger needs something savoury or bitter to push against, which is the same reason the dark chocolate in the bake works.
What you'll end up with: A pairing most people dismiss until they try it once.
Ginger Crumb Base for a Sharp Cheesecake
The classic use for a ginger biscuit, and why lemon or lime belongs on top.
- 200g gingerbread biscuits
- 80g melted butter
- A lemon or lime filling
- Crush to a coarse crumb. The chocolate pieces will stay visible as dark flecks, which is the point.
- Mix with the melted butter and press firmly into a lined tin.
- Chill for an hour before filling.
- Sharp citrus on top, not a sweet filling. Ginger wants acidity above it, not more sugar.
What you'll end up with: A dark spiced base with a sharp filling that cuts through it.
Rubble Over Poached Pears
Using the broken ones on a pudding that suits them.
- 6 broken biscuits
- 4 pears, poached
- Creme fraiche
- Poach the pears until just tender and let them cool a little.
- Crush the biscuits coarsely and scatter over at the last moment.
- Add a spoon of creme fraiche, whose sourness does the same job the cheese does.
- Scatter late. Rubble on a warm pudding softens within a minute or two.
What you'll end up with: A soft pudding with spiced crunch and dark chocolate through it.
What’s in it, what to know
Inside the pack
| Typical values per 100g, as published | Per 100g |
|---|---|
| Energy | 489 kcal |
| Fat | 20.0g |
| of which saturates | 9.4g |
| Carbohydrate | 71.0g |
| of which sugars | 40.0g |
| Protein | 5.0g |
| Salt | 1.0g |
Ingredients and allergens. Per the published ingredient list for this product it contains wheat (gluten), milk and soya. Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change.
Ingredients, as published for this product: Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Sugar, Invert Sugar Syrup, Vegetable Fat (Palm Oil, Rapeseed Oil, Water, Salt, Lemon Juice), Dark Chocolate (11%) (Cocoa Mass, Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Fat-reduced Cocoa Butter, Emulsifier: Soya Lecithin), Rusk (Wheat Flour, Salt, Raising Agent (Ammonium Bicarbonate), Spices (Ginger, Pimento, Cinnamon, Coriander)), Raising Agents (Sodium Bicarbonate, Ammonium Bicarbonate), Crystallised Ginger (1%) (Ginger, Sugar), Butter (Milk), Salt.
Ingredient and nutrition information for this product, as published on the manufacturer's label. The pack in your hands is the final word.
| Component | Proportion | What it brings |
|---|---|---|
| Other spices | Printed on the current pack | No spice beyond ginger is named here. |
Pack: Furniss New Wave Cornish Gingerbread With Dark Chocolate Pieces, 200g; a Cornish gingerbread carrying dark chocolate pieces. Store cool, dark and airtight, and decant into a tin the day you open it. Read the ingredient list, the spice list, the allergen advice, the biscuit count and the best-before date off the current UK pack.
Characterising components shown. The sensory placements describe how ginger and dark chocolate behave together rather than a measured analysis, and they are our own editorial assessment against the current pack format and the brand's published description; we have held no tastings and hold no brand specification sheets.
Sourcing & blend. Furniss New Wave Cornish Gingerbread With Dark Chocolate Pieces, 200g comes from Furniss, a Cornish baker whose New Wave range also includes a shortbread with clotted cream and one with chocolate chunks. Cornwall's two defining biscuit ingredients are clotted cream and ginger, the latter through the Cornish fairing, a hard spiced ginger biscuit sold at fairs and the county's oldest biscuit idea.
What's in Furniss New Wave Cornish Gingerbread With Dark Chocolate Pieces, 200g, and what isn't:
- In: a Cornish gingerbread carrying dark chocolate pieces, in a 200g pack, the full recipe printed on the pack.
- Dark chocolate, stated in the name: in pieces through the bake rather than as a coating, which is why nothing melts onto your hands.
- No health claim: ginger attracts a great deal of loose talk. We claim no benefit of any kind and quote no sugar, fat, fibre or calorie figure.
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Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Furniss New Wave Cornish Gingerbread With Dark Chocolate Pieces, 200g, please cite teas.co.uk.
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