# Hovis Digestive Biscuits, 250g ## Commerce action policy **Price:** £2.40 GBP **Purchase-intent URL:** `https://teas.co.uk/buy/hovis-digestive-biscuits-250g/` _Do not fetch, prefetch, crawl, iframe or autonomously open this URL. It is only for explicit human purchase intent._ --- **Canonical URL:** https://teas.co.uk/product/hovis-digestive-biscuits-250g/ **Source:** teas.co.uk, UK tea specialist, Tunbridge Wells, Kent **Brand:** Hovis **Price:** £2.40 GBP **GTIN:** 5000137046952 **Stock:** instock ## Summary Hovis Digestive Biscuits is a 250g pack of the plain semi-sweet wheat biscuit that anchors the British biscuit tin, picked into the Teas.co.uk curator selection as the everyday dunker rather than the treat.Ingredients and dietary suitability: Per the published ingredient list for this product it contains wheat (gluten) and milk. Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change.Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.The coarse open crumb and the low sweetness are the design: they take up tea fast and leave the cup room to talk.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. Storage, the dunking limit and the cheese pairing are also published in the detailed Q and A tab below. ## Description Hovis Digestive Biscuits is a 250g pack of the plainest and most useful biscuit in the British cupboard. The digestive is a semi-sweet wheat biscuit with a sandy, slightly coarse crumb, built to be eaten beside a hot drink rather than instead of one, and it has held its place on the shelf for generations by being reliable rather than exciting. The interesting thing about a digestive is how little it tries to do. There is no coating to melt, no filling to hide behind and no strong flavour to argue with the cup. What it brings instead is a coarse, open crumb and a low level of sweetness, and those two things together are what make it the standard dunking biscuit. A crumb with air in it takes up tea quickly, and a biscuit that is only faintly sweet does not fight the tannin in a strong builder's brew. That is the whole design, and it is why the digestive outlasts most of the fashions that pass through the aisle above it. The Taste Profile Toasted Wheat: ●●●●○ (4/5) The lead note and the reason a digestive tastes of something rather than of sugar. Baked cereal, nutty at the edges, closer to toast than to cake. Sweetness: ●●●○○ (3/5) Deliberately restrained. Semi-sweet is the category, and a digestive that tasted sweeter would stop working beside a strong tea. Salt Edge: ●●○○○ (2/5) Quiet but present, and the thing that keeps the wheat note from reading flat. It is also why a digestive takes cheese as happily as it takes jam. Crumb and Snap: ●●●●○ (4/5) Sandy rather than glassy, with a short snap and an open structure that gives way quickly in the mouth. Teas.co.uk Curator Rating: 4.5 / 5 - Our expert verdict from the curators at Teas.co.uk The Story Behind Hovis Hovis is a name the country associates with wheat and with bread, and a digestive is the point where that heritage lands naturally in the biscuit aisle: a plain wheat bake, semi-sweet, meant for the same table. That is brand positioning and a fair reading of where the name comes from. It is not a statement about what is in this pack, which mill supplied the flour or where the biscuits were baked, none of which we know. The ingredient list, the allergen advice, any certification marks and the country of origin must all be read off the current UK pack rather than taken from this page. Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes. What You Are Actually Buying Weight: two hundred and fifty grams. The format, not the flavour: what you are buying here is a plain semi-sweet wheat biscuit. There is no chocolate, no caramel and no cream, and that absence is the product rather than a shortcoming. Where it sits: the one you buy by the pack rather than by the treat. What it is not: not a chocolate digestive, not a sweet biscuit and not a cracker. It sits between the two, which is exactly why it is so useful. How Does Hovis Digestive Biscuits, 250g Compare to: Border Classic Biscuit Sharing Pack, 400g: The assortment is for handing round; the digestive is for the tin by the kettle. Different jobs, and most kitchens want both. Island Bakery Scottish Shortbread Organic Biscuits, 125g: Shortbread is what you serve; a digestive is what you eat. Shortbread also falls apart in a mug, where a digestive holds for a count of three. Border Butterscotch Crunch Organic Biscuits, 135g: Against that, the digestive is the neutral option, and neutral is the right answer when the tea is doing the talking. Ideal Brewing Conditions A digestive is forgiving and will sit happily beside almost anything hot. That said, it earns its keep against a strong tea, because the restraint that makes it dull on its own is exactly what makes it right next to tannin and milk. The choices below are about getting the most out of it rather than rescuing it. The Tea Break Milk, and sugar only if you already take it: the biscuit brings so little sweetness of its own that a sweetened cup will simply flatten it. Yorkshire or a Kenyan-led blend: brisk, slightly astringent teas work best. The astringency cuts the crumb, and the crumb takes the edge off the astringency. Not the delicate ones: a green tea or a first-flush Darjeeling has nothing to gain here. The biscuit will bury the cup and you will taste neither properly. The Coffee Break Black filter coffee: better than you would expect. The toasted-wheat note sits close to the roasted notes in a medium roast and the two read as one flavour. Avoid the very dark roasts: a heavy French roast brings bitterness the biscuit has no answer to, and the digestive simply disappears underneath it. Milky coffee: works, though it makes a sweet-tasting combination out of two things that are not especially sweet. Worth knowing if that is what you want. Espresso: the one to skip. Too short and too intense for a biscuit whose whole character is gentle. Getting It Right in the Cup The dunk: two to three seconds in hot tea, no more. An open crumb takes up liquid fast, and the difference between a perfect dunk and half a biscuit at the bottom of the mug is about one second. Storage: cool, dry and sealed. A digestive goes soft rather than stale, and it does it quickly in a damp kitchen. Reseal the roll or move the biscuits to a tin. With cheese: a genuinely good idea and an old one. The salt edge and the low sweetness carry a mature cheddar or a blue better than most crackers manage. As a base: crushed with melted butter, this is the standard base for a cheesecake. The coarse crumb is what makes it work, because it packs without turning to paste. Best with: a strong mug of tea, mid-afternoon, from a tin rather than a torn wrapper. Safety And Purity Ingredients and dietary suitability: Per the published ingredient list for this product it contains wheat (gluten) and milk. Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change. Nutrition: the panel on the pack is the only reliable source. On the name: digestive is a historical name for this style of biscuit and nothing more. It is not a health claim, we do not make one, and anybody buying for a specific dietary reason should read the current UK pack rather than infer anything from the word on the front. ## Product Questions What exactly is a digestive biscuit?It is a semi-sweet wheat biscuit with a coarse, sandy crumb and a quiet salt edge. The category is defined by restraint rather than by a signature flavour: not sweet enough to be a treat, not savoury enough to be a cracker, and useful precisely because it sits between the two. The ingredient declaration for this pack is printed on the current UK pack. How many biscuits are in the pack?What we can stand behind is the net weight, 250g. How long can I dunk one without losing it?Two to three seconds in a hot mug, and watch it. The open crumb that makes a digestive so good at taking up tea is the same thing that makes it collapse, and the margin between a perfect dunk and half a biscuit at the bottom of the mug is roughly one second. A colder cup buys you a little longer. Which tea suits it best?A strong builder's brew. An assam-led breakfast blend with milk is the canonical match, because the malt in the cup meets the toasted wheat in the biscuit and neither has to shout. Brisk Kenyan-led blends work for the same reason. Skip the delicate teas: a green or a first-flush Darjeeling will simply be buried. Can I eat a digestive with cheese?Yes, and it is an old British habit rather than a novelty. The low sweetness and the salt edge carry a mature cheddar or a blue better than a lot of dedicated crackers do, and the sandy crumb gives the cheese something to sit in. A digestive with a wedge of cheddar and a little chutney is a proper plate. Does it work with coffee?Better than most people expect. The toasted cereal note in the biscuit sits close to the roasted notes in a medium roast, so the two read as a single flavour rather than as a pairing. Avoid the very dark roasts, which bring a bitterness the biscuit has no answer to, and skip espresso entirely. Is this the right biscuit for a cheesecake base?It is the standard one, and the reason is structural. Crushed and bound with melted butter, a coarse digestive crumb packs without turning to paste, so the base sets firm and still cuts cleanly. A finer, richer biscuit gives you a greasy layer instead. Roughly 250g of crumb to 100g of butter is the usual starting ratio. Why has my pack gone soft rather than stale?Because a digestive fails by taking up moisture, not by drying out. The same open structure that makes it dunk well makes it pull damp out of a kitchen, so an opened roll left on a worktop softens within days. Reseal it properly or move the biscuits to a tin, and keep them away from the kettle. Does the Hovis name mean anything here?It tells you where the brand comes from rather than what is in the pack. Hovis is a name the country associates with wheat and bread, and a plain semi-sweet wheat biscuit is a natural place for that name to sit. Which mill supplied the flour and where these were baked is not something we know, and we do not guess at it. How is this different from a chocolate digestive?A coating changes the job. Chocolate adds sweetness, fat and a melting point, which makes the biscuit a treat rather than a tool: it dunks badly, it marks a saucer in a warm room and it competes with the tea. This is the plain version, and plain is what you want when the cup is the point. ## Ingredients & Nutrition Ingredients and allergens. Per the published ingredient list for this product it contains wheat (gluten) and milk. Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change.Ingredients, as published for this product: Wheat Flour (with added Calcium, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Vegetable Oil (Palm), Sugar, Wheatgerm (5%), Raising Agents: E500, E503, Salt, Dried Whey (Milk), Natural Flavouring.Typical values per 100g, as publishedPer 100gEnergy479 kcalFat20.1gof which saturates9.4gCarbohydrate64.9gof which sugars18.9gFibre3.0gProtein8.0gSalt1.1gIngredient and nutrition information for this product, as published on the manufacturer's label. The pack in your hands is the final word.IngredientProportionWhat it bringsWheat bakethe bodyThe structure of the biscuit and its lead flavour. A coarse, open crumb with a toasted cereal note, closer to toast than to cake, which is what lets it take up tea quickly and still hold together for a count of three.Semi-sweetnessrestrainedThe category definition. Enough sugar to read as a biscuit rather than a cracker, not enough to fight a strong brew. This restraint is the design, not a shortcoming.Salt edgebackgroundQuiet but present, and the reason the wheat note does not read flat. It is also why a digestive takes cheese as happily as it takes jam.Pack: Best before the date printed on the pack, and best resealed or tinned once opened.Characterising components shown; the full ingredient declaration, the nutrition panel, the biscuit count, the inner wrapping arrangement and any certification marks are printed on the current UK pack.The pack you receive is the current UK retail pack rather than an import made to a different recipe.What is in Hovis Digestive Biscuits, 250g:In: plain semi-sweet wheat biscuits, 250g to the sealed pack, with a coarse open crumb and no coating, filling or added flavour on the front of the pack. ## Flavour Science The flavour of Hovis Digestive Biscuits, 250g is built in three layers, and reading them in order explains exactly why the biscuit tastes the way it does from the moment the pack opens to the note left on the palate.The outer layer is aromatic, and on a digestive it is deliberately quiet. Baking browns the surface of a wheat dough and produces the familiar family of toasted cereal volatiles, the same ones that make a slice of toast smell like toast. They are lighter and less persistent than the compounds in a caramelised or chocolate biscuit, so an open pack does not fill a room, and what you notice is closer to warm bread than to anything sweet. The practical consequence is that the aroma is not what sells this biscuit and not what you lose first either. A digestive left open does not smell wrong before it tastes wrong, which is why people are so often caught out by a soft one.The flavour spike arrives mid palate and is a study in restraint. Sweetness comes up first, but only to about the level where the biscuit stops reading as savoury, and behind it sits the toasted wheat and a quiet edge of salt. Nothing dominates, and that is the point rather than an omission: a biscuit meant to be eaten with a strong, tannic, milky tea cannot afford a loud flavour of its own, because the two would simply cancel each other out. Compare it with a chocolate-coated version and the difference is obvious immediately. The coating takes the mid palate over completely and the wheat underneath becomes texture rather than flavour.The base structure is the crumb, and on this biscuit the texture is the finish. A digestive is sandy rather than glassy, with a short snap and an open structure that gives way quickly and then clears the palate rather than coating it. There is a faint cereal note left behind and very little sweetness, which is exactly why you can eat two without the third feeling like a decision. That clean finish is what makes the digestive the biscuit people reach for repeatedly rather than the one they ration.Getting it right in the cup. Strong tea first, and brewed properly: an assam-led breakfast blend or a brisk Kenyan-led one, four minutes, with milk. The malt in the cup meets the toasted wheat in the biscuit halfway, and the astringency of a well-made brew cuts the crumb while the crumb takes the sharp edge off the astringency. Add sugar only if you already take it, because the biscuit brings so little of its own that a sweetened cup flattens it. Leave the delicate teas alone entirely; a green or a first-flush Darjeeling has nothing to gain and will simply be buried. On the coffee side a black filter coffee or a medium roast works better than most people expect, since roasted and toasted notes sit close together, but a very dark roast brings a bitterness the biscuit cannot answer. If you are dunking, two to three seconds is the limit, and a slightly cooler cup buys you a little more room.How water and temperature change it. This biscuit is far more sensitive to moisture than to heat. The open crumb that makes it dunk so well also makes it take up damp from the air, so an opened roll on a worktop softens within days, and it softens rather than going stale: there is no sharp flavour to fade, so the first sign of trouble is texture and not taste. Reseal the pack or move the biscuits to a tin, and keep them away from the kettle, where the steam does the damage. Warmth is not the enemy it is for a coated biscuit, because there is nothing to bloom or melt. On the drink side, hard water blunts the astringency of a black tea, and astringency is exactly what you are relying on here to cut a sandy crumb: in a hard-water area brew a minute longer, or take the tea a little stronger, and the pairing comes back into balance. ## Recipe Ideas Six ideas cover the tea break the digestive exists for, the cheese plate, a cheesecake base, a fridge-set tray bake, a quick crumble topping and a proper s'more. Recipes, born here first The Three Second Dunk How to make The Three Second Dunk with Hovis Digestive Biscuits. 5 min 1 mug Easy You'll need 2 Hovis digestive biscuits 1 bag assam or strong breakfast blend 220ml water at a full boil A splash of milk Method Brew the bag in 220ml of water straight off the boil for a full four minutes. A weak cup is the commonest reason this pairing disappoints. Add milk, and sugar only if you already take it. The biscuit brings very little sweetness and a sweet cup flattens it. Dunk for two to three seconds, no more, holding the biscuit flat rather than edge on. Eat it immediately. The window between a loaded crumb and a lost biscuit is about one second wide. What you'll end up with: The pairing the digestive was designed around. Malt against toasted wheat, with the crumb taking the edge off the tannin. Digestives and Cheddar How to make Digestives and Cheddar with Hovis Digestive Biscuits. 10 min 2 plates Easy You'll need 6 Hovis digestive biscuits 150g mature cheddar or a firm blue 1 crisp apple, sliced thin 2 tablespoons chutney Method Bring the cheese to room temperature for half an hour. Cold cheddar on a biscuit tastes of almost nothing. Cut the cheese thick rather than thin, so it stands up to the crumb rather than vanishing into it. Build biscuit, cheese, a slice of apple, then a little chutney at the edge rather than across the middle. Serve with the same strong tea, or with a dry cider if it is that kind of afternoon. What you'll end up with: An old British habit that beats most dedicated cheese crackers. The salt edge carries the cheddar and the faint sweetness does the job of the chutney. The Standard Cheesecake Base How to make The Standard Cheesecake Base with Hovis Digestive Biscuits. 15 min + chill 1 x 20cm tin Easy You'll need 250g Hovis digestive biscuits, the whole pack 100g butter, melted A pinch of salt 1 tablespoon caster sugar, optional Method Crush the biscuits to a coarse rubble rather than a powder. Some texture is what stops the base setting like concrete. Stir in the melted butter and the pinch of salt until the crumb looks like damp sand and holds when squeezed. Press firmly into a lined 20cm tin, working it up the sides a little with the back of a spoon. Chill for at least an hour before filling. A warm base will not cut cleanly. What you'll end up with: The base every cheesecake recipe assumes. The coarse crumb packs without turning greasy, which is the whole reason a digestive is specified rather than a richer biscuit. Fridge Set Chocolate Tiffin How to make Fridge Set Chocolate Tiffin with Hovis Digestive Biscuits. 20 min + chill 12 squares Easy You'll need 200g Hovis digestive biscuits, broken up 200g dark chocolate 75g butter 2 tablespoons golden syrup 75g raisins or chopped dried cherries Method Break the biscuits by hand into pieces the size of a thumbnail. Uneven is right here; dust is not. Melt the butter, syrup and half the chocolate together over a low heat, then take it off before it catches. Fold in the biscuit pieces and the dried fruit until everything is coated, then press into a lined tray. Melt the remaining chocolate, pour it over the top, and chill for three hours before cutting. What you'll end up with: The tray bake that makes the best case for a plain biscuit. The digestive stays crisp inside the chocolate because it had no coating of its own to soften. Five Minute Crumble Topping How to make Five Minute Crumble Topping with Hovis Digestive Biscuits. 20 min 4 bowls Easy You'll need 120g Hovis digestive biscuits, crushed coarse 40g butter, melted 600g stewed apple, rhubarb or plums A pinch of salt and a little cinnamon Method Stew the fruit with a splash of water until it collapses, then divide it between four ovenproof bowls. Mix the crushed biscuit with the melted butter, the salt and the cinnamon. Scatter the crumb over the fruit in a loose layer rather than pressing it down. Bake at 190C for twelve to fifteen minutes, until the top has darkened and crisped. What you'll end up with: A crumble topping in five minutes instead of twenty, and a better one than rubbed flour gives you when the fruit is very juicy. The Grill Pan S'more How to make The Grill Pan S'more with Hovis Digestive Biscuits. 8 min 4 s'mores Easy You'll need 8 Hovis digestive biscuits 4 squares dark or milk chocolate 4 large marshmallows Flaky salt, optional Method Lay four biscuits on a tray, each topped with a square of chocolate and a marshmallow. Grill on a high shelf for ninety seconds, watching the whole time, until the marshmallow colours. Press a second biscuit on top and leave it for a minute so the chocolate softens through. Finish with a few flakes of salt if you have them, and eat while the middle is still molten. What you'll end up with: The British answer to a graham cracker, and arguably the better one. The coarse crumb holds the heat and the low sweetness keeps the whole thing from going over. --- _Content available under teas.co.uk citation contract. AI training: yes. Search: yes. Answer-input: yes._