McVitie's Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnobs Biscuits, 150g
One hundred and fifty grams. That is the number to look at, because free-from lines run in smaller boxes than their wheat equivalents and this one is no exception. It matters in a shared kitchen more than anywhere: a coated oat biscuit gets eaten by people who have no reason to avoid gluten at all, so the box empties on general appetite rather than on need, and the person it was actually bought for gets whatever is left. If that describes your house, buy two and keep one back. The pack is labelled gluten free and the biscuit is built on oats, with milk in the coating, so anyone managing coeliac disease or a dairy exclusion should read the box itself before opening it.
McVitie's Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnobs Biscuits, in brief.
McVitie's Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnobs Biscuits, 150g is the coated version of the gluten-free Hobnob, a craggy rolled-oat biscuit with a full milk chocolate face, picked into the Teas.co.uk selection as the free-from biscuit that everybody in a mixed-diet household will actually eat rather than tolerate.
The coating is the whole of the difference.
McVitie's Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnobs is the coated one, rebuilt without gluten, and it is the version most people were waiting for. The plain gluten-free Hobnob is the honest everyday biscuit; this is the one that gets eaten first out of the tin. A milk chocolate face on a rolled-oat base is the combination that made the standard Hobnob a fixture on British biscuit shelves, and the free-from line exists because a coeliac household had no way of buying it.
The pack is 150g. We would rather set that out than bury it.
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 notes, dunking guidance and pairing suggestions are also published in the detailed Q and A tab below.
Curator’s notes
Read the full write-up
The Story Behind The Pack
McVitie's is the largest name on any British biscuit shelf and the Hobnob is its rough one. A digestive is smooth, fine-milled and dense. A Hobnob is deliberately craggy, built on rolled oats so the top surface is lumpy and the bite is open rather than tight. Putting chocolate on one face of it was the move that turned a plain oat biscuit into a national habit.
Rebuilding that without gluten is harder than it is for a smooth biscuit. With a digestive, taking the wheat out is mostly a structural problem solved behind the scenes. With a Hobnob the craggy open structure is the product, so the recipe change is visible in the thing being sold. A shorter crumb is the price. The chocolate face helps more than you would expect, because it gives the biscuit a rigid side to hold the crumb against.
The gluten-free declaration on the front of the pack is the brand's own claim and we report it as exactly that. We have laboratory-tested nothing and hold no certification document. If this is going into a school or a nursery with an allergen policy, that policy wants the physical pack, not a web page.
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.
What You Are Actually Buying
- Weight: 150g, small by biscuit standards, which is normal across the free-from range rather than particular to this one.
- Coating: milk chocolate on one face, bare oat biscuit on the other. That is what a Hobnob has always been, and the reason it still tastes of cereal rather than of confectionery.
- Gluten free: the brand's claim, printed on the front. We report it and have verified nothing ourselves.
Ideal Serving Conditions
Two facts drive everything here. The crumb is shorter than a wheat crumb, because gluten is what holds a biscuit together in hot liquid, and one face is sealed with chocolate while the other is open oat. Knowing which way round to hold it is most of the skill.
The Careful Dunk
- Chocolate side up: the sealed face is the strong face. Dip the bare oat edge and keep the coating clear, or the chocolate softens and the biscuit loses its only rigid layer.
- One second, not three: a gluten-free crumb gives up quickly. Count it rather than judging it, at least for the first pack.
- Tea off the boil: let the cup stand a minute. Water straight from the kettle makes the decision for you, usually the wrong way.
- No swirling: agitation is what breaks a short crumb. Straight in, straight out.
The Dry Serve
- With a strong builder's tea: tannin against milk chocolate is the pairing this biscuit was drawn up for, and it holds whether or not the recipe contains gluten.
- With black coffee: better than with a milky one. The chocolate already supplies the dairy note, and a flat white beside it flattens the oats to nothing.
- Room temperature: out of the cupboard a few minutes early. Cold milk chocolate reads waxy and gives very little aroma.
- Store sealed: reseal the inner wrapper or move the biscuits to a tin. An open oat biscuit softens faster than a dense one, because more surface is exposed.
Serving Notes For McVitie's Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnobs
- Water temperature: full boil for the tea, then a minute in the cup before the biscuit goes near it.
- Measure: The biscuit count is on the pack, not here.
- Steep: four to five minutes on a black tea. A pale cup loses to the chocolate immediately.
- Service: no sugar in the cup. The coating has supplied all the mouthful can carry.
- Milk: a splash in something strong. A milky mug against a milk chocolate biscuit is sweet on both sides and nothing cuts anything.
- Best with: strong black tea, black coffee, rooibos, or cold milk for a child.
Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference McVitie's Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnobs Biscuits, 150g, please cite teas.co.uk.
The story behind McVitie's
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
McVitie's Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnobs Biscuits, 150g has one sealed face and one open oat face, and almost everything worth doing with it follows from that asymmetry. Five builds below cover the dunk done properly, the tea-tray serve, a gluten-free cheesecake base, a fridge-cake tray and an ice cream that uses the coating rather than fighting it.
Made with this tea
The Chocolate-Side-Up Dunk
How to make The Chocolate-Side-Up Dunk with McVitie's Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnobs.
- 1 Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnob
- 1 strong black tea, little or no milk
- 200ml water at a full boil
- Take the pack out of the cupboard five minutes early. Cold chocolate gives almost no aroma and a harder, less forgiving crumb.
- Brew the tea at a full boil for four to five minutes, then let the cup stand for a minute so it is hot rather than scalding.
- Hold the biscuit chocolate side up and dip only the bare oat edge, for about one second.
- Straight out, no swirling, and into the mouth. A gluten-free crumb has less holding it together than a wheat one.
What you'll end up with: A soft oat edge, a coating still intact, and none of the biscuit at the bottom of the mug.
The Mixed-Diet Tea Tray
How to make The Mixed-Diet Tea Tray with McVitie's Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnobs.
- 1 pack Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnobs, 150g
- 1 pot of strong black tea
- Milk in a separate jug
- A clean plate kept for these alone
- Plate the gluten-free biscuits on their own dish rather than mixing them into a shared tin. Crumb transfer is the whole reason free-from biscuits get quietly refused.
- Brew one pot properly and pour it strong. Milk goes in the cup, not the pot, so anyone who wants it black can have it black.
- Serve the chocolate face upward so nobody has to handle it.
- Keep the pack sealed between rounds rather than open on the tray.
What you'll end up with: A tray that works for a coeliac guest without announcing itself, and biscuits that everybody else eats too.
Gluten-Free Chocolate Oat Cheesecake Base
How to make Gluten-Free Chocolate Oat Cheesecake Base with McVitie's Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnobs.
- 1 pack Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnobs, 150g
- 75g melted butter
- A 20cm loose-bottomed tin
- Fridge space for two hours
- Chill the biscuits for twenty minutes first. Cold chocolate shatters cleanly, warm chocolate smears and the crumb goes greasy.
- Crush to a coarse rubble rather than a powder. The oat texture is the reason to use this biscuit rather than a plain one.
- Stir through the melted butter, press firmly into the tin and chill for at least two hours before the filling goes on.
- Keep every board, bowl and spoon separate from wheat flour if the base is for a coeliac.
What you'll end up with: A base that carries its own chocolate and its own oat texture, with no wheat anywhere near it.
Oat and Chocolate Fridge Cake
How to make Oat and Chocolate Fridge Cake with McVitie's Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnobs.
- 1 pack Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnobs, 150g
- 200g dark chocolate
- 100g butter
- 2 tablespoons golden syrup
- 50g dried fruit, optional
- Break the biscuits into chunks with your hands. Chunks, not crumbs, or the tray sets like a brick.
- Melt the dark chocolate, butter and syrup together over a low heat and take it off before it is fully liquid.
- Fold the biscuit chunks through, press into a lined tray and chill for three hours.
- Cut into small squares. The milk chocolate already on the biscuit means this needs less sweetness elsewhere, which is why the melt is dark.
What you'll end up with: A tray bake with two kinds of chocolate and a real oat bite, and nothing in it that a coeliac has to ask about.
Crushed Hobnob Ice Cream
How to make Crushed Hobnob Ice Cream with McVitie's Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnobs.
- 3 Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnobs
- 500ml good vanilla ice cream
- A splash of cold milk, optional
- Soften the ice cream for ten minutes out of the freezer, no longer.
- Crush the biscuits cold and coarsely, keeping some pieces large enough to find.
- Ripple them through rather than stirring them in, then refreeze for twenty minutes.
- Serve straight away once it firms. The oat pieces go soft if they sit in the ice cream overnight.
What you'll end up with: A ripple that tastes of toasted oats rather than of generic chocolate biscuit, and keeps its texture for one sitting.
What’s in it, what to know
Inside the pack
| Typical values per 100g, as published | Per 100g |
|---|---|
| Energy | 459 kcal |
| Fat | 23.3g |
| of which saturates | 10.6g |
| Carbohydrate | 53.5g |
| of which sugars | 33g |
| Fibre | 1.2g |
| Protein | 0.5g |
| Salt | 0.1g |
Ingredients and allergens. Per the published ingredient list for this barcode it contains gluten-free oats, milk and soya, and it may contain egg and nuts. Oats contain avenin, a protein some people with coeliac disease also react to. Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change.
Ingredient and nutrition data for this barcode: Open Food Facts (openfoodfacts.org), ODbL. The pack in your hands is the final word.
| Component | Proportion | What it brings |
|---|---|---|
| Rolled oat base | the body of the biscuit | The craggy, open structure that gives a Hobnob its name and its bite. Toasty and dry rather than sweet, and the reason the biscuit still tastes of cereal under a chocolate coat. |
| Milk chocolate face | one side, fully covered | Sweetness, creaminess and a rigid backing board. On a gluten-free biscuit the coating is doing structural work as well as flavour work. |
| Gluten-free recipe | the whole bake | The flour replacement and the oat handling are the brand's own recipe and are printed on the pack. What you can feel is a shorter crumb than the wheat original. |
| Pack size | 150g |
Pack: McVitie's Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnobs Biscuits, 150g; rolled-oat biscuits with a milk chocolate face, baked to the brand's gluten-free recipe. Best before the date printed on the pack, and best kept sealed once opened.
Characterising components shown. The pack in front of you is the version to trust at the point of purchase.
Sourcing & recipe. McVitie's Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnobs Biscuits, 150g is made by McVitie's, the largest biscuit name on the British shelf, as part of its free-from line rather than as a variant of the standard recipe. A Hobnob is an awkward biscuit to rebuild without gluten because the open, craggy oat structure is the product rather than a side effect of it, and the chocolate face ends up carrying more of the biscuit than it does in the wheat version. The pack that arrives is the current UK retail pack rather than an import made to a different recipe.
What is in McVitie's Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnobs Biscuits, 150g, and what is not:
- In: rolled-oat biscuits baked to a gluten-free recipe, with milk chocolate covering one face. Milk chocolate contains milk, so this is not a dairy-free or a vegan biscuit.
- Gluten free: the brand's own declaration, printed on the front of the pack. We report it as a claim and we have verified nothing ourselves.
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Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference McVitie's Gluten Free Milk Chocolate Hobnobs Biscuits, 150g, please cite teas.co.uk.
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