McVitie's Iced Gems Biscuits Multipack, 5 Biscuits 115g
Warmth is not what kills these. Hard-set icing cracks and dissolves rather than melting, so a hot car does far less damage here than it would to anything with chocolate on it. Damp is the enemy instead, and a kitchen that has had a kettle going all morning will turn the icing tacky and the base soft inside a day, which is what five sealed bags are actually for. The other thing worth knowing is that nobody eats these one at a time. A handful is the unit, twenty-three grams is sized to be exactly that, and it is why a loose tub empties far quicker than anyone expects. No dunking, obviously. Wheat in the base, and the allergen advice belongs to the current pack.
McVitie's Iced Gems Biscuits Multipack, in brief.
McVitie's Iced Gems is five sealed bags of tiny iced biscuits, 23g a bag and 115g to the box: a small plain base carrying a piped cone of hard-set icing roughly its own size. Picked into the Teas.co.uk selection as the party-table classic rather than as a tea biscuit, and we would rather say which it is.
The icing leads and the base is a dry counterweight, so brew strong and leave the sugar out, or pour cold milk instead. Do not dunk them: icing dissolves on contact and ends up sweetening the tea.
What an Iced Gem actually is, is a ratio. A small plain biscuit base, about the size of a fingernail, with a piped cone of hard-set icing on top that is close to the same volume as the biscuit underneath it. Almost every other biscuit in this catalogue is a biscuit with something on it. This one is roughly half icing by design, and that single fact explains the texture, the sweetness, the way it behaves in a warm room and why it is the one biscuit here that genuinely does not want to be dunked.
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. Common questions are answered in the detailed Q and A tab below.
Curator’s notes
Read the full write-up
The Story Behind The Pack
Iced Gems are one of the oldest recognisable shapes in British biscuit making and have been a fixture of children's party tables for generations, which is brand heritage rather than a claim about where this box was made or what is in it. The design has barely changed, and that is because it solves a specific problem rather well: a very small biscuit with a very high proportion of icing gives a child something that is mostly sweet, in a piece too small to be a meal, in a format that can be eaten by the handful without becoming a mess.
The five sealed bags matter more here than they do on a larger biscuit, and it is a question of surface area. An Iced Gem is tiny, so the amount of exposed surface for its weight is enormous compared with a digestive or a cookie. Both components suffer for that. A dry biscuit base takes up moisture from a kitchen and loses its crumble within a day or two; hard-set icing takes up moisture too and turns tacky and dull rather than staying matt and brittle. Sealing them in twenty-three gram bags keeps four of them out of the air while the fifth is eaten, which is the practical argument for the multipack over any larger loose pack. The ingredient panel, nutrition table and allergen statement are on the current UK pack.
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.
Our Commitment To The Planet
- The box that arrives is the current UK retail pack rather than an import made to a different recipe for another market.
- Small sealed bags use more material than one large pack, and we would rather say so. On a product this small the sealing is doing real work: an opened bag of gems is stale in days, and stale gems get thrown away.
- Recycling routes for the outer box and the inner bags differ by council and from each other. Read the current UK pack and check locally.
Serving Notes For McVitie's Iced Gems Biscuits Multipack, 5 x 23g
- Water temperature: Full boil, if you are having tea with them at all.
- Measure: One bag per 200ml, one bag of gems per person.
- Steep: Four minutes. A weak cup does nothing against this much sugar.
- Service: Milk optional, sugar absolutely not.
- Dunk: No. The icing goes straight into the mug.
- Iced version: Cold milk rather than iced tea. Fat suppresses sweetness better than cold water does.
- Best with: A strong builders' brew, a glass of cold milk, or nothing at all, which is how most of them get eaten.
Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference McVitie's Iced Gems Biscuits Multipack, 5 Biscuits 115g, 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
This is a high-sugar, low-biscuit item, and that narrows the useful pairings considerably. Anything sweet alongside it compounds; anything delicate is simply overwhelmed. What works is a cup with enough tannin or enough cold fat to reset the palate between handfuls, which in practice means strong plain tea or cold milk and very little else.
The Everyday Mug
The Party Plate Route
Made with this tea
The Strong Mug
How to make The Strong Mug with McVitie's Iced Gems.
- 1 bag strong black tea
- 200ml water at a full boil
- 1 sealed 23g bag of gems
- A splash of milk
- Brew one bag in 200ml straight off the boil for four minutes. Stronger than you think; sugar is what needs cutting.
- Leave the sugar out of the cup entirely. Sweet against sweet does nothing at all.
- Tip the bag into a bowl rather than eating from the packet, which is how they are meant to go.
- Do not dunk. Icing dissolves on contact and ends up sweetening the tea.
The Cold Milk Serve
How to make The Cold Milk Serve with McVitie's Iced Gems.
- 1 tall glass of cold milk
- 1 sealed 23g bag of gems
- Pour the milk straight from the fridge, which is the pairing this kind of party food has always had.
- Eat a few dry first and notice how fast the sweetness peaks and then stops.
- Drink between handfuls. Fat and cold together suppress sweetness more effectively than any hot drink does.
- Finish the bag. There is no reseal on it and an opened bag is dull by tomorrow.
What you'll end up with: The version that actually tastes balanced, and the reason milk is the traditional partner for a party plate.
The Party Bowl
How to make The Party Bowl with McVitie's Iced Gems.
- Up to 5 bags of gems
- A wide shallow bowl
- Opened at the last minute
- Wait until the plate goes down before you open anything. In a warm crowded room the icing turns tacky within the hour.
- Tip into a wide shallow bowl rather than a deep one, so the gems are not crushing each other.
- Open one bag at a time and keep the rest sealed in the box, which is the whole reason the format is portioned.
- Put a jug of cold milk beside it if there are adults in the room.
What you'll end up with: A table that looks right and gems that still crack rather than bend, with nothing left open at the end.
A Gem Edge On A Cake
How to make A Gem Edge On A Cake with McVitie's Iced Gems.
- 1 bag of gems
- 1 iced or buttercream-topped cake
- A palette knife
- Finish the cake first and have the buttercream soft but not wet.
- Press the gems in around the top edge, base first, so the icing cone stays proud and keeps its colour.
- Add them shortly before serving. Left overnight they draw moisture out of the icing underneath and go tacky.
- Keep the cake somewhere cool and dry rather than in the fridge, where condensation will do the same thing faster.
Keeping The Last Bag Good
How to make Keeping The Last Bag Good with McVitie's Iced Gems.
- The unopened bags
- A cool dry cupboard
- Not the shelf above the kettle
- Leave them sealed. There is nothing you can do to an opened bag that beats simply not opening it yet.
- Store cool and dry. Humidity is the enemy here, not heat; there is no coating to melt.
- Watch for dull or tacky icing rather than smelling for staleness. Sight is the reliable test on this product.
- Finish any bag you open the same day, because a gem has far more exposed surface for its weight than a full-size biscuit.
What you'll end up with: A fifth bag that snaps exactly like the first, which is the only thing the sealed format is really for.
What’s in it, what to know
Inside the pack
| Typical values per 100g, as published | Per 100g |
|---|---|
| Energy | 400 kcal |
| Fat | 3g |
| of which saturates | 1.3g |
| Carbohydrate | 86.5g |
| of which sugars | 51.3g |
| Fibre | 2.2g |
| Protein | 4.8g |
| Salt | 0.6g |
Ingredients and allergens. Per the published ingredient list for this barcode it contains wheat (gluten) and milk, and it may contain soya. Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change.
Ingredients, as published for this barcode: sugar, flour (wheat flour, calcium, iron, niacin, thiamin), palm oil, raising agent (sodium bicarbonate), salt, milk protein, colour (anthocyanins), vegetable extracts (safflower, radish), natural flavourings, natural lemon flavouring with other natural flavourings. May also contain soya.
Ingredient and nutrition data for this barcode: Open Food Facts (openfoodfacts.org), ODbL. The pack in your hands is the final word.
| Ingredient | Proportion | What it brings |
|---|---|---|
| Hard-set icing | roughly half the piece | The lead and most of the product. It is set firm rather than soft, so it cracks under the tooth and then dissolves on the tongue rather than melting. This is where the sweetness, the colour and the character all sit. |
| Plain biscuit base | the other half | Deliberately dry and unflavoured. Its job is to be a counterweight to the sugar and to give the piece something to crumble against; if it tasted of much, the balance of the thing would be lost. |
| Piece size | about a fingernail | Small enough to be eaten by the handful, which is the format working as intended, and small enough to have a very high ratio of surface to weight, which is why an opened bag goes stale quickly. |
| Sealed inner bags | 5 x 23g | Four stay shut while the fifth is eaten. On a product this small that matters more than it does on a digestive, because both the base and the icing take up moisture from a kitchen. |
Pack: McVitie's Iced Gems Biscuits Multipack, 5 x 23g; an outer box holding five sealed bags of small iced biscuits. Best before the date printed on the pack, and best left sealed until the bag is wanted.
Sourcing & blend. McVitie's Iced Gems Biscuits Multipack, 5 x 23g is made by McVitie's, one of the best-known names in British biscuit baking, and Iced Gems is among the oldest recognisable shapes in the trade, long established on children's party tables. That is brand heritage rather than a claim about where this box was made or what is in it. The pack you receive is the current UK retail pack rather than an import made to a different recipe for another market. The reading of the piece as roughly half icing by volume, with a deliberately plain base acting as a counterweight, is our own editorial assessment against the current pack format and the brand's published description.
What is in McVitie's Iced Gems Biscuits Multipack, 5 x 23g, and what is not:
- In: five sealed bags of small iced biscuits, 23g a bag and 115g to the box, each piece a plain base under a piped cone of hard-set icing.
- Not really a tea biscuit: it is sugar-led and closer to a confection than to a biscuit you would keep beside a teapot. That is an editorial judgement about the format, and we would rather state it than dress the product up.
- Not a dunker: the icing dissolves on contact with hot liquid and ends up in the mug. This is the clearest case in the range for leaving the tea alone.
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Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference McVitie's Iced Gems Biscuits Multipack, 5 Biscuits 115g, please cite teas.co.uk.
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