# McVitie's Iced Gems Candy Floss Flavour, 5 Pack 115g ## Commerce action policy **Price:** £2.40 GBP **Purchase-intent URL:** `https://teas.co.uk/buy/mcvities-iced-gems-candy-floss-flavour-5-pack-115g/` _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/mcvities-iced-gems-candy-floss-flavour-5-pack-115g/ **Source:** teas.co.uk, UK tea specialist, Tunbridge Wells, Kent **Brand:** McVitie's **Price:** £2.40 GBP **Stock:** instock ## Summary McVitie's Iced Gems Candy Floss Flavour is five sealed packets of tiny biscuit bases under a hard piped icing swirl.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. Candy floss is sweetness with a light floral lift and no bitterness, acidity or savoury edge behind it, so nothing arrives second. That is why children love it and why one packet is plenty for most adults. Never dunk them.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. ## Description McVitie's Iced Gems Candy Floss Flavour is five sealed packets, and the flavour is the thing worth talking about rather than the format, because candy floss is an unusual thing to build a biscuit around. Most flavours carry an anchor. Chocolate brings bitterness, fruit brings acidity, caramel brings a burnt edge, and all of those give the palate something to push against so that sweetness is part of a structure rather than the whole of it. Candy floss has none. It is sweetness with a light floral top note and nothing bitter, sour or savoury anywhere behind it. That is not a defect, it is what the flavour is, and it explains everything about who likes these and how many they eat at a time. The Taste Profile Candy floss: ●●●●○ (4/5) Sweetness with a light floral lift, and nothing arriving behind it to complicate the picture. Icing swirl: ●●●●○ (4/5) Piped and set hard, so it cracks under the teeth and then dissolves rather than melting. Biscuit base: ●●○○○ (2/5) A small dry disc bringing crunch and no flavour worth naming, which is deliberate. Finish: ●○○○○ (1/5) It stops the moment the icing has gone, leaving a fragment of plain biscuit behind. Teas.co.uk Curator Rating: 4.4 / 5 - Our expert verdict from the curators at Teas.co.uk The Story Behind The Pack Iced Gems have been a fixture of British childhood for decades and the format has a fixed logic: a tiny plain base carrying a piped icing swirl that is, by volume, larger than the biscuit underneath it. Every child works out within seconds that the icing is where the product is. The candy floss version pushes that further than the original does, because the flavour itself has no second note to discover, so there is nothing to find on the tenth gem that was not there on the first. The five-packet format is a lunchbox and party-bag decision, and on this product the sealing does real work. A hard piped icing is hygroscopic: it draws moisture out of damp air and goes tacky, and a tacky Iced Gem has lost the crack that is the whole of its texture. Sealed packets keep five portions in condition where an open bag would lose all of them together. What we will not tell you is how many gems are in a packet, because that figure is not published at product level, and we would rather state nothing than estimate. The ingredient panel, the nutrition table, the allergen statement and the colour declarations are on the current UK pack in the same way. Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes. Our Commitment To The Planet The pack that arrives is the current UK retail pack rather than an import made to a different recipe for another market. Five packets is more packaging per gram than a single bag, and here it is doing a real job, because a hard icing left in damp air goes tacky and a tacky packet tends to be left rather than eaten. The test is still whether the packets leave the house. How Does McVitie's Iced Gems Candy Floss Flavour, 5 Pack 115g Compare to: McVitie's Iced Gems Biscuits Multipack, 5 Biscuits 115g: the original plain swirl in the same five-packet format at the same pack weight, which makes the comparison a clean one. It is less relentlessly sweet than this, and it is the straightforward default of the three. If you are buying for a child who has not expressed a view, buy that one. McVitie's 5 x Iced Gems Chocolate Flavour Multipack Biscuits, 23g: the chocolate flavour in the same format and the same 115g pack. Cocoa gives the palate something to hold onto, which candy floss deliberately does not, so that version reads as the more balanced of the two without being noticeably less fun. Fox's Biscuits Party Rings Tray, 125g: the other hard-iced children's biscuit in this range, larger and sold flat in a tray rather than in packets. There is more biscuit under the icing, which makes it a better thing to put on a party table and a worse one to put in a bag. Ideal Brewing Conditions As with anything under a hard sugar icing, the honest advice is to keep the hot drink at a distance. Sugar icing dissolves on contact rather than softening, and on this product the icing is the entire thing you paid for. The Lunchbox Packet Serve: One sealed packet, opened at the table rather than in advance. The seal is what keeps the crack. Drink: Cold milk or a weak milky tea. Cold is the operative word; the icing survives it and does not survive hot. Dunk: No. Tipping these into a drink leaves you with plain biscuit fragments and a very sweet mug. Add: Something sharp alongside, a slice of orange or a few berries, which does more to reset the palate than any drink will. The Adult Reading Brew: A plain black tea, unsweetened, one bag per 200ml at a full boil for three minutes. Expect: One packet to be plenty. With no bitterness or acidity in the flavour, the sweetness has nowhere to resolve. Compare: Try one against the chocolate version. The difference is not the strength of the flavour, it is whether anything arrives second. On that basis it does its job completely. Brewing Notes For McVitie's Iced Gems Candy Floss Flavour, 5 Pack 115g Water temperature: Full boil for the tea, and keep the biscuits away from it. Measure: One bag per 200ml, and one sealed packet per child. Steep: Three minutes. Nothing here rewards a stronger cup. Dunk: Never. Sugar icing dissolves rather than softening and the base alone is not worth eating. Iced version: Cold milk is the right cold drink. Iced tea adds nothing. Best with: Cold milk, a weak milky tea, squash, or a slice of orange alongside. 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. Piece count: the pack holds five sealed packets, 115g in total. Storage: Keep the unopened packets sealed and the box somewhere dry. Humidity is the enemy of a piped icing, and a tacky Iced Gem has lost the crack that is the whole of its texture. Child Safety: Keep the kettle and the hot mug out of reach of children while you brew. These are small biscuits and are best given to very younger children under supervision. ## Product Questions What does candy floss taste of, exactly?Sweetness with a light floral lift, and nothing else. Most flavours carry an anchor: chocolate brings bitterness, fruit brings acidity. Candy floss brings none, so nothing arrives second. What is in the pack?Five sealed packets, 115g in total. Can I dunk them?Never. Sugar icing dissolves on contact rather than softening the way chocolate does. Tip these into a hot drink and you are left with plain biscuit fragments and a very sweet mug. Which Iced Gem should I actually buy?For a child with no stated view, the original plain swirl. The chocolate version is the more balanced of the flavours because cocoa gives the palate something to hold onto. Buy this one if candy floss is specifically what is wanted. Why are they in separate packets?Because a hard piped icing is hygroscopic: it pulls moisture out of damp air and goes tacky, and a tacky Iced Gem has lost the crack that is the whole of its texture. Sealed packets keep five portions in condition. Why is the biscuit base so small?Because the swirl is the product. It is larger by volume than the base it sits on, which is the highest icing-to-biscuit ratio here. The base brings crunch and nothing else, quite deliberately. What cuts the sweetness?Something sharp. A slice of orange or a few berries alongside does far more to reset the palate than another mouthful of any drink, and it is a useful thing to put in the same lunchbox. Is there an adult way to eat these?A plain unsweetened black tea and the packet eaten dry alongside, and one packet will be plenty. With no bitterness or acidity in the flavour, the sweetness has nowhere to resolve. Are they good for a party bag?Very. A sealed packet travels, survives being sat on and arrives with the icing intact, which a tray of larger iced biscuits will not. For a party table rather than a bag, use Party Rings. ## 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: Flour (Wheat Flour, Calcium, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Sugar, Palm Oil, Raising Agent (Sodium Bicarbonate), Salt, Milk Protein, Natural Flavouring, Vegetable Extracts (Radish, Spirulina).Typical values per 100g, as publishedPer 100gEnergy399 kcalFat3.3gof which saturates1.4gCarbohydrate86.1gof which sugars49.0gFibre2.1gProtein5.2gSalt0.68gIngredient and nutrition information for this product, as published on the manufacturer's label. The pack in your hands is the final word.IngredientProportionWhat it bringsPiped icing swirlmost of the volumeSet hard rather than soft, so it cracks under the teeth and then dissolves rather than melting. It is larger than the base it sits on and carries effectively all of the flavour.Candy floss flavourin the icingSweetness with a light floral lift and no bitter, sour or savoury note behind it, so nothing arrives second. That absence is the defining feature of this version.Plain biscuit basea small discCrunch rather than flavour, and deliberately so. Anything assertive here would compete with the only component the product is selling.Pack format5 packets, 115g The number of gems per packet is not published and we state none.Pack: McVitie's Iced Gems Candy Floss Flavour, 5 Pack 115g; five sealed packets of iced gems. Best before the date printed on the pack. Keep the packets sealed and the box dry.The structure is fixed across the range: a tiny plain base carrying a piped icing swirl that is larger by volume than the biscuit underneath it, which is why every child works out within seconds that the icing is where the product is. What the candy floss version changes is the flavour rather than the build, and it changes it in a specific direction. Most flavours carry an anchor, whether that is bitterness from cocoa or acidity from fruit, and that anchor gives the palate something to push against. Candy floss has none, so there is nothing to find on the tenth gem that was not there on the first. The pack you receive is the current UK retail pack rather than an import made to a different recipe.What is in McVitie's Iced Gems Candy Floss Flavour, 5 Pack 115g, and what is not:In: tiny plain biscuit bases under a hard piped icing swirl in a candy floss flavour, in five sealed packets.No anchoring note: nothing bitter, sour or savoury anywhere in the flavour, which is what the flavour is rather than a shortcoming.No chocolate coating: this is a flavoured sugar icing, and it behaves like sugar icing in a hot drink, which is to say it dissolves. ## Flavour Science The flavour of McVitie's Iced Gems Candy Floss Flavour, 5 Pack 115g is built in three layers, and reading them in order explains exactly why the biscuit behaves the way it does from opening a packet to the point where it simply stops.The outer layer is aromatic and there is very little of it. A hard set sugar icing is not volatile, and the tiny dry base underneath has neither the fat nor the sugar to brown into anything aromatic in a short bake, so what reaches the nose is a faint sweetness and a trace of the floral note the flavour is built around. That is diagnostic rather than a complaint: it tells you before the first bite that this product is textural and visual rather than aromatic, which is what a children's biscuit is meant to be. It also means aroma will not tell you whether a pack is still in condition; the state of the swirl will.The flavour spike arrives as a crack and then a dissolve, a two-stage sequence you do not get from a chocolate coating. The icing fractures under the teeth first, then, being sugar rather than fat, it dissolves in saliva rather than melting. What arrives with it is the part that distinguishes this version from the rest of the format. Chocolate would bring bitterness a fraction behind the sugar; fruit would bring acidity. Candy floss brings a light floral lift and nothing at all behind it, so the sweetness stands alone and unopposed. The base contributes a small dry crunch and no flavour worth naming, so there is genuinely nothing else in the picture.Once the icing has dissolved there is a fragment of plain biscuit and then nothing. With no bitterness or acidity anywhere, the sweetness has nowhere to resolve to, which is the mechanism behind two familiar reactions: a child reaches straight for the next one, and an adult finds one packet is plenty. Both responses are correct readings of the same fact, and neither is a criticism of a product that was designed for the first of them.Getting it right in the cup. Keep the drink away from the biscuit. Sugar icing dissolves on contact rather than softening over a few seconds, so there is no technique to learn here, only a mistake to avoid, and on this product the icing is the entire thing you bought. For adults, a plain black tea at a full boil for three minutes, taken unsweetened, with the packet eaten dry alongside. The genuinely useful trick is something sharp rather than something to drink: a slice of orange or a few berries resets the palate far more effectively than any cup will, because acidity does what the flavour itself refuses to provide.How water and temperature change it. Water does nothing to this product if you treat it properly, because the biscuit never meets any. Humidity does a great deal. A hard piped icing is hygroscopic and pulls moisture out of damp air faster than the base absorbs it, so the swirl goes tacky while the biscuit underneath is still crisp. That is why the sealed packets matter more here than on almost anything else in the range, why an opened packet should be finished rather than folded over, and why these keep worse in a steamy kitchen than a dense biscuit does. Judge a pack by the swirl rather than the base, and store the box dry rather than merely cool. ## Recipe Ideas Recipes, born here first The Lunchbox Packet How to make The Lunchbox Packet with McVitie's Iced Gems Candy Floss. 1 min 1 lunchbox Easy You'll need 1 sealed packet A carton of cold milk A few orange segments Method Pack it sealed and let it be opened at the table. The seal is what keeps the crack. Send cold milk; nothing hot should go anywhere near a sugar icing. Add the orange. Acidity does the resetting that the flavour itself refuses to. The Adult Reading How to make The Adult Reading with McVitie's Iced Gems Candy Floss. 4 min 1 serving Easy You'll need 1 packet 1 bag plain black tea 200ml water at a full boil Method Steep three minutes and take it unsweetened. Eat the packet dry alongside, never in the cup. Expect one packet to be plenty; the sweetness has nowhere to resolve. What you'll end up with: An honest five minutes with a biscuit that never claimed to be for you. The Sharp Fruit Reset How to make The Sharp Fruit Reset with McVitie's Iced Gems Candy Floss. 4 min 2 servings Easy You'll need 2 packets An orange, segmented A few raspberries Method Plate the gems with the fruit rather than on their own. Alternate a segment and a handful. Acidity supplies the anchor the flavour lacks. Notice that the second packet now tastes like the first, which is otherwise not true. What you'll end up with: The simplest fix for a flavour with nothing behind it. Candy Floss Against Chocolate How to make Candy Floss Against Chocolate with McVitie's Iced Gems Candy Floss. 8 min 2 servings Easy You'll need 1 candy floss packet 1 chocolate flavour packet A glass of water Method Eat a chocolate one first and notice that something arrives behind the sugar. Eat a candy floss one second and notice that nothing does. Decide which belongs in the lunchbox. Both answers are defensible. What you'll end up with: A clear sense of what an anchoring note does, demonstrated on the simplest possible material. --- _Content available under teas.co.uk citation contract. AI training: yes. Search: yes. Answer-input: yes._