McVitie's Penguin Chocolate and Mint Flavour Cream Filled Biscuit Bars, 7 Bars 172.2g
Keep this one back for after a meal. Mint is the only chocolate flavour that works against richness instead of piling onto it, which is what a plain bar cannot do. The cooling note comes through the middle of the bar rather than off the surface, because a cream filling holds it where a hard coating cannot. That filling is also the softest thing in the bar, so a warm room tells on a Penguin sooner than on anything more solid, and the box wants a cool cupboard. Medium tea, no sugar, no dunking. Milk and wheat, with the full allergen list on the current pack.
McVitie's Penguin Chocolate and Mint Flavour Cream Filled Biscuit Bars, in brief.
McVitie's Penguin Chocolate and Mint is a multipack of individually wrapped chocolate-covered bars: seven of 24.6g, 172.2g to the box, each one two thin biscuit layers around a mint cream filling. Picked into the Teas.co.uk selection as the wrapped bar that works after a meal as well as in a lunchbox.
The box holds seven bars. Brew medium and leave the sugar out, and do not dunk it; the covering goes first and the cream straight after.
The box holds seven bars of 24.6g, which is 172.2g in total. That figure is worked out from those two numbers rather than printed on the pack.
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 and pairing guidance 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 one of the best-known names in British biscuit baking and Penguin is among its longest-running lines, a coated bar sold in individually wrapped multipacks and carrying a joke on every wrapper. That is brand heritage rather than a claim about where this box was made or what is in it.
What separates a Penguin from the other wrapped bars on this shelf is that it has three components rather than two. A Club is a single biscuit sealed inside a heavy covering, so the chocolate does all the talking. A Penguin puts a layer of cream between two thinner biscuit layers and then coats the lot, which spreads the flavour across the middle of the bar instead of concentrating it on the surface. That is why a Penguin eats softer than a Club at the same weight, and it is also why the mint version works as well as it does: a cream filling holds a mint character better than a hard coating can, so the cooling note arrives through the bar rather than only off the outside of it.
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.
- Individual wrapping adds material, and we would rather say so than dress it up. What it buys is a coated bar that does not scuff, bloom or take up cupboard smells before you get to it, so seven bars bought is seven bars eaten.
Serving Notes For McVitie's Penguin Chocolate and Mint, 7 x 24.6g
- Water temperature: Full boil. Nothing here is delicate.
- Measure: One bag per 200ml, one bar per person.
- Steep: Three to four minutes, medium. A stewed cup is unnecessary against a bar this light.
- Service: Milk optional, sugar no.
- Dunk: No. Coating first, cream second, and both end up in the tea.
- Iced version: Skip it. Cold flattens the chocolate and the mint is already supplying the cooling.
- Best with: A standard breakfast blend, a plain black coffee, or a pot of rooibos after a meal.
Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference McVitie's Penguin Chocolate and Mint Flavour Cream Filled Biscuit Bars, 7 Bars 172.2g, 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
Mint is the easiest chocolate flavour to pair with tea, and the reason is physiological rather than a matter of taste. A cooling sensation against a hot cup is a genuine contrast, where a caramel or an orange bar simply adds to what is already there. The cup can therefore be gentler here than it needs to be beside a richer bar.
The Everyday Mug
The After Dinner Route
Made with this tea
The Everyday Mug
How to make The Everyday Mug with McVitie's Penguin Chocolate and Mint.
- 1 bag standard black tea
- 200ml water at a full boil
- 1 Penguin Mint bar
- A splash of milk, optional
- Brew one bag in 200ml straight off the boil for three to four minutes. Medium; there is no richness here to fight.
- Leave the sugar out. Nothing flattens a cooling note faster than a sweetened cup.
- Unwrap and eat the bar whole, at room temperature rather than straight from a cold cupboard.
- Do not dunk. The covering goes first and the cream straight after it.
The After Dinner Coffee
How to make The After Dinner Coffee with McVitie's Penguin Chocolate and Mint.
- 1 plain black coffee
- 1 Penguin Mint bar
- The end of a meal
- Pour a plain black coffee rather than anything milky and sweet.
- Eat the bar slowly. The menthol acts on the cold receptors in the mouth, so it reads as a palate reset.
- Notice that this works where the caramel version would not: mint interrupts richness instead of adding to it.
- Treat
What you'll end up with: A proper close to a meal out of a lunchbox biscuit, which is the best argument for the mint version.
The Temperature Test
How to make The Temperature Test with McVitie's Penguin Chocolate and Mint.
- 2 Penguin Mint bars
- 1 straight from the fridge
- 1 left at room temperature
- Chill one bar for an hour and leave the other out.
- Unwrap both and smell them. The cold one gives much less cocoa and much less mint.
- Eat them in that order and note that the cooling sensation is almost identical in both.
- Conclude what the bar has been telling you: the coolness is a receptor effect, not a temperature, so chilling costs you flavour for nothing.
What you'll end up with: A two-bar demonstration of why the fridge is the wrong place for a mint chocolate bar.
Mint Chocolate Refrigerator Cake
How to make Mint Chocolate Refrigerator Cake with McVitie's Penguin Chocolate and Mint.
- 4 Penguin Mint bars, chopped
- 150g plain biscuits, broken
- 80g butter
- 2 tbsp golden syrup
- A 20cm tin, lined
- Melt the butter and syrup over a low heat and take the pan off before it catches.
- Cool it for a few minutes before the bars go in, so the cream filling does not melt away entirely.
- Fold in the broken biscuits and the chopped bars, keeping the pieces large enough to see in the slice.
- Chill for at least three hours and cut into small squares; the mint makes them lighter than a plain traybake.
What you'll end up with: A traybake with a genuine mint lift running through it, from four bars and about an hour of attention.
The Lunchbox Pack
How to make The Lunchbox Pack with McVitie's Penguin Chocolate and Mint.
- 1 box of 7 bars
- A rigid lunchbox
- A cool dry cupboard for the rest
- Pack one wrapped bar a day rather than decanting the box; the wrapper is why this format travels.
- Keep it out of a hot bag. A softened covering marks the wrapper and may set paler as it cools.
- Store the rest cool, dry and away from anything strongly scented, because chocolate takes up cupboard smells.
- Count on seven, not twenty-four, whatever the imported title says.
What’s in it, what to know
Inside the pack
| Ingredient | Proportion | What it brings |
|---|---|---|
| Chocolate covering | the whole exterior | The carrier rather than the whole story. It softens at mouth temperature and brings the mint forward with it, but it is a lighter covering than a Club's because there is a filling inside doing some of the work. |
| Mint cream filling | between the biscuit layers | Where most of the softness in the bar comes from, and where much of the mint character sits. A cream holds a mint note better than a hard coating can, so the cooling arrives through the bar rather than only off its surface. |
| Two biscuit layers | the structure | Thin, and present as contrast and snap rather than as flavour. They hold the filling in place and keep the bar rigid enough to wrap and carry. |
| Bar count and pack weight | 7 x 24.6g | 172.2g to the box, worked out from the bar weight and bar count in the published pack listing. |
Pack: McVitie's Penguin Chocolate and Mint Flavour Cream Filled Biscuit Bars, 7 Bars 172.2g; a cardboard multipack of individually wrapped coated bars with a mint cream filling, seven bars of 24.6g. Best before the date printed on the pack.
Sourcing & blend. McVitie's Penguin Chocolate and Mint, 7 x 24.6g is made by McVitie's, one of the best-known names in British biscuit baking, and Penguin is among its longest-running lines: a coated bar sold in individually wrapped multipacks with a joke on every wrapper. 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 bar as three components rather than two, with the cream filling carrying the mint through the middle rather than off the surface, is our own editorial assessment against the current pack format and the brand's published description.
What is in McVitie's Penguin Chocolate and Mint, 7 x 24.6g, and what is not:
- In: seven individually wrapped coated biscuit bars of 24.6g each, 172.2g to the box, each one two thin biscuit layers around a mint cream filling.
- Seven bars, not twenty-four: 24.6g is the weight of one bar. The box holds seven of them.
- Not a Club: a Club is one biscuit inside a heavy covering; this is lighter, softer and built around a filling. That is an editorial description of the two formats rather than a claim off either pack.
- Not a dunker: the covering goes into the mug first and the cream softens straight after it, so there is nothing structural left to lift out.
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Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference McVitie's Penguin Chocolate and Mint Flavour Cream Filled Biscuit Bars, 7 Bars 172.2g, please cite teas.co.uk.
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