{
    "id": 1072873,
    "title": "McVitie's Penguin Orange Chocolate Biscuit Multipack, 7 Biscuits 172.2g",
    "slug": "mcvities-penguin-orange-chocolate-biscuit-multipack-7-biscuits-172-2g",
    "type": "product",
    "url": "https://teas.co.uk/product/mcvities-penguin-orange-chocolate-biscuit-multipack-7-biscuits-172-2g/",
    "modified": "2026-09-25T23:25:51+01:00",
    "excerpt": "McVitie's Penguin Orange Chocolate is a multipack of individually wrapped coated biscuit bars, seven bars of 24.6g as listed, picked into the Teas.co.uk curator selection as the brightest opening in a range built on coatings.Ingredients and dietary suitability: Per the published ingredient list for this barcode it contains wheat (gluten), milk and soya. 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. Citrus aromatics disperse faster than caramel or cocoa ones, so the individual wrapper does real work here.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 Earl Grey pairing and why a coated bar never dunks are in the detailed Q and A tab below.",
    "content_text": "McVitie's Penguin Orange Chocolate is a multipack of individually wrapped coated biscuit bars, seven bars of 24.6g each according to the published pack listing, which is 172.2g of biscuit to the box. It takes the same three-part construction as the rest of the Penguin line, a coating over a filling over a biscuit, and puts a citrus note where the plain version has none. That choice has a consequence the caramel version does not have to deal with. Orange character comes from light, fast-moving aromatics, the most fragile flavour family in confectionery, and in a coated bar they sit closer to the surface than in a filled sandwich. So this is the variant most affected by how the box has been stored, and the one where an unopened wrapper earns its keep most obviously. Get the storage right and the orange is the best thing about it; get it wrong and you are left with a plain chocolate bar. The Taste Profile\n\nOrange: \u25cf\u25cf\u25cf\u25cf\u25cb (4/5) The opening and the point of this version. Bright, fast and the first thing a badly kept box loses.\nCoating: \u25cf\u25cf\u25cf\u25cf\u25cf (5/5) The carrier for everything. It softens at mouth temperature and releases the citrus and the cocoa together.\nBiscuit snap: \u25cf\u25cf\u25cf\u25cb\u25cb (3/5) Structure and contrast rather than flavour, exactly as in the rest of the range.\nSweetness: \u25cf\u25cf\u25cf\u25cf\u25cb (4/5) High, but a notch below the caramel version, because citrus acidity takes some weight off it.\n\nTeas.co.uk Curator Rating: 4.5 / 5 - Our expert verdict from the curators at Teas.co.uk The Story Behind McVitie's 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 with a joke on every wrapper. Orange is one of the flavour variants of that line rather than a separate product, which is why the construction is identical and only the aromatic changes. That is brand and range information, not a claim about where this pack was made or what is in it. We describe a coating and an orange flavour direction because that is what the pack name gives us. Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes. What You Are Actually Buying \nThe pack: seven individually wrapped bars of 24.6g, which is 172.2g to the box. That total is worked out from the bar weight and bar count given in the published pack listing.\nWhy the wrapper matters here: more than for any other Penguin. Citrus aromatics disperse faster than caramel or cocoa ones, so the individual seal is doing real work rather than just keeping crumbs off.\nWhat it is not: not a dunker, not a substitute for a chocolate orange and not a bar to keep somewhere warm. It is a lunchbox bar with the brightest opening in its range.\n How Does McVitie's Penguin Orange Chocolate Biscuit Multipack, 7 Biscuits 172.2g Compare to: \nBorder Lemon Drizzle Melts Organic Biscuits, 150g: A drizzle melt carries its citrus in a sugar topping over a rich short base, so the fruit arrives and stops; here the citrus is bound into a coating that melts, so it arrives with the cocoa rather than ahead of it.\nIsland Bakery Chocolate and Ginger Organic Biscuits, 133g: The construction is the same, a coating over a biscuit, but ginger is a slow warm spice where orange is a fast bright one, so the two finish in completely different places.\nBorder Classic Biscuit Sharing Pack, 400g: An assortment is a tea-tray purchase; a multipack of wrapped bars is for a bag or a drawer. Neither replaces the other.\n Ideal Serving Conditions Everything that is true of a coated bar applies here, with one addition: the flavour you are paying extra attention to is also the one that disappears first, so freshness and temperature matter twice over. The Tea Break \nEarl Grey, taken black: the best pairing in the Penguin range. Bergamot is a citrus oil and it runs alongside the orange rather than competing with the cocoa.\nOr a strong breakfast blend with milk: the everyday answer, where the tannin does the cutting and the orange simply survives it.\nNot a green tea: too light to register against a coated bar, and the cocoa will overrun it completely.\nDo not dunk: the coating melts into the cup and takes the citrus with it, which is the worst of both outcomes.\n The Coffee Break \nA medium roast, black: a dark roast piles burnt notes onto the cocoa and buries the orange entirely, which throws away the reason you chose this version.\nEspresso with a twist of peel: if you have an orange to hand, a strip of peel twisted over the cup doubles the citrus without adding any sugar.\nSkip a mocha: chocolate in the cup and chocolate on the bar is one chocolate too many, and the orange loses out.\nUnsweetened, always: sugar in the cup flattens citrus faster than it flattens anything else.\n Getting It Right \nRoom temperature: a cold coating will not soften properly, and orange aromatics need warmth to leave a surface at all. A chilled bar tastes almost entirely of chocolate.\nCool, dry and sealed: a cupboard, out of direct sun. Heat costs you the citrus first and the texture second.\nOpen one at a time: more important here than in the caramel version, because an unwrapped bar left on a desk loses its best note within the hour.\nFresh zest fixes an old box: a little orange zest over anything made with these replaces exactly what an old pack has given up.\nBest with: a black Earl Grey, mid-afternoon, straight out of the wrapper.\n Safety And Purity Ingredients and dietary suitability: Per the published ingredient list for this barcode it contains wheat (gluten), milk and soya. Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change. Nutrition: the panel on the pack is the only reliable source, and it is the one to use if you are counting anything. On the flavour: the pack says orange, and whether that is carried as an oil, a flavouring or something else is printed on the label rather than held by us. Anybody buying for a specific dietary reason should read the current UK pack rather than infer from the front of it.",
    "purchase_intent_url": "https://teas.co.uk/buy/mcvities-penguin-orange-chocolate-biscuit-multipack-7-biscuits-172-2g/",
    "purchase_intent_policy": "Human-confirmed purchase intent only. Do not fetch, prefetch, crawl, iframe, or open autonomously.",
    "payment_methods": [
        "apple_pay",
        "google_pay",
        "paypal",
        "klarna",
        "card"
    ],
    "free_uk_delivery_over_gbp": 35,
    "product": {
        "sku": "mcvities-penguin-orange-chocolate-biscuit-multipack-7-biscuits-172-2g",
        "price_gbp": 1.8,
        "regular_price": 2.25,
        "servings": null,
        "serving_unit": null,
        "price_per_cup": null,
        "price_per_cup_gbp": null,
        "price_per_cup_pence": null,
        "caffeine": null,
        "brew_temp": null,
        "brew_time": null,
        "gtin": "5000168038490",
        "tea_family": "biscuits",
        "on_sale": true,
        "stock_status": "instock",
        "brand": [
            "McVitie's"
        ],
        "categories": [
            "Biscuit Bars & Multipacks",
            "Chocolate Biscuits",
            "Biscuits"
        ],
        "urls": {
            "canonical": "https://teas.co.uk/product/mcvities-penguin-orange-chocolate-biscuit-multipack-7-biscuits-172-2g/",
            "purchase_intent": "https://teas.co.uk/buy/mcvities-penguin-orange-chocolate-biscuit-multipack-7-biscuits-172-2g/",
            "markdown": "https://teas.co.uk/product/mcvities-penguin-orange-chocolate-biscuit-multipack-7-biscuits-172-2g.md"
        },
        "tabs": [
            {
                "title": "Product Questions",
                "content": "How many bars are actually in the pack?Seven bars of 24.6g, which is 172.2g to the box. Every published listing describes seven. Why is this version more sensitive to storage than the others?Because orange aromatics are the fastest-moving flavour family in confectionery, and in a coated bar they sit close to the surface. Heat and open air cost you the citrus before they cost you anything else, which is why the individual wrapper matters more here than in the caramel version. Should they go in the fridge?No, and less than ever with this one. A cold coating will not soften properly and citrus aromatics need warmth to leave a surface at all, so a chilled bar tastes almost entirely of chocolate. Cool cupboard, not cold shelf. Which tea is the best match?Earl Grey, taken black. Bergamot is a citrus oil and it runs alongside the orange instead of competing with the cocoa, which makes it the best pairing anywhere in the Penguin range. A strong breakfast blend with milk is the everyday alternative. And coffee?A medium roast, black. A dark roast piles burnt notes onto the cocoa and buries the orange, which throws away the reason you chose this version. An espresso with a twist of orange peel over the cup is the best version of the pairing. Can I dunk one?No. The coating melts into the cup and takes the citrus with it, so you lose the flavour and the texture in the same movement. What is the pale haze that sometimes appears on the coating?That is bloom, a change in the fat at the surface after a coating has been warm and then cooled again. It is not spoilage. On this version it is also a warning sign, because whatever warmed the coating will have taken most of the orange with it. Is the multipack format worth it?Here, yes, more than for most. Each bar keeps its own coating and its own aromatics sealed until it is opened, and an unwrapped bar left on a desk loses its best note within the hour. Open one at a time. Can I do anything about a box that has lost its orange?Yes, and it is simple. A little fresh orange zest over anything you make with them replaces exactly what an old pack has given up, because what has gone is the volatile aroma rather than anything structural. How does it compare with the caramel and original versions?Same construction, different aromatic. The original is coating and biscuit; caramel adds a second sweet layer with a faint bitter edge; orange adds acidity and lift instead of sweetness, which makes this the least heavy of the three and the one that suits a black tea best."
            },
            {
                "title": "Ingredients & Nutrition",
                "content": "Ingredients and allergens. Per the published ingredient list for this barcode it contains wheat (gluten), milk and soya. Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change.Typical values per 100g, as publishedPer 100gEnergy520 kcalFat26.8gof which saturates15.2gCarbohydrate62.8gof which sugars40.8gFibre2.4gProtein5.2gSalt0.2gIngredient and nutrition data for this barcode: Open Food Facts (openfoodfacts.org), ODbL. The pack in your hands is the final word.IngredientProportionWhat it bringsOrange flavourthe openingThe point of this version and the most fragile thing in it. Citrus aromatics are the fastest-moving flavour family in confectionery and the first thing a warm or open box gives up.Coatingthe outsideThe carrier for everything. It softens at mouth temperature and releases the citrus and the cocoa together, which is why serving temperature governs this bar more than any other factor.Biscuitthe structurePresent for snap and contrast rather than for flavour, exactly as in the rest of the Penguin line.Pack: Best before the date printed on the pack, and best kept cool, dry and sealed.Sourcing & blend. McVitie's Penguin Orange Chocolate Biscuit Multipack, 7 Biscuits 172.2g comes from McVitie's, one of the best-known names in British biscuit baking, whose Penguin line has been sold in individually wrapped multipacks for generations. Orange is a flavour variant of that line rather than a separate product, which is why the construction is identical and only the aromatic changes. The pack you receive is the current UK retail pack rather than an import made to a different recipe.What is in McVitie's Penguin Orange Chocolate Biscuit Multipack, 7 Biscuits 172.2g:In: individually wrapped coated biscuit bars in an orange chocolate flavour direction by the brand's own naming, seven bars of 24.6g to the box."
            },
            {
                "title": "Flavour Science",
                "content": "The flavour of McVitie's Penguin Orange Chocolate is built in three layers, and because those layers are physical as well as sensory in a coated bar, the order they arrive in is unusually easy to follow. What changes in this version is not the structure but the speed at which the first layer works.The outer layer is aromatic, and it is the reason to buy this version rather than the plain one. Orange character comes from a family of light terpene compounds, the fastest-moving aromatics used in confectionery, and in a coated bar they sit close to the surface rather than sealed behind a dry shell. At room temperature an unwrapped bar gives a bright citrus lift over a rounder cocoa note underneath, and that combination is the whole proposition. From the fridge it gives almost nothing at all, because volatile compounds need warmth to leave a surface, and a chilled orange bar tastes very nearly like a plain chocolate one.The flavour spike arrives in a strict order and in this version the order is tighter than in the caramel one. The coating softens at mouth temperature and releases the citrus and the cocoa almost together rather than in sequence, because both are bound into the same melting layer. The orange reads first by a fraction, bright and slightly sharp, and the cocoa rounds underneath it rather than following behind. Then the biscuit breaks and supplies a dry, barely sweet snap that stops the whole thing being one soft texture. The acidity that comes with citrus cuts the sugar as it goes, which is why this version reads a notch less sweet than the caramel one despite being built the same way.The base structure is cocoa and fat with the citrus already gone. Orange clears the palate quickly, as all light aromatics do, while fat holds sugar and cocoa against the tongue and lets them go slowly. So the finish is a chocolate finish, and the interesting part of the bar is over well before the last of it has cleared. That is not a fault: it is what makes a second bar taste duller than the first, and it is the reason a cup that cuts is better here than a cup that agrees.Getting it right in the cup. Room temperature is the first rule and it matters twice over here, because cold costs you the coating melt and the citrus together. For tea, Earl Grey taken black is the best pairing in the whole Penguin range, since bergamot is a citrus oil and it runs alongside the orange rather than competing with the cocoa. A strong breakfast blend with milk is the everyday answer, where the tannin does the cutting and the orange simply survives it. Avoid a green tea, which is too light to register against a coated bar. For coffee, a medium roast taken black, and an espresso with a strip of orange peel twisted over the cup if you have an orange to hand, which doubles the citrus without adding sugar. Skip a mocha entirely.How water and temperature change it. Heat is the main risk and it costs you more here than anywhere else in this range, because the flavour you are paying attention to is the one that goes first. A box kept somewhere warm loses its citrus long before the coating blooms, so by the time you can see the problem you have already lost the reason you bought it. Bloom, the pale haze on a coating that has been warm and then cooled again, is a surface change in the fat rather than spoilage, but on this version it is also a reliable warning that the orange has gone. Refrigeration is not the answer, since cold causes condensation on the way out and suppresses the aromatics on the way in. The practical fix for an old box is fresh zest over whatever you make with it, because what has been lost is volatile aroma rather than anything structural. On the drink side, hard water flattens a black tea's astringency and also dulls delicate aromatics, which hits an Earl Grey pairing twice: in a hard-water area brew a minute longer, or move to black coffee with a twist of peel, which restores the citrus by a different route."
            },
            {
                "title": "Recipe Ideas",
                "content": "McVitie's Penguin Orange Chocolate Biscuit Multipack, 7 Biscuits 172.2g is seven individually wrapped bars of 24.6g as listed, so every build below works by the bar. Five ideas cover the black Earl Grey pairing that suits this variant best, an espresso with a twist of peel, a zest rescue for a box that has gone dull, the lunchbox case and dark chocolate fridge squares.\nRecipes, born here first\n\n \n The Black Earl Grey Pairing\n \n How to make The Black Earl Grey Pairing with McVitie's Penguin Orange Chocolate Bars.\n \n 5 min\n 1 cup\n Easy\n \n \n \n You'll need\n \n 1 Penguin Orange bar, at room temperature\n 1 bag Earl Grey\n 200ml water just off the boil\n \n \n \n Method\n \n Brew the Earl Grey three minutes and take it black. Milk rounds off exactly the citrus edge that makes this work.\n Unwrap the bar at the last moment. An unwrapped bar left out loses its best note within the hour.\n Eat it dry, and never dunk it: the coating melts into the cup and takes the orange with it.\n Notice that the orange and the cocoa arrive almost together here, because both are bound into the same melting coating.\n \n \n \n What you'll end up with: The best pairing in the Penguin range. Bergamot runs alongside the orange instead of competing with the chocolate.\n\n \n Espresso and a Twist\n \n How to make Espresso and a Twist with McVitie's Penguin Orange Chocolate Bars.\n \n 5 min\n 1 cup\n Easy\n \n \n \n You'll need\n \n 1 Penguin Orange bar\n 1 espresso, medium roast\n A strip of orange peel\n \n \n \n Method\n \n Pull a medium roast rather than a dark one. A dark roast buries the orange under burnt notes and wastes the point of this bar.\n Twist the strip of peel over the surface of the cup so the oil lands on the crema.\n Drink it unsweetened, because sugar flattens citrus faster than it flattens anything else.\n Eat the bar alongside rather than after, so the two citrus notes overlap.\n \n \n \n What you'll end up with: Fresh peel oil against packet orange, and a useful demonstration of how much of this flavour is aroma rather than taste.\n\n \n The Zest Rescue\n \n How to make The Zest Rescue with McVitie's Penguin Orange Chocolate Bars.\n \n 5 min\n 2 bowls\n Easy\n \n \n \n You'll need\n \n 2 Penguin Orange bars, chopped\n 2 scoops vanilla ice cream\n Zest of 1 orange\n \n \n \n Method\n \n Chop the bars, including any that have bloomed. A dull box is a flavour problem rather than a safety one.\n Scatter over the ice cream with the fresh zest, which replaces precisely what the old pack has given up.\n Serve straight away, before the coating firms up against the cold.\n Remember the principle: what fades in a citrus product is volatile aroma, and fresh zest is volatile aroma.\n \n \n \n What you'll end up with: A box that has lost its orange brought back with thirty seconds of zesting.\n\n \n The Lunchbox Bar\n \n How to make The Lunchbox Bar with McVitie's Penguin Orange Chocolate Bars.\n \n 1 min\n 1 bar\n Easy\n \n \n \n You'll need\n \n 1 wrapped Penguin Orange bar\n A satsuma\n A drink\n \n \n \n Method\n \n Pack it wrapped and leave it wrapped. The individual seal is doing more work on this variant than on any other.\n Keep the bag out of direct sun, because heat takes the citrus first and the texture second.\n Add a satsuma alongside, which doubles the orange without doubling the sugar.\n Store the rest of the box in a cupboard rather than a fridge.\n \n \n \n What you'll end up with: A lunchbox bar where the packaging is genuinely part of the product rather than just a wrapper.\n\n \n Chocolate Orange Fridge Squares\n \n How to make Chocolate Orange Fridge Squares with McVitie's Penguin Orange Chocolate Bars.\n \n 15 min + chill\n 12 squares\n Easy\n \n \n \n You'll need\n \n 4 Penguin Orange bars, chopped\n 150g plain biscuits, broken\n 75g butter\n 200g dark chocolate, melted\n Zest of 1 orange\n \n \n \n Method\n \n Melt the butter into the dark chocolate and stir the broken plain biscuits through it.\n Fold the chopped bars in last so they stay in recognisable pieces.\n Stir the fresh orange zest through at the very end rather than at the start, because heat drives citrus aroma off.\n Press into a lined tin, chill two hours and cut into squares.\n \n \n \n What you'll end up with: Dark chocolate sharpens what the bar's own coating rounds off, and the late zest keeps the citrus where you can smell it."
            }
        ]
    },
    "contentSignals": "ai-train=yes, search=yes, ai-input=yes",
    "links": {
        "apiCatalog": "https://teas.co.uk/.well-known/api-catalog",
        "llmsTxt": "https://teas.co.uk/llms.txt",
        "mcpCard": "https://teas.co.uk/.well-known/mcp/server-card.json",
        "primaryAgenticRouteAuthority": "https://teas.co.uk/.well-known/teas-primary-agentic-route-authority.json"
    }
}