McVitie's Thin Arrowroot Biscuits, 200g
Put this beside a pot of something good and it stays out of the way, which is the whole of its value. There is no aroma in it to argue with a jasmine or a first flush, and not enough sweetness to flatten a lightly oxidised cup, so the tea keeps your attention rather than sharing it. Where it lets you down is under a knife: a round this thin cracks before butter or jam has spread across it, so a household that wants a biscuit to build on should buy a thicker one and keep these for the cup. Wheat flour is the body of it, which puts it out of reach of a coeliac house, and the rest of the declaration is on the current pack.
McVitie's Thin Arrowroot Biscuits, in brief.
McVitie's Thin Arrowroot Biscuits are a 200g pack of thin, pale, barely sweet rounds that go beside a cup of tea without competing with it.
Picked into the Teas.co.uk selection as the everyday tea biscuit for people who want the tea to lead.
A thin biscuit trades dunk tolerance for snap, so the break is sharp and the honest dunk limit is one second. Airtight as soon as the pack is opened.
McVitie's Thin Arrowroot Biscuits is a 200g pack of the plainest thing on the biscuit aisle: a thin, pale, barely sweet round that exists to go beside a cup of tea rather than to compete with it.
Plain biscuits are the hardest ones to sell and the easiest ones to live with. There is no chocolate to hide behind, no cream layer, no chunk, nothing to photograph. What you get instead is a biscuit that can be eaten at eleven in the morning without it counting as a treat, handed to a child without an argument, or put on a saucer beside a good cup of tea without dragging the tea down with it. The arrowroot name is a piece of biscuit-trade tradition rather than a recipe description, and what is actually in the current pack is printed on the current 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
McVitie's Thin Arrowroot Biscuits is a 200g pack of the plainest thing on the biscuit aisle: a thin, pale, barely sweet round that exists to go beside a cup of tea rather than to compete with it.
The Story Behind The Pack
McVitie's is the British biscuit house that gave the country the digestive, and it has spent a very long time making the biscuits people buy without thinking about it. The thin arrowroot sits at the quiet end of that range. It is a survivor of an older way of eating biscuits, when a plain round was the default and the chocolate-covered ones were the exception rather than the shelf.
The format explains the eating. A thin biscuit bakes through quickly and evenly, which is what gives it the sharp break and the pale colour, and it also means there is very little structure holding it together once liquid gets in. That is not a fault, it is the trade: you can have snap or you can have dunk tolerance, and a thin arrowroot has chosen snap.
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.
Our Commitment To The Planet
- A plain biscuit wastes less. Nothing here melts, blooms or separates, so the pack keeps its condition better than a chocolate-covered biscuit does in a warm kitchen.
- Recycling follows the pack. Packs, trays and films can take different routes and councils differ, so read the current pack and your own local guidance.
Serving Notes For McVitie's Thin Arrowroot Biscuits, 200g
- Portion: two biscuits with a mug, three if it is a pot.
- Storage: airtight the moment the pack is opened. A thin biscuit goes soft faster than a thick one and there is no chocolate coating here to slow it down.
- Best with: black tea with milk, a pot of Assam, plain coffee, or butter spread thinly.
- Not for: a long dunk, a cheese board, or anyone expecting a treat biscuit.
Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference McVitie's Thin Arrowroot Biscuits, 200g, 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 biscuit built entirely around a cup of tea, so for once the brewing instructions matter more than the biscuit does.
The Tea-Tray Standard
The One-Second Dunk
Made with this tea
The Tea-Tray Standard
How to serve McVitie's Thin Arrowroot with a proper cup of tea.
- 2 biscuits
- 1 bag ordinary black tea
- 200ml water at a full boil
- A splash of milk
- Brew one bag in 200ml straight off the boil for three minutes. Medium or strong, because a plain biscuit will not be overwhelmed.
- Add the milk and, if you take it, the sugar. This is one of the few biscuits that does not object to a sweetened cup.
- Serve two biscuits on the saucer rather than one. The low sweetness is why a second does not feel like a decision.
What you'll end up with: The pairing this biscuit was designed around, with the tea leading and the biscuit staying out of its way.
The One-Second Dunk
How to dunk a thin biscuit without losing it.
- 2 biscuits
- 1 mug of hot tea
- Hold the biscuit by its edge and dunk no more than a third of it.
- Count one second, in and out. A thin round has almost no structure once hot tea is inside it.
- Eat the wet part first and the dry part second, which is the only reliable way to finish a thin biscuit intact.
What you'll end up with: A successful dunk, which with this biscuit is a genuine achievement rather than a given.
Butter-Pressed Biscuits
How to make the old butter-and-biscuit snack with McVitie's Thin Arrowroot.
- 4 biscuits
- 🯈Softened butter
- 🯂A pinch of flaky salt, optional
- Spread a thin scrape of softened butter on two biscuits. Thin, or the biscuit cracks under the knife.
- Press the other two on top to make a pair.
- Salt lightly if you like the contrast. It turns a quiet biscuit into a savoury snack without adding sugar.
What you'll end up with: The schoolroom trick that makes a plain biscuit into something closer to a meal.
Plain Biscuit Fridge Cake Base
How to use McVitie's Thin Arrowroot as a neutral fridge-cake base.
- 150g biscuits
- 🯈80g butter, melted
- 150g dark chocolate, melted
- 1 tablespoon golden syrup
- Crush the biscuits to a coarse crumb. A thin plain biscuit crushes more evenly than a thick one and brings no flavour of its own to argue with the filling.
- Stir the crumb into the melted butter and syrup until it holds together when pressed.
- Press into a lined tray, pour over the melted chocolate and chill until set.
- Cut while the chocolate is set but not fridge-cold, or it shatters.
What you'll end up with: A neutral base that lets the topping do the talking, which is what a plain biscuit is for.
Crumb Topping For Stewed Fruit
How to turn McVitie's Thin Arrowroot into a quick crumble topping.
- 100g biscuits
- 🯈40g butter
- 500g stewed apple or rhubarb
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon, optional
- Crush the biscuits coarsely and fry them gently in the butter for two minutes until they take on colour.
- Stir in the cinnamon if you are using it.
- Spoon the warm stewed fruit into bowls and scatter the crumb over at the table so it stays crisp.
- Serve at once, with cream or custard.
What you'll end up with: A crumble topping in twelve minutes that does not need an oven or a rubbed-in flour mix.
What’s in it, what to know
Inside the pack
| Component | Proportion | What it brings |
|---|---|---|
| Plain biscuit dough | the whole biscuit | There is nothing else to hide behind. A pale, lightly baked, lightly sweetened round that is judged entirely on its bake and its snap. |
| Thin format | the defining feature | A thin biscuit bakes through quickly and evenly, which gives it the sharp clean break and the pale colour. It also leaves very little structure once liquid gets in, which is why the dunk limit is a second. |
| Low sweetness | by design | The reason it works beside tea rather than against it, and the reason a second biscuit does not feel like a decision. It is a tea biscuit, not a cookie. |
| Pack weight | 200g | |
| The arrowroot name | a trade tradition | A traditional name for this style of thin plain biscuit rather than a description of the current recipe. What is in the pack is set out on the pack. |
Pack: McVitie's Thin Arrowroot Biscuits, 200g; a single pack of thin plain rounds. Best before the date printed on the pack, and best moved to an airtight tin the moment it is opened.
Sourcing & blend. McVitie's Thin Arrowroot Biscuits, 200g comes from McVitie's, the British biscuit house that gave the country the digestive and has spent a very long time making the biscuits people buy without thinking about them. The thin arrowroot belongs to the quiet end of that range, a survivor from a period when a plain round was the default biscuit and chocolate-covered ones were the exception. 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 bake as pale, clean and sharply snapping, and of the dunk tolerance as low, is our own editorial assessment against the current pack format and the brand's published description.
What is in McVitie's Thin Arrowroot Biscuits, 200g, and what is not:
- In: a 200g pack of thin, pale, lightly sweetened plain biscuits.
- Not a dunking biscuit: a thin round trades dunk tolerance for snap, which is an editorial reading of the format rather than a claim off the pack.
- Not a treat biscuit: there is no chocolate, cream or chunk here, and the low sweetness is the point rather than an omission.
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Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference McVitie's Thin Arrowroot Biscuits, 200g, please cite teas.co.uk.
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