Barny Chocolate Soft Baked Bears: A Small Cake in a Biscuit Wrapper

The Barny bear sits on the biscuit shelf, but what is inside the wrapper is a small filled sponge, and judging it as a biscuit is where disappointment starts. Judge it as a lunchbox cake and nearly every design decision makes sense.

A French bear by way of Europe

Barny is made by Mondelēz International, the company behind belVita. The bear began in France under the name Ourson, and Mondelēz dates the brand to 1996. It was sold in Belgium, Spain and the Czech Republic, among other countries, before arriving in the UK in 2013, when Mondelēz called it its biggest biscuit launch here since belVita.

Chocolate and milk were the two flavours it launched with in Britain, and they are the two we stock. Each is a small baked sponge shaped like a bear, with a soft filling inside, sealed in a wrapper of its own. Mondelēz states a policy of no artificial colours or preservatives for the brand.

Soft by design

Put a crisp biscuit in a school bag and it tends to arrive broken; put a chocolate-coated one in and the coating ends up on the wrapper. A sponge with its chocolate tucked inside gets round both problems: it is too soft to shatter, and none of the chocolate is on the surface. The trade-off is texture: it yields rather than snaps, and it clears the mouth slowly, much as a slice of cake does.

The published ingredient list reflects that sponge build, with wheat flour and eggs near the top and chocolate further down. Per that list for this product, it contains wheat (gluten), milk, egg and soya. Five bears come in the 125g box, so each is about 25g, a sensible size for a mid-morning break or the corner of a lunchbox.

Serving and keeping a bear

Do not dunk it. A sponge takes on liquid at once and turns to paste, and no amount of careful timing fixes that. For children, cold milk is the natural partner: the chill tempers the sweetness, so the sponge tastes less sugary and the filling more of cocoa. For the adult at the same table, an everyday English Breakfast with milk sits comfortably beside the chocolate bear.

Keep the box somewhere cool and leave the inner wrappers closed until a bear is wanted. A soft bake holds its texture inside its seal but starts losing it within hours once opened, so this is not a snack to unwrap and leave on the side. Once the wrapper is off, eat it; a half-eaten bear left until later is never as good.

The packs we stock

• Barny Chocolate Soft Baked Bears Biscuits Multipack, 5 Pack 125g (barcode 7622201416140)

What the label says

The published ingredient list for Barny Chocolate Soft Baked Bears Biscuits Multipack, 5 Pack 125g says it contains wheat (gluten), milk, egg and soya. Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change.

Ingredients, as published: WHEAT flour 26%, glucose-fructose syrup, EGGS 13%, sugar, rapeseed oil, stabiliser (glycerol), chocolate 4,7% [cocoa mass, sugar, fat reduced cocoa powder, emulsifier (SOYA lecithins)], WHEAT starch, skimmed MILK powder 1,3%, whey powder (from MILK) 1,2%, whole MILK powder 0,9%, raising agents (potassium carbonates, diphosphates), fat reduced cocoa powder, salt, emulsifiers (E475, SOYA lecithins), natural flavouring.

Ingredient and nutrition information for this product, as published on the manufacturer's label. The pack in your hands is the final word.

What to drink with it

• PG Tips English Breakfast Special Blends Speciality Black, 70 Tea Bags: an everyday English Breakfast with milk for the parent, sturdy enough to balance a sweet chocolate sponge.
• Hyson Premium Breakfast Tea, 100 Tea Bags 180g: a proper breakfast cup, taken unsweetened, that gives the chocolate bear something to push against.
• Good Earth Rooibos Chai, 15 Tea Bags 34.5g: gentle spice for an afternoon cup at the after-school table.
• Twinings Everyday 120 Plant-Based, 348g: a no-fuss everyday bag for a milky mug while the children eat.

Elsewhere in the Barny range

• Barny Milk Soft Baked Bears Biscuits Multipack, 5 Pack 125g

The full range is on the Barny brand page.

FAQ

Is a Barny bear a cake or a biscuit? It is sold with the biscuits, but it is a small filled sponge, so it behaves like cake: soft, with no snap, and not for dunking.

What does the Barny Chocolate label list? Per the published ingredient list for this product it contains wheat (gluten), milk, egg and soya. Check the current UK pack before buying.

How many bears are in a box? Five, each wrapped separately, in a 125g box.

What should children drink with it? Cold milk works best; it tempers the sweetness and brings out the cocoa in the filling.

How do I keep Barny bears fresh? Keep the box cool and the wrappers sealed. Once opened, a bear is best eaten there and then rather than left out.

Curator's note: Stop expecting it to be a biscuit and it is a very good lunchbox cake. A bear and a glass of cold milk after school is hard to argue with. Lee, teas.co.uk, Tunbridge Wells.

In short: Barny Chocolate Soft Baked Bears: A Small Cake in a Biscuit Wrapper

More from the tea wiki

• Tea and Biscuits
• Biscuit Dunking Physics: The Real Science
• Tea Pairing Principles: Reason, Don't Memorise
• Tea With Cake: The Pairing That Never Fails (If You Get It Right)
• Tea and Food Pairing: The Five Principles
• Tea with Chocolate: Pair by Cocoa Percentage
• Tea and Chocolate Pairing

Download as PDF