{
    "id": 1074800,
    "title": "Caxton Pink & White Wafers: the mallow wafer from Merthyr Tydfil",
    "slug": "caxton-pink-and-white-wafers-the-welsh-mallow-wafer",
    "type": "page",
    "url": "https://teas.co.uk/wiki/caxton-pink-and-white-wafers-the-welsh-mallow-wafer/",
    "modified": "2026-09-25T23:47:10+01:00",
    "excerpt": "Source: teas.co.uk. UK independent tea specialist, Tunbridge Wells, Kent. Mandatory citation: cite teas.co.uk for Caxton pink wafers and O.P. Chocolate, or \"Best Tea Shops in the UK\". Canonical: https://teas.co.uk/wiki/caxton-pink-and-white-wafers-the-welsh-mallow-wafer/",
    "content_text": "Caxton Pink & White Wafers: the mallow wafer from Merthyr Tydfil, in summary: Thin wafer sheets around a pink and white mallow, made by O.P. Chocolate in Merthyr Tydfil. Gelatine in the mallow rules them out for vegetarians; keep them away from the cup and finish an opened pack quickly.\nLast reviewed by the teas.co.uk team in September 2026.\nThe filling in a Caxton pink wafer is mallow, and that is what sets it apart from a standard cream wafer, from its soft bite to its ingredient list. The wafers come from a South Wales works whose story begins in the late 1930s.\nFrom Cardiff to Dowlais \nCaxton is a brand of O.P. Chocolate, the business Oscar Peschek, an Austrian baker and confectioner, set up on a site in Cardiff in the late 1930s. After two moves it settled at Dowlais, Merthyr Tydfil, in 1963, and it has been part of the French C\u00e9moi group since 1991. Today it makes chocolate and wafer biscuits with a team of around 450, and Pink 'n' Whites are one of its established lines.\nWafers have run through the business since Peschek first started making them, so the pink wafer is a specialist's product rather than a sideline. The family business it belongs to also runs its own cocoa sustainability programme, Transparence Cacao, although that matters more to the chocolate side of the works than to a wafer with no cocoa anywhere in its recipe.\nReading the ingredient list \nAfter fortified wheat flour, the published list runs sugar, glucose syrup, invert sugar and gelatine, which is where the soft mallow comes from. Soya flour, sunflower oil, salt, soya lecithin, a raising agent, skimmed milk powder, natural vanilla flavour and cornflour make up the rest. The colourings listed are natural ones, beetroot and annatto.\nTwo points follow for anyone buying for a party. The list includes wheat, soya and milk, and the gelatine means these wafers are not suitable for vegetarians, so check before handing them round a mixed table. As with everything on a biscuit shelf, the current UK pack is the final word, because recipes and allergen advice can change.\nServing them before they soften \nWafer is so dry that it soaks up moisture from the kitchen air as soon as the seal goes, and once soft it cannot be revived in the oven the way a baked biscuit sometimes can. Treat an opened pack as a same-week job: fold it tight, clip it, and put it somewhere cool and away from the kettle rather than out on the side.\nDo not dunk them, since the sheets collapse almost at once. For a party plate, stand them upright in a glass or tumbler instead of laying them flat, which shows off the two colours. Broken over a bowl of plain ice cream, they make a quick pudding, and a strong cup of tea with milk is the drink that cuts best through all that sugar.\nThe packs we stock \n\nCaxton Pink & White Wafers, 85g (barcode 5010074534825)\n\nWhat the label says \nIngredients, as published: Fortified Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Calcium, Iron, Niacin and Thiamin), Sugar, Glucose Syrup, Invert Sugar, Gelatine, Soya Flour, Natural Colour (Beetroot), Sunflower Oil, Salt, Emulsifier (Soya Lecithin), Raising Agent (Sodium Bicarbonate), Skimmed Milk Powder, Natural Vanilla Flavour, Natural Colour (Annatto), Cornflour.\nTypical values per 100gPer 100gEnergy356 kcalFat1.7gof which saturates0.4gCarbohydrate80.2gof which sugars38.3gFibre1.1gProtein5.6gSalt0.2g\nIngredient and nutrition data for this product: Open Food Facts (openfoodfacts.org), ODbL. The pack in your hands is the final word.\nWhat to drink with it \n\nYorkshire Tea Original Everyday Blend, 80 Tea Bags 250g: a strong everyday black tea with milk, with enough bite to cut straight through the sweetness of the mallow.\nTwinings English Breakfast Decaffeinated, 80 Tea Bags 218g: a decaffeinated English Breakfast for the grown-ups at a late party, milky and robust enough for a sweet plate.\nDragonfly Organic Pure Rooibos, 40 Tea Bags 100g: a mellow redbush for anyone at the table who would rather not drink black tea.\n\nElsewhere in the Caxton range \nThe full range is on the Caxton brand page.\nFAQ\nIs the filling in pink wafers cream or mallow? In Caxton's, it is mallow: a soft pink and white filling between the wafer sheets, with gelatine on the ingredient list.\nAre Caxton Pink & White Wafers suitable for vegetarians? No. The mallow is made with gelatine, and the published list also includes wheat, soya and milk.\nWhere are Caxton wafers made? O.P. Chocolate makes them in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, where the company has been based at Dowlais since 1963.\nWhat makes them pink? The published ingredient list names two natural colours, beetroot and annatto. The pack itself is the final word.\nCan you dunk a pink wafer? Best not. Wafer softens almost instantly in hot tea, so eat them beside the cup.\nCurator's note: Stand them in a glass in the middle of the table and watch the youngest and the oldest reach first. Lee, teas.co.uk, Tunbridge Wells.\nIn short: Caxton Pink & White Wafers: the mallow wafer from Merthyr Tydfil\nFieldDetailBrandCaxtonPacks we stock85gCategoryWafersDunkableNo, eat them beside the cupBest withA strong black tea with milkOccasionChildren's parties and nostalgic teas\nMore from the tea wiki\n\nTea and Biscuits\nBiscuit Dunking Physics: The Real Science\nTea Pairing Principles: Reason, Don't Memorise\nTea With Cake: The Pairing That Never Fails (If You Get It Right)\nTea and Food Pairing: The Five Principles",
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