Lu Le Petit Chocolat: Chocolate on One Face, Explained

Lu Le Petit Chocolat: The French Breakfast Biscuit, in summary: The Petit Beurre shape with a thin sheet of chocolate across one face, lightly sweetened and made for the breakfast table. Eat it dry, finish the small pack while it is fresh, and pour black coffee.

Last reviewed by the teas.co.uk team in September 2026.

In Britain a chocolate biscuit usually means chocolate with a biscuit underneath; Le Petit Chocolat turns the proportions round. The biscuit is the subject and the chocolate a thin finish on one face, which is why it belongs at breakfast as much as beside an afternoon cup.

A Petit Beurre with a chocolate face

The base takes the outline of Lu's Petit Beurre, scalloped all round with a tab at each corner, the biscuit whose recipe Louis Lefèvre-Utile perfected in Nantes in 1886. Across one face sits a thin layer of chocolate, set firm. Underneath, the biscuit is fine, dry and close-grained, and because the layer is restrained you taste the toasted bake rather than cocoa alone.

The published ingredient list starts with wheat flour at 35%, then sugar, milk fat, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, skimmed milk powder and whey powder. By that list it contains wheat (gluten), milk and soya. The name says chocolate topped without saying milk or dark, and Lu sells a separate dark chocolate version alongside it for anyone who wants more bitterness.

Restraint, not a slab

The German take on the same idea, a Choco Leibniz for instance, lays down a slab heavy enough to stand as a layer of its own, leaving the biscuit to play support. Here the proportions run the other way. One is not better than the other; they suit different moments, and if you want the heft of a British chocolate biscuit, this will feel slight.

The sweetness is moderate, well short of most chocolate-topped biscuits on a British shelf, and the chocolate opens the bite, then steps aside and leaves the biscuit to carry the rest. That light hand is why three can go without anyone noticing, and why it sits happily at a French-style breakfast beside a bowl of coffee instead of being saved for the evening.

Eat it dry, keep it sealed

Skip the dunk. The close, dry crumb takes up tea only at the very edge and goes no further, and the chocolate slips off instead of melting cleanly, so a dunked Petit Chocolat is worse than a dry one. Eat it beside the cup. It is at its best with a serious black coffee, and a lighter black tea holds up as well, since so little chocolate cannot swamp it.

A hundred grams is a pack sized to be finished rather than stored. Bare chocolate soaks up cupboard smells readily, so keep the pack shut and away from ground coffee, spices or anything strongly scented, and do not let an opened pack linger. Treat it as this week's biscuit, not the emergency reserve at the back of the tin.

The packs we stock

Lu Le Petit Chocolat Chocolate Topped Biscuits, 100g (barcode 7622202299254)

What the label says

The published ingredient list for Lu Le Petit Chocolat Chocolate Topped Biscuits, 100g (barcode 7622202299254) says it contains wheat (gluten), milk and soya. Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change.

Ingredients, as published: WHEAT flour 35 %, sugar, MILK fat, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, skimmed MILK powder, whey powder (from MILK), raising agents (ammonium carbonates, sodium carbonates, diphosphates), salt, emulsifiers (SOYA lecithins, E476), acidity regulator (citric acid), flavouring.

Typical values per 100g	Per 100g
Energy	498 kcal
Fat	23g
of which saturates	14g
Carbohydrate	65g
of which sugars	39g
Fibre	2.8g
Protein	6.2g
Salt	0.6g

Ingredient and nutrition data for this barcode: Open Food Facts (openfoodfacts.org), ODbL. The pack in your hands is the final word.

What to drink with it

L'Or Espresso Supremo Coffee Intensity 10, 40 Pods 208g: made long as an americano, the serious black coffee this biscuit was built to sit beside.
Twinings Scotland's Ceylon Tea (International Blend), 20 Tea Bags 40g: a light, clean Ceylon that a thin chocolate layer will not overrun.
Teapigs Darjeeling Earl Grey, 15 Tea Bags 37.5g: a delicate Earl Grey for the afternoon, which a heavier chocolate biscuit would flatten.

Elsewhere in the Lu range

The full range is on the Lu brand page.

FAQ

Is Lu Le Petit Chocolat milk or dark chocolate? The name says only chocolate topped. The published ingredient list includes milk fat, skimmed milk powder and whey powder, and Lu sells a separate dark chocolate version.

Can you dunk Le Petit Chocolat? It is not worth it. The dry crumb barely takes up tea and the chocolate slides off, so eat it dry.

What is the best drink with Le Petit Chocolat? Unsweetened black filter coffee or an americano. A light black tea such as a Ceylon also works, because the chocolate layer is thin.

What allergens are in Le Petit Chocolat? By the published ingredient list it contains wheat (gluten), milk and soya. Recipes can change, so check the current pack.

How is it different from Le Petit Beurre? It takes the Petit Beurre shape and adds a thin chocolate layer to one face. Le Petit Beurre is the plain biscuit, with a hint of salt in its name.

Curator's note: Treat it as a breakfast biscuit, the French way: two with a big cup of black coffee before the day starts. Lee, teas.co.uk, Tunbridge Wells.

In short: Lu Le Petit Chocolat: The French Breakfast Biscuit

Field	Detail
Brand	Lu
Packs we stock	100g
Category	Chocolate Biscuits
Allergens (as published)	It contains wheat (gluten), milk and soya.
Dunkable	No, eat it dry
Occasion	Breakfast or mid-morning
Best with	Black filter coffee, an americano or a light Ceylon