McVitie's Pink Raspberry & Cream Digestives

Nothing about the biscuit underneath has been reinvented; this is the digestive McVitie's is known for, with a new coating laid over the top. Read it that way and the pack makes sense: a sweet, creamy raspberry note on a faintly salty wholemeal base, sold for a limited run.

What limited edition means for you

Limited edition here means a production run, not a line that stays in the range. Once it has sold through it may not come back, and there is no telling how long it will stay on the shelf. Unusually for a flavour experiment, it arrives as a full 232g household pack rather than a small taster, which asks more of a curious shopper; in our view the gamble pays off.

Special coatings keep an old favourite interesting without touching the recipe underneath. The base goes back to the digestive Alexander Grant created at McVitie's in 1892, so it is the part you already know. The question worth asking is whether a sweet raspberry and cream note suits a biscuit that is faintly salty and wholemeal. Our answer is yes, a couple at a time, with a bitter cup to balance them.

Sweet-shop raspberry on a salty base

The coating reaches the tongue first. It is creamy and smooth, and laid on thickly enough to count as a layer of its own rather than a glaze. The raspberry on it is bright, pink and confected, much closer to a raspberry sweet than to fruit from a punnet, and it is easier to enjoy once you know that in advance. Because it all arrives at once, the start of each bite is the sweetest part of the whole biscuit.

Then the base takes over. Beneath the coating, the coarse wheatmeal has a faint saltiness and a gentle wholemeal note that cut across the sweetness instead of hiding behind it. That salt is the only thing in the biscuit pushing back against the sugar, so despite the shared base it eats very differently from a plain digestive. The published ingredient list names wheat and milk as allergens.

A short dunk and a strong cup

Dunking is possible but needs care. Keep the pink side facing up and dip just the uncoated edge, briefly, two seconds at most. Go all the way in and the coating softens from above and below and ends up in the tea. Anyone who likes a long, lazy dunk should keep a packet of plain digestives for the job and save these for eating beside the cup.

Because there is nothing bitter in the biscuit, the drink needs to supply it. Go for a strong builder's brew with no sugar or a straight black coffee, and skip anything sweet and milky, such as a latte or a hot chocolate, which only doubles up on sugar. Between sittings, keep the pack well closed, as the uncoated side still goes stale once air reaches it.

The packs we stock

• McVitie's Digestive Pink Raspberry & Cream Flavour, Limited Edition, 232g (barcode 5000168006963)

What the label says

The published ingredient list for McVitie's Digestive Pink Raspberry & Cream Flavour, Limited Edition, 232g (barcode 5000168006963) says it contains wheat (gluten) and milk. Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change.

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

• Barry's Tea Gold Blend, 80 Tea Bags 250g: a strong, brisk breakfast blend taken without sugar, which supplies the bitterness the biscuit lacks.
• Twinings English Breakfast Decaffeinated 40, 109g: decaffeinated English breakfast, taken without sugar, for when the packet comes out after supper.
• Yorkshire Tea Cherry Bakewell Brew, 40 Tea Bags 112g: a black tea with a bakery-style flavour, for anyone who would rather lean into the pudding side than cut it.

Elsewhere in the McVitie's range

• McVitie's Club Layers Orange, 39g
• McVitie's Club Mint Biscuit Bars Multipack, 7 Bars 154g
• McVitie's Club Orange Biscuit Bars Multipack, 7 Bars 154g
• McVitie's Club Salted Caramel Flavour Biscuit Bars Multipack, 7 x 22g
• McVitie's Dark Chocolate Digestive Biscuits, 266g
• McVitie's Digestives Biscuits The Light One, 250g

The full range is on the McVitie's brand page.

FAQ

What are McVitie's Pink Raspberry & Cream digestives? The everyday wheatmeal digestive, coated on one side in a pink layer flavoured with raspberry and cream, and made for a limited time only.

Do they taste of real raspberry? More sweet shop than fruit bowl: the raspberry is a confected flavour sitting on a creamy coating.

Will the limited edition be around for long? It is a limited run, so there is no promise of how long stock lasts or whether the flavour returns.

Does the pink coating contain milk? The published ingredient list for this barcode says it contains wheat (gluten) and milk. Check the current pack before buying.

How do you dunk a digestive with a coating on top? Briefly, coating up, with just the plain edge in the tea. A full dunk melts the coating into the cup.

Curator's note: Treat these as a two-or-three-at-a-time biscuit rather than a tin filler. A strong brew with no sugar is what stops them tipping over into pudding. Lee, teas.co.uk, Tunbridge Wells.

In short: McVitie's Pink Raspberry & Cream Digestives

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

Download as PDF