McVitie's Signature Cocoa Truffle Gold Rounds: Inside the Truffle

Read the ingredient list and the largest part of these rounds is a caramel flavoured coating, at 62%, with the cocoa filling at 15%. That soft, fat-rich make-up is why they melt in the mouth instead of cracking, and why a sunny worktop is their worst enemy.

Caramel, cocoa and a wheat round

The name leads with cocoa truffle, but the label gives the proportions. The caramel flavoured coating is built from sugar, palm and shea oils, milk powders, caramel and whey; the cocoa filling adds sugar, palm and sunflower oils, fat reduced cocoa powder and more milk powder. The wheat biscuit takes up the rest, which is why each round eats rich and yielding rather than crunchy.

The published allergen statement lists wheat (gluten), milk, soya and sulphites. The sulphites come from a flour treatment agent, sodium metabisulphite, and they are an allergen few people think to look for on a biscuit. Anyone who must avoid them should leave these alone.

How they differ from the Dark Chocolate Rounds

The two Signature rounds come in the same weight of pack, but they behave in opposite ways. The Dark Chocolate Rounds have a firm coating that cracks cleanly and releases a bitter cocoa edge all at once. These truffle rounds soften and yield instead, the cocoa arrives gradually and finishes dry and deep, and the sweetness sits in the middle ground.

Reach for the dark version when the drink is a strong black coffee that wants something bitter to meet it, or when you like a biscuit that snaps. Reach for the truffle rounds when you want something richer and rounder to close a meal, one each with the coffee, and for anyone who would rather a biscuit melted than cracked.

A cool cupboard and a milky cup

A truffle filling is softer than set chocolate and starts to loosen at temperatures the biscuit underneath would shrug off. Leave the pack in the sun for an hour and every round loses the crisp outline on its top, and it never returns. A cool, dry cupboard away from the window is essential rather than optional; take out only what you will eat.

There is enough depth in the cocoa to stand up to milk, so a builder's tea or a flat white suits it well. Black coffee with no sugar brings the cocoa to the front instead, which suits an after-dinner plate. Dunking is possible but hardly worth it: a couple of seconds at most, flat side down with the top kept out of the tea, and most people will prefer them dry.

The packs we stock

• McVitie's Signature Cocoa Truffle Gold Rounds Biscuits, 109g (barcode 5000168015880)

What the label says

The published ingredient list for McVitie's Signature Cocoa Truffle Gold Rounds Biscuits, 109g says it contains wheat (gluten), milk, soya and sulphites. Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change.

Ingredients, as published: Caramel Flavoured Coating (62%) [Sugar, Vegetable Oils (Palm, Shea), Dried Whole Milk, Caramel (Dried Whey (Milk), Maltodextrin, Palm Fat, Sugar), Dried Whey (Milk), Dried Skimmed Milk, Lactose (Milk), Butter Oil (Milk), Emulsifier (Soya Lecithin), Salt, Flavouring], Cocoa Filling (15%) [Sugar, Vegetable Oils (Palm, Sunflower), Fat Reduced Cocoa Powder (2%), Dried Whole Milk, Dried Skimmed Milk, Emulsifiers (Soya Lecithin, E471, Lecithin), Flavouring, Salt], Wheat Flour, Sugar, Palm Oil, Invert Sugar Syrup, Raising Agents (Sodium Bicarbonate, Ammonium Bicarbonate, Disodium Diphosphate), Salt, Dried Whey (Milk), Dried Whole Milk, Flour Treatment Agent (Sodium Metabisulphite), 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

• Yorkshire Tea Gold Blend Loose Leaf Tea, 250g: a full-bodied loose leaf breakfast tea to take with milk, which the cocoa is rich enough to meet.
• Hyson Premium Breakfast Tea, 100 Tea Bags 180g: a strong breakfast tea in bags for the same milky, builder's-style cup.
• Starbucks Espresso Roast by NESPRESSO Coffee, Dark Roast, Box of 36, 198g: a dark roast espresso for after dinner that pushes the cocoa to the front.

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 Digestive Pink Raspberry & Cream Flavour, Limited Edition, 232g

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

FAQ

What does cocoa truffle mean on these rounds? It describes a soft, fat-rich cocoa element that gives way in the mouth instead of cracking like set chocolate.

Do Cocoa Truffle Gold Rounds contain sulphites? Yes. The published allergen statement lists sulphites, from a flour treatment agent, as well as wheat (gluten), milk and soya.

Are Cocoa Truffle Gold Rounds worth dunking? Only briefly, and they are better dry. The soft top slides rather than melting neatly, so keep it clear of the cup.

Why have the tops gone soft and smudged? They have been somewhere warm or sunny. The truffle loosens easily and the marks do not recover, so keep the pack cool.

Which is richer, these or the Dark Chocolate Rounds? These are rounder and richer; the dark rounds are firmer, snappier and more bitter.

Curator's note: One each after dinner, with a black coffee, is how I would use a pack like this. Keep it in the coolest cupboard you have. Lee, teas.co.uk, Tunbridge Wells.

In short: McVitie's Signature Cocoa Truffle Gold Rounds: Inside the Truffle

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

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