Schär Maxi Sorrisi: What They Are and How to Keep Them

Schär Maxi Sorrisi

Sorrisi is Italian for smiles, and Maxi Sorrisi are Schär's crispy vanilla biscuits with a chocolate filling. What sets them apart on a free-from shelf is the pack: 250g, where a free-from pack of 100g to 150g is far more common.

Published 26 Sep 2026 Curator-written, not crowdsourced

Schär Maxi Sorrisi, in summary: Crispy vanilla biscuits with a chocolate filling, made on maize rather than wheat by a gluten-free specialist. The 250g pack is large for free-from, so tin them the day you open them and dunk only briefly.

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

Sorrisi is Italian for smiles, and Maxi Sorrisi are Schär's crispy vanilla biscuits with a chocolate filling. What sets them apart on a free-from shelf is the pack: 250g, where a free-from pack of 100g to 150g is far more common.

Maize, starch and a chocolate middle

Schär describes Maxi Sorrisi as a crispy vanilla biscuit with a chocolate filling, built on maize flour and starch in place of wheat and made without preservatives. The brand lists milk, eggs and soya for this line, a reminder that gluten free is not the same as free of every allergen. The current pack carries the full declaration and any may-contain warnings, and it is the thing to read.

Without gluten, starch and fat carry the structure, and you can hear the difference: the crumb is short and granular and melts quickly, with none of the slight stretch of a wheat biscuit. The aroma is gentler from the pack, too, since much of the scent of an ordinary bake comes from wheat protein reacting with sugar. If the cupboard is cold, let a couple come up to room temperature on the plate and more of the vanilla comes through.

Why a 250g pack wants a tin

A crumb held together by starch draws damp from the air more quickly than wheat does, which means an opened pack softens sooner, and a big pack stays open for longer. Move the biscuits to an airtight tin as soon as the wrapper is opened, rather than trusting a clip. Keep the tin somewhere cool and dry, away from the steam of the kettle, and never in the fridge, which is damp enough to spoil the texture within a day or two.

The size is the point of the product. Free-from biscuits usually come in small packs suited to a first try, and 250g is a pack for a household that already knows it likes them. If you have never had Maxi Sorrisi, that is worth weighing before you commit. If they are already the everyday biscuit in a home where one person eats gluten free, the bigger pack simply means topping up the tin less often.

Dunking, pouring and the rest of the range

Dunk with care, or not at all. In a wheat biscuit the gluten keeps things together once hot tea soaks in; without it, the crumb gives up all at once, after about a second, however sturdy it looks on the plate. A plain everyday black tea with milk is the easy partner: it neither fights the vanilla nor swamps the chocolate filling. Try a biscuit first and then decide whether your tea wants sugar at all, and consider a redbush as a gentler cup for the evening.

In the Schär range we stock, Maxi Sorrisi is the sweet, filled biscuit for the everyday tin. The Digestives and Rich Tea are the plain choices, the Chocolate Fingers are shortbread in milk chocolate, and the Jaffa Cakes pair sponge with orange and dark chocolate. That puts Maxi Sorrisi somewhere between the plain and the fully coated: sweet enough to feel like a treat, but still a biscuit for the tea tray rather than a confection.

The packs we stock

Schar Maxi Sorrisi, 250g (barcode 8008698004630)

What to drink with it

Yorkshire Tea Original Loose Leaf Tea, 250g: A strong, straightforward pot of black tea that lets the vanilla and chocolate come through without competing.
Clipper Fairtrade Everyday Tea, 80 Pack 232g: A dependable everyday bag for a mug with milk, the sensible default beside a sweet filled biscuit.
Yorkshire Tea Caramelised Biscuit Brew, 40 Tea Bags 112g: A black tea with a caramelised-biscuit theme of its own, for anyone who likes the cup to lean sweet.
Tetley Redbush Pure, 40 Tea Bags 100g: A smooth redbush for the evening that sits quietly beside the chocolate filling.

Elsewhere in the Schar range

The full range is on the Schar brand page.

FAQ

What are Maxi Sorrisi? Crispy vanilla biscuits with a chocolate filling from Schär, made with maize flour and starch instead of wheat. Sorrisi means smiles in Italian.

Do Maxi Sorrisi contain milk or eggs? Schär lists milk, eggs and soya for Maxi Sorrisi. Check the current pack for the full allergen declaration and any may-contain advice.

Can you dunk Maxi Sorrisi? Only briefly. A gluten-free crumb has no gluten network to hold it together in hot tea, so it gives way after about a second.

How should I store an opened pack? In an airtight tin in a cool, dry cupboard, starting the day you open it. Keep them out of the fridge, where the damp softens them quickly.

Are Maxi Sorrisi gluten free? They come from Schär, a brand that makes only gluten-free food, and the declaration is on the front of the pack. Anyone buying for coeliac disease should still read the current pack each time.

Curator's note: Tip the lot into a tin the moment the pack is open; a free-from biscuit forgives plenty, but not a damp cupboard. Then a strong mug with milk, and a very quick dip if you are feeling brave. Lee, teas.co.uk, Tunbridge Wells.

In short: Schär Maxi Sorrisi

Field	Detail
Brand	Schar
Packs we stock	250g
Category	Free From Biscuits
Dunkable	Only briefly, about a second
Storage	Airtight tin from day one
Best with	A plain black tea with milk