A Definitive Ranking Of The Best Biscuit For A Cup Of Tea In Ireland

Nothing beats traveling by train, sitting back into your seat and sipping on a cup of tea as the country whizzes by. Add to that tea a biscuit of your choice and you have the recipe for pure and utter bliss. While it might be corny, these two items are so in sync they give you that nostalgic feeling of comfort and home.

Whether you bring your own or buy them on the move, choosing that biscuit is by no means an easy decision. Multiple, complicated, factors go into the decision-making process.

There's an art to combining the perfect biscuit with your tea and we're all independent artists, which makes compiling a ranking of this kind near impossible. Thanks to countless cups of tea and many trips to our local corner shop, we've categorised Ireland's best biscuit through their pro, cons, and dunkability (out of five stars).

While not every biscuit is dunkable, it's important to remember their status in the Irish household as staples with tea. Here's our ranking of the best biscuits to have with a cup of tea in Ireland:

23. Coconut Creams

Pros: With a bouncy top and biscuit bottom, the Coconut Cream is the perfect soft to hard ratio.

Cons: The desiccated coconut dust means you'll need a giant napkin to cover your clothes.

Dunkability: ⭐⭐

22. Polo

Pros: Granny's favourite.

Cons: Granny's favourite.

Dunkability: ⭐⭐⭐

21. Chocolate Polo

Pros: Its chocolate coating gives it that edge it needs.

Cons: The driest biscuit on the entire list, it's impossible to eat a Polo without a galleon of tea.

Dunkability: ⭐⭐⭐

20. Hob Nobs

Pros: Its oat texture gives this biscuit a crunchy but smooth bite.

Cons: One of the flakiest of the biscuit world, be prepared for a war with crumbs.

Dunkability: ⭐⭐⭐

19. Ginger Nut

Pros: The perfect crunchy texture and cinnamon aftertaste make this biscuit a biscuit for tea.

Cons: Asking a ginger-haired person would they like a "ginger nut" is problematic.

Dunkability: ⭐⭐⭐

18. Oreo

Pros: You can break the Oreo biscuit in half with ease turning one biscuit into two. 

Cons: There's not enough icing in the center.

Dunkability: ⭐⭐⭐

17. Jammy Dodger

Pros: The jam filled heart shaped center.

Cons: There's never enough of that juicy strawberry jam.

Dunkability: ⭐⭐⭐

16. Shortbread Biscuit

Pros: The icing sugared coating of the biscuit.

Cons: A chunky biscuit, it takes a whole lot of jaw action to devour this bad boy.

Dunkability: ⭐⭐

15. Fig Rolls

Pros: The pop of jam when you bite into the Fig Roll is one of life's simplest joys.

Cons: The sight of the fig jam center dripping into your tea isn't always pleasant.

Dunkability: ⭐⭐

14. Kimberley Biscuits

Pros: The soft center makes it easy to consume an entire pack of Kimberleys in one sitting.

Cons: Overindulgence.

Dunkability: ⭐⭐

13. Mikado

Pros: The fluffy marshmallow and sweet jam lining make this biscuit an experience and everyone has their own way of eating a Mikado.

Cons: The bottom biscuit takes too long to chew. 

Dunkability: ⭐⭐

12. Party Rings

Pros: The melting icing turns your tea it into a sweet nectar drink suitable for the Gods.

Cons: The icing tends to break off.

Dunkability: ⭐⭐⭐

11. Pink Wafer

Pros: Dipping your wafer into a cup of tea makes it melt in your mouth.

Cons: Be careful with your dunking time, the wafer is known for melting quicker than any other biscuit on this list. Yes, it's a melt.

Dunkability: ⭐⭐⭐

10. Custard Creams

Pros: Nothing tastes like a freshly dunked custard cream entering your mouth for the first time.

Cons: Likely to leave a biscuit residue at the bottom of your tea.

Dunkability: ⭐⭐⭐

9. Bourbons

Pros: Like its cousin the Oreo, the bourbon can be split into two biscuits.

Cons: There's never enough chocolate filling.

Dunkability: ⭐⭐⭐

8. Rich Tea

Pros: No biscuit is as universal as the classic Rich Tea.

Cons: With its small holes, a rich tea is likely to snap in half if you overestimate the dunking time.

Dunkability: ⭐⭐⭐

7. Jaffa Cakes

Pros: Name a biscuit with a better tagline than "Full moon, half moon, total eclipse"? I'll wait.

Cons: There's never enough.

Dunkability: ⭐⭐⭐

6. Chocolate Chip Cookies

Pros: The chunks of chocolate encased in sweet batter.

Cons: Unless you get them just right, a chocolate chip can be too hard or too soft.

Dunkability: ⭐⭐⭐

5. Toffee Pops

Pros: The sweet toffee center.

Cons: The ratio of biscuit to toffee sometimes results in the biscuit base overpowering the sweet and soft caramel center.

Dunkability: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

4. Chocolate Fingers

Pros: You can dip more than one into your cup of tea at the same time.

Cons: We need a thicker chocolate layer.

Dunkability: ⭐⭐⭐

3. Chocolate Hob Nobs

Pros:

Cons:

Dunkability: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

2. Chocolate Butter Biscuits

Pros: What other biscuit is topped with the chunkiest and ideal amount of chocolate?

Cons: If we had to nitpick, the biscuit base can, at times, be confused for a wafer.

Dunkability: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

1. Chocolate Digestives

Pros: The chocolate digestive is a household staple and is on most of Ireland's weekly shopping list.  Affordable, the CD is like shoving a butter biscuit, hobnob and rich tea into your mouth at once.

Cons: Don't be ridiculous.

Dunkability: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐