Bourbon biscuits...

Late last night I found myself lured to the tin of biscuits we were given for Christmas by my mother-in-law. Just why this happened I’m not sure, but it could be that I am trying to ‘lose a little weight’ which invariably means I am tempted by all the things I would not usually think about. You see, I’m not a huge fan of biscuits although I prefer them to those awful cookie things that seem to have encroached upon us from the USA.

Of course in the United States, a ‘biscuit’ is a savoury quick bread a little like a scone, and sugar is not used in the dough. Yes, I don’t get it either, particularly as biscuit is from the French word 'bescuit' derived from the Latin bis (twice) and coquere (cooked), hence ‘twice-cooked’ as all good biscuits should be; real biscuits need to have a snap and a crunch you see.

Anyway, I digress - back to the biscuit tin. Most of the goodies had gone. All that was left were a couple of oatcakes, a few custard creams and all (yes all) of the chocolate Bourbons. Of course this was no great surprise as I don’t believe that anyone actually eats Bourbon biscuits. In fact, I can’t understand why biscuit companies insist in making them and putting them in their tins.

The Bourbon was invented in Bermondsey, South London, in 1910 by Peek Frean, the company who gave us the Garibaldi. It was originally called the Creola, until either Mr Peak or Mr Frean decided it would be more appealing if the name was changed to that of France’s guillotined royal family. Well remember, they named the Garibaldi biscuit after Giuseppe Garibaldi, an Italian general and leader of the struggle to unify Italy. So we probably got off lightly. After all, they could have called it the Botha Biscuit, the Kitchener Krumble, or even the Mafeking Malt.

But I digress once more, back to the biscuit tin. Just who eats Bourbons, anybody? In my experience they are always the last in the tin and invariably end up out of the tin and into the bin. Is there a Bourbon biscuit retirement home somewhere where all the millions of unwanted Bourbons go to moan about how unloved they were throughout their biscuity lives?

One last thing. Just what are Bourbons meant to taste of? It certainly isn't Bourbon as in the alcoholic beverage. The biscuit bit has the colour of chocolate, the cream stuff in the middle could be chocolate, but when you bite into it it tastes nothing like chocolate. I don't know, but one thing is for sure - next time I'm getting to the biscuit tin first.