McVitie's Digestives: Double chocolate

Product name: McVitie’s Digestives: Double chocolate
Purchase details: £1.75 for a 300g pack (Tesco) 

Calories: 83 per biscuit
Country of origin: UK 

I like digestive biscuits. I like chocolate digestives a bit more. Would I normally get excited by a new type of digestive biscuit? Nope! However, back in April this year, McVitie’s released this new Double chocolate digestive biscuit which I saw reviewed on Chocolate Mission and was subsequently drawn in by. When I was asked, later that day, if I wanted anything from the shops, there was only thing I requested – McVitie’s Digestives: Double chocolate! However, I made the mistake of not specifying how much I was prepared to pay for a packet and I was a little bit gutted when I discovered they’d set me back £1.75. I’m sorry, but I’d never normally pay that much for a product like this – I guess I risked it for a chocolate biscuit (sorry, that was poor!).

Since we’re now in September, these unopened biscuits have sat in my stash for months, in which time, I’ve seen some floating about in work a few times. However, I’ve always managed to resist since, if I ate a snack there, I’d have nothing to look forward to in the evening! Anyway, at some point during the last five months, I’d forgotten that these biscuits contained chocolate chips – I was thinking that the only additional chocolate was the flavour of the actual Digestive, so it was a nice surprise when I re-read the deep blue wrapper which described the product as ‘chocolate flavoured Digestive biscuits with chocolate chips, half coated in milk chocolate’. (On the subject of the wrapper, can someone please explain to me why companies put the opening strips at the wrong end of the packaging? It should be at the top ie the end where the product name starts. Tsk.)

I thought these Digestives were quite plain-looking since the ‘wheatmeal biscuits’ and chocolate coating were pretty much the same shade of brown. However, I did like the way the McVitie’s name was imprinted on the base and the relatively large air holes also added a little something to the appearance. I did think the bases looked quite dry but I was pleased to see that the dark chocolate chips were visible. Whilst I wasn’t expecting these biscuits to smell of much, if anything, they actually had a chocolatey aroma up close.

When I tried my first Digestive, I found it really strange that it had the usual texture but without the normal flavour. The overall taste was, thankfully, chocolatey, but none of this seemed to come from the Digestive itself. In fact, the actual biscuit didn’t seem to taste of anything at all until it was swallowed. As suspected, the Digestive was a bit dry but only in the standard way, and the chocolate layer (the best bit!) took away from this. The only difference I noticed, texturally, was that there didn’t seem to be any noticeable wheat flakes like the plain ones have. 

The main chocolate flavour, unsurprisingly, came from the cool chocolate coating that covered half of the crispy biscuit. What was really nice was the ever-so-slight bitterness that the chocolate chips added to this sweet experience, and the minor salty aftertaste that remained after each mouthful.

If I were to end my review here, I’d conclude that these biscuits were what they were designed to be: a more chocolatey chocolate digestive. However, I wouldn’t necessarily buy them again. For the sake of you lovely readers, though, I decided to take the plunge (no pun intended) and dunk a couple of biscuits into my cup of tea – something I usually refrain from doing to avoid a sloppy, mushy mess at the bottom of my mug. Well, what can I say? When dipped into a hot cuppa, these biscuits were lifted to a new level. The chocolate layer melted slightly, the overall flavour was even more chocolatey, and they had a great aftertaste. I just know that, if it had been a non-diet day, I would have muttered ‘uh-oh’ at this point, before proceeding to eat the entire packet. Very moreish!

So, my real conclusion is that, straight out of the packet, these biscuits are good, and dunked in tea, they’re a bit more special and in danger of becoming addictive. At the end of the day, though, they are just a slightly fancier chocolate biscuit and I wouldn’t pay the same price for them again. 

Appearance: 7/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 7.5/10
Overall score: 7.25/10