Why we can’t resist dunking biscuits in tea

Nothing has been so fascinating for me as the rise of the tea sommelier into the world of tea. Not only is the pleasure of drinking tea to be exalted by the use of rare teas brewed with extraordinary care but it is now to be intensified by pairing those sensations with selected items on the menu of high quality restaurants trying to turn a normal eating experience into a memorable experience. The tea sommelier is of course a transplant from the world of wine where the wine sommelier would match a particular wine of exotic provenance with a particular dish. The normal consumer has some idea that a bottle of white or red goes with meat, fish or fowl but the sommelier has to know which Chateau and which year goes with a particular dish and be able to master the palate somersaults when different dishes are served. Heaven forbid that you should put a few grains of salt on the dish and neutralize any of the subtle flavors in your glass or perhaps even worse sprinkle some pepper. What a load of nonsense! Are you allowed to put vegetables together with meat or fish or fowl on the fork at the same time and how long do you wait before you take the glass of wine to your lips? The same problems arise with tea with the added complication that the temperature of the tea is falling and this causes changing flavor sensations.

[bctt tweet=”There are a very sound scientific reasons for dunking biscuits in tea.”]

Most tea drinkers in Britain and its former Empire have become used to dunking biscuits into tea and they have done what people have done for a few thousand years – dunked some bread or biscuits into soups and later into tea. Wikipedia says that over 71 million packets of McVitie’s chocolate digestives are eaten in the United Kingdom each year, giving an average consumption of 52 biscuits per second. There are many other biscuits to choose from, each having its own supporters.

There are a very sound scientific reasons for dunking biscuits in tea. Dr. Len Fisher found that the best dunking time for a gingernut biscuit was 3 seconds, but 8 seconds for a digestive biscuit. Dunking your biscuit into a milky drink gives you up to 11 times more flavor release than from eating the dry biscuit alone. There was of course skill in dunking – you had to know just how long to leave the biscuit in the tea before it became saturated and fell into the tea requiring a delicate rescue operation with the teaspoon. In the British comedy-drama film The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, one of the main characters, explains dunking to her new employer during an interview whilst drinking Builder’s tea. Evelyn, quite poetically describes it as “lowering the biscuit into the tea and letting it soak in there and trying to calculate the exact moment before the biscuit dissolves, when you whip it up into your mouth and enjoy the blissful union of biscuits and tea combined.”

[bctt tweet=”Dr. Len Fisher found that the best dunking time for a gingernut biscuit was 3 seconds, but 8 seconds for a digestive biscuit. “]

Calling a biscuit a digestive was a bit of a con – it was turning something made with sugar into something healthy. Seeing as most tea sommeliers are likely to be purists and not adding any milk to the tea which enhances the flavor experience, it is likely that the benefits of their suggestions will be reduced markedly.

So there it is – dunking biscuits was for the poor man the equivalent of the tea sommelier – both ends of the same spectrum. Dunking biscuits into tea was always seen as something infra dig – not for those who cock their little finger as they lift their cup. The tea sommelier was of course at the other end of the financial spectrum – for those who somehow believed that paying more improved the enjoyment. It reminds me of the song ‘Doin’ What Comes Naturally’ that Annie Oakley sang in Annie Get Your Gun – a musical from decades ago. It’s natural to dunk your biscuits so keep doing it without any guilt. Just do it if you enjoy it.

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