McVitie's Tasties Custard Creams - 300g

The custard cream is one of the unshowy regulars of the British biscuit tin, sitting alongside the bourbon and the digestive. It has never tried to be posh. It just turns up with the tea in offices, church halls and builders' vans, and gets eaten without anyone making a speech about it.

People in Canada go looking for this one because it is the specific one they grew up with: that snap, that pattern, that dunking window they learned as a child and never forgot. Close enough is not the same as the one you remember.

This is a 300g pack, a good cupboard stock that keeps happily on the shelf with the end folded over and clipped. Dunk for a couple of seconds, no more, or the bottom half goes to live in your tea and you spend the next minute fishing for it with a spoon.

McVitie's is also the name behind digestives, Hobnobs, Rich Tea and Jaffa Cakes, so a custard cream rarely travels alone. Most people put a box of proper British tea in the basket next to it, which is the correct decision.