McVitie's Family Circle - 400g

McVitie's sits at the heart of the British biscuit cupboard, and Family Circle is its crowd-pleaser: a mixed box made for sharing, meant for a houseful rather than one person and a packet.

People who grew up with it go looking for the sitting-down as much as the biscuits. A box on the table means company, a cuppa and nobody in a hurry, and that habit travels well, even when the box itself does not turn up on the local shelf.

It is a 400g box, so there is enough to go round the table and survive the second pass, which is where the real trouble starts. Keep it in a cool, dry cupboard and shut the lid properly between raids, and it will see you through a good few afternoon cups of tea.

It sits happily next to the other McVitie's favourites, the digestives and the Hobnobs, and a box of proper British tea bags. Build the order around the kettle and you will not go far wrong.