Author Topic: Sports Biscuits  (Read 3228 times)

Sports Biscuits
« on: 31 January, 2021, 12:14:24 pm »
No, not disco biscuits. I have never ever seen Sports Biscuits, biscuit K in this Twitter poll.
They have a logo of a cyclist.  Maybe they were never sold in Scotland?

https://twitter.com/woodmally1979/status/1355534004678701056

Re: Sports Biscuits
« Reply #1 on: 31 January, 2021, 12:23:44 pm »
That looks like a knock off. The proper ones have Munich Olympics style pictograms:

http://www.celshader.com/images/bboards/SportsBiscuit_closeup.png

I don't remember a cyclist.

ETA: Eek, there's a cyclist lurking at the top of my picture.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Sports Biscuits
« Reply #2 on: 31 January, 2021, 12:32:13 pm »
Not sure I remember sports biscuits specifically but they look like standard British kiddy biscuits, also sold with pics of animals etc. V similar to malted milk (item F).

Frankly it's a poor selection IMO with only the bourbon and the fig roll worthy of consideration. Maybe the wafer too
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

FifeingEejit

  • Not Small
Re: Sports Biscuits
« Reply #3 on: 31 January, 2021, 12:36:49 pm »
No, not disco biscuits. I have never ever seen Sports Biscuits, biscuit K in this Twitter poll.
They have a logo of a cyclist.  Maybe they were never sold in Scotland?

https://twitter.com/woodmally1979/status/1355534004678701056

Definitely were, I remember eating them in a real house rather than caravan.

It's probably more a case of, why would you eat Shortcake when you can have Shortbread?

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Sports Biscuits
« Reply #4 on: 31 January, 2021, 03:45:13 pm »
The proper ones have Munich Olympics style pictograms:

Yep, that’s how I remember them too.

The biscuit itself was very similar to malted milk in texture and flavour, iirc.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Sports Biscuits
« Reply #5 on: 31 January, 2021, 03:47:58 pm »
By the way, if that’s from a quiz, the quizmaster should be given a stern talking to - the answer is clearly visible in five of them. (ETA: Ok, just re-read the tweet.. it’s a poll rather than a quiz, so fair enough, but in that case there are several important options missing)
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Sports Biscuits
« Reply #6 on: 31 January, 2021, 04:57:32 pm »
it’s a poll rather than a quiz, so fair enough, but in that case there are several important options missing)
If the question is "Which of these biscuits?" it's an appropriate time for the answer to be "Keto".
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: Sports Biscuits
« Reply #7 on: 31 January, 2021, 06:29:01 pm »
The proper ones have Munich Olympics style pictograms:

Yep, that’s how I remember them too.

The biscuit itself was very similar to malted milk in texture and flavour, iirc.

My bold.
Otl Aicher was responsible for those.
I've always thought them to be quite iconic and seldom matched by anything since.

Mrs Pingu

  • Who ate all the pies? Me
    • Twitter
Re: Sports Biscuits
« Reply #8 on: 31 January, 2021, 06:30:36 pm »
I think I've only had those biscuits once and it might have been at one of my English rellies.
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

FifeingEejit

  • Not Small
Re: Sports Biscuits
« Reply #9 on: 31 January, 2021, 10:22:00 pm »
Appear to be made by Foxes, this may explain things, even years after McVities flew south, just try finding run of the mill biscuits of any form other than McVities in Scotland.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Sports Biscuits
« Reply #10 on: 01 February, 2021, 12:30:40 am »
Gosh, Lincoln biscuits.  Haven't seen one of those for years.  The biscuit equivalent of tactile paving.

Obviously I'd be letting the side down not to vote for the Kim Biscuits (which are option L, presumably due to some sort of off-by-one error), though I generally prefer a decent shortbread.

Bourbons are a work of Stan, and the pink wafer things are what you get if you try to make Stroopwafels out of freeze-dried My Little Ponies rather than the usual bakery floor sweepings.

I've never seen the cyclist ones.

WTF is 'H'?  It looks like it's suffering from a bad case of microbiology...

Gattopardo

  • Lord of the sith
  • Overseaing the building of the death star
Re: Sports Biscuits
« Reply #11 on: 01 February, 2021, 01:01:13 am »
No, not disco biscuits. I have never ever seen Sports Biscuits, biscuit K in this Twitter poll.
They have a logo of a cyclist.  Maybe they were never sold in Scotland?

https://twitter.com/woodmally1979/status/1355534004678701056


Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Sports Biscuits
« Reply #12 on: 01 February, 2021, 01:08:15 am »
WTF is 'H'?  It looks like it's suffering from a bad case of microbiology...
Looks to me like a version of a coconut macaroon or something similar from Before Europe (any time up to the early 90s probably). Please not this does not mean it is in any way like a coconut macaroon and it definitely doesn't contain coconut. It is to coconut as prawn cocktail crisps are to prawns, cocktails and indeed crisps.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

FifeingEejit

  • Not Small
Re: Sports Biscuits
« Reply #13 on: 01 February, 2021, 01:44:40 am »
Recognize H but can't think what they're called.

The only 2 biscuits there worthy of being in a best biscuit competition are party rings and the jammy dodger though, the rest as good as they are, are just run od the mill.



Sent from my BKL-L09 using Tapatalk


ian

Re: Sports Biscuits
« Reply #14 on: 01 February, 2021, 10:02:45 am »
H is a Jam Mallow, basically a biscuit base covered with jammy dodger glue with those signature dobs of marshmallow. They were common in my childhood, which featured a lot of biscuits. As children, we used to get huge bags of broken biscuits from the market and eat the lot till we bounced around like energetic particles and had to be sedated with intravenous gravy. My grandparents had a tin of biscuits that I swear predated the war. As did the contents. I think some of those biscuits were older than Queen Victoria. To get out of eating them, you had to claim a liking for more modern biscuit species, so my gran would buy them separately. That might explain Jam Mallows. I was always a big fan of Malted Milk. We definitely had Sports Biscuits too.

Never been a big fan of chocolate biscuits, but then I'm not a big fan of chocolate, so there you go. I don't have an upper limit on Tunnock's teacakes, of course, but then who does.

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Sports Biscuits
« Reply #15 on: 01 February, 2021, 11:30:59 am »
H is a Jam Mallow

Good knowledge. I am familiar with the biscuits but even now you've mentioned the name it doesn't ring any bells.

They're the kind of thing that looks incredibly exotic when you're a small person, but the eating experience never lives up to the anticipation*. In my recollection, the biscuit base was always disappointingly soft, like it had gone stale. They were always like that, every time I ever had one, so I presume it was by design rather than just getting an out-of-date packet.

I bet I would find them sickeningly sweet if I had one now.

*See also: lemon puffs
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

ian

Re: Sports Biscuits
« Reply #16 on: 01 February, 2021, 11:54:02 am »
Yes, that was by design, the soft base was the highlight, reminded me of cheesecake bottom (the best bit of a cheesecake, a generally disappointing confection).

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Sports Biscuits
« Reply #17 on: 01 February, 2021, 12:45:17 pm »
I always wanted them to be crunchy. Even as a child I recognised that you need a textural contrast to the marshmallow topping.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

ian

Re: Sports Biscuits
« Reply #18 on: 01 February, 2021, 12:51:03 pm »
Google tells me they originated in Ireland. Not sure how they got to Erewashia, but they were a staple of my childhood.

I am not sure where the big bags of broken biscuits came from – seriously the was a market stall that just sold that, huge bags of broken biscuits (mixed bags were cheaper, if you wanted a bag containing a single type, there was a premium).

bhoot

  • MemSec (ex-Mrs RRtY)
Re: Sports Biscuits
« Reply #19 on: 01 February, 2021, 12:58:15 pm »
Broken biscuits takes me back to student days in Loughborough. Someone would be deputed to go to Ashby-de-la-Zouch to the factory shop and return laden with boxes of goodies. I seem to recall two options - plain and chocolate, with the latter costing approx twice the price. No idea how much they cost but probably only about 50p as beer was 32p a pint in those days.

Re: Sports Biscuits
« Reply #20 on: 01 February, 2021, 12:59:22 pm »
I am not sure where the big bags of broken biscuits came from – seriously the was a market stall that just sold that, huge bags of broken biscuits (mixed bags were cheaper, if you wanted a bag containing a single type, there was a premium).

It's from when the machines that make them go a bit wonky. It was the same with chocolates when I was a kid. Everyone in York had at least one relative who worked at Rowntrees or Terrys and chocolates came in plain white bags of "waste" bought cheap from the factory shop. These could be the wrong shape, incorrect thickness of chocolate covering etc or occasionally and magically too big for the wrappers.

I think modern manufacturing machinery goes wrong less frequently and this sort of thing has all but died out.
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Re: Sports Biscuits
« Reply #21 on: 01 February, 2021, 01:08:23 pm »
When I was a smaller Mr Larrington approaching the end of my ten-stretch at st custards the pater of my room-mate “Nobby” Hetherington was a high muck-a-muck at a CHOKLIT factory* in Hull, while the cleaner's husband worked for Rowntrees in York.  A brisk trade ensued with the middlemen, as always, taking their cut ;D

* IIRC it was Needler's
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

ian

Re: Sports Biscuits
« Reply #22 on: 01 February, 2021, 01:11:36 pm »
I know how they come from, it was more a case of where they came from. I don't remember any local biscuit factories. Maybe there was a huge national trade in broken and other malformed biscuits.


Re: Sports Biscuits
« Reply #23 on: 01 February, 2021, 01:42:30 pm »
When I was a smaller Mr Larrington approaching the end of my ten-stretch at st custards the pater of my room-mate “Nobby” Hetherington was a high muck-a-muck at a CHOKLIT factory* in Hull, while the cleaner's husband worked for Rowntrees in York.  A brisk trade ensued with the middlemen, as always, taking their cut ;D

* IIRC it was Needler's

Yes Needlers, my grandfathers neighbour worked there so used to get big bags of the sensations sweets, boiled sweet with a googy middle iirc.


Pedal Castro

  • so talented I can run with scissors - ouch!
    • Two beers or not two beers...
Re: Sports Biscuits
« Reply #24 on: 01 February, 2021, 02:01:54 pm »
That looks like a knock off. The proper ones have Munich Olympics style pictograms:

http://www.celshader.com/images/bboards/SportsBiscuit_closeup.png

I don't remember a cyclist.

ETA: Eek, there's a cyclist lurking at the top of my picture.

A real blast from the past.

Now I have a desperate need to find some...  :P