McVities Victoria Luxury Biscuits

Author's product rating:   

Advantages:	Some biscuits are nice, reuseable tin .
Disadvantages:	All the biscuits taste of orange, all are pretty much the same

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

We recieved a tin of these biscuits for Christmas just gone, and surprisingly only just got round to eating them, which is a shock, as usually anything sweet or chocolate covered in this house, usually goes in a matter of minutes. We've had plenty of McVities products before and they've always been nice, and I think McVities is a decent brand, however I do feel with this certain product that they aren't as good as other McVities products, but more on that later, as I have the VERY tough task that nobody wants to do....eating and describing the biscuits...yum....well for some of them anyway.

*THE TIN*

The tin that the biscuits come in is a darkish royal blue colour, it's quite large in height, width and depth, but is very attractive looking, as far as a tin goes anyway. On the lid of the tin is the name, McVities and then in big gold writing 'Victoria', it then says 'A selection of luxurious milk, white and dark chocolate biscuits to make every occasion special'. Also on the lid are pictures of some of the biscuits inside.
Around the tin is pretty much the same as the lid, the name and pictures of the biscuits. The tin itself is very appealing as it gives you a taster of whats to come inside, as to look at the biscuits look delicious, which for some is quite decieving.

*SIZE AND QUANTITY*

The tin size is 800g, which is a vast amount. There are 12 different varities of milk, white and dark chocolate biscuits to choose from, with each of the varities having around 3 biscuits per layer, and there are 2 layers, so if I do the maths correctly, making on average about 6 biscuits per variety....now for the trying task of taste testing them, oh how I loathe this part......*drool*...ish.

**Plain Chocolate Orange Cream Crumble**:
This biscuit is covered in gold foil. The whole biscuit is covered in plain chocolate with two round biscuit sandwiched together by orange cream. The overall taste of the biscuit is non-surprisingly orange, as orange is a powerful flavour, but in this biscuit, it's not OVER-powering, it's just a nice subtle but scrummy orange flavour. The cream is delicious, and blends so well with the plain chocolate biscuits. Overall 9/10
***However with this biscuit being strong flavoured orange, it gives all the other biscuits a slight taste of orange which is off putting, so all the biscuits below taste slightly of orange. (saves me keep having to say and being repetative every time I desrcibe the different biscuit)

**Milk Chocolate Cream Crumble**:
This biscuit in wrapped in red foil, when the wrapper is opened it reveals a round milk chocolate covered biscuit. It's pretty much the same concept as the plain chocolate cream crumble, apart from its dark choc as opposed to milk, and isn't orange flavoured. Inside the biscuit are two round chocolate crumble biscuits sandwiched together with chocolate cream. The overall taste is of the chocolate cream, which is nice and not sickly. The cream added with the crumble gives a pleasant mix of flavours, each adding to one another. The chocolate covering adds to the overall flavour and makes one hell of a creamy chocolate biscuit. Overall 9/10

**White Chocolate Crispy Biscuit Finger**:
This biscuit is pretty much the same as Cadburys Fingers, apart from it's not half as good, taste wise, as them. The biscuit is the same shape as Fingers, but slightly longer and thicker, and is covered in white chocolate, drizzled with milk chocolate. The white chocolate is quite nice, but I can't help comparing the taste of the biscuit finger to that of the Cadburys. With Cadburys Fingers I can't help going back for more and more, but with this biscuit I think I could happily stop at one. The biscuit seems rather bland and tasteless, that I found myself not sucking the chocolate off first as I usually do. just to get a nicer flavour eating the biscuit whole to mask the blandness of the biscuit. Overall 5/10

**Milk Chocolate Finger Cookie**:
This biscuit is just rather an average biscuit, sort of the ones you'll find left over from the whole tin. The biscuit is quite small, with a a crumble style biscuit, and a very thin layer of chocolate. The overall taste of the biscuit is niceish, if it wasn't for the chocolate, then it probably wouldn't be worth eating. This wouldn't be my first choice out of the whole tin, and is nothing to write home about. Overall 5/10

**Milk Chocolate Wheel**:
This one is quite nice. The biscuit is quite crunchy when you bite into it, but then is soft and quite crumbly inside. It tastes slightly like Cadburys Fingers. A sort of creamy taste, then topped off with a plesant tasting milk chocolate, and leaves a nice after-taste in the mouth. Probably the nicest of the 'unflavoured' biscuits. Overall 8/10

**Chocolate Chip Cookie dipped in Milk Chocolate**:
This biscuit reminded me of the Maryland cookies, but tasted nothing like them, in comparison this one wasn't half as tasty. When first bit into, there wasn't an overwhelming melt in the mouth chocolate sensation like you get from the Maryland cookies, it was rather bland and just tasted like half decent chocolate. The biscuit didn't have a great texture and was rather disapointing as I usually love cookies, especially ones dipped in chocolate. Overall the taste wasn't horrible, but it wasn't great, I expected alot from this one, but was thoroughly dissapointed. Overall 5/10

**Plain Chocolate Coated Coconut Square**:
This biscuit is nice apart from it doesn't taste like coconut at all. The main flavour is the plain chocolate, and thats all I really taste, apart from obviously the biscuit. I don't know if it's just this batch that i've got or if it's them all, but I can't taste coconut whatsoever. However still a nice biscuit none the less, as i'm not a massive fan of coconut anyway. Overall 7/10

**Milk Chocolate Clover**:
This biscuit is obviously shaped like a clover. It's milk chocolate covered, with dark choc drizzle. A pleasant taste of the actual biscuit and chocolate mixed together, although once again the chocolate is thin. The texture is quite crunchy and hard, but it makes a nice biscuit. Overall 7/10

**MIlk Chocolate Raspberry Triangle**:
Like with the milk chocolate coconut square, this tastes nothing like raspberry. It's a ok taste, but I was really looking forward to having a nice raspberry and chocolate biscuit. I imagined it being like sort of the strawberry creams from Roses or Quality Streets, but how wrong was I. The biscuit was rather dry and bland, just tasted like chocolate really. Overall 6/10

**Milk Chocolate Digestive**:
I love my digestive biscuits, dipped in a nice cuppa tea, until theyre nice and soggy, and I especially like chocolate digestives. These biscuits to my upmost glee are TOTALLY covered in chocolate, not half covered like you usually find, so I was happy. When first bit into the biscuit was crunchy and had a nice snap to it. The taste was nice, but not the nicest of chocolate digestives i've ever had. The biscuit had a nice flavour, quite creamyish, and with the chocolate being milk, it added to the overall creamy flavour of the biscuit. Overall 7/10

**White Chocolate Cream Wafer**:
Whenever the word wafer is mentioned to me, I always, always, always think of them lovely pink wafer biscuits which I LOVE. So when we got this tin, this was the first biscuit I eat, and as with all my high expectations of some of these biscuits, my dreams were shattered. Obviously I knew these weren't going to taste nothing like pink wafers as they're completely different biscuits, but i'm going on the wafer texture and overall taste. The wafer was quite chewy which I didn't like, I'm used to the wafer being quite crunchy, but not overly hard. The white chocolate was pleasant and made the biscuit alot more than it would of been without it. The wafer had a ok taste, but the chewyness and softness let the biscuit down. Overall 6/10

**Plain Chocolate Finger Cookie**:
This one was identical to the milk chocolate finger cookie, but obviously has plain chocolate instead of milk. Out of the two I prefer this one more as with it having plain chocolate has a stronger flavour, and leaves a nicer aroma on the pallete. Whereas the milk chocolate is pleasant, but not great. Overall 6/10

*ALLERGIES*

The biscuits contain milk, egg, soya and gluten, and are produced on a line handling nuts and sesame seeds.

*GOOD POINTS*

There aren't aload of good points to these really. SOME of the biscuits are really nice, if that counts.

The packaging is quite attractive, and the tin can be re-used for bits and bobs.

There is a decent amount of biscuits inside.

*BAD POINTS*

The problem for me with these biscuits, is that although there are 12 varities to choose from, they all pretty much taste the same, the only difference being the shape of the actual biscuit. Take for instance the milk chocolate wheel and the milk chocolate clover, they taste pretty much identical, but when I bite into them they feel different as they are different shape therefore have different textures.

The second problem is with the fact the plain chocolate orange cream crumble makes all the other biscuits taste slightly of orange, and that really puts me off. If ever I have strong smelling or flavoured biscuits, I always make a point of not putting them near or mixing them in with other plain biscuits as 99% of the time, the other biscuits take in the flavour of the strong ones and end up ruining the taste of the biscuit.

Thirdly, the chocolate on ALL of the biscuits is really thin, although it's enough to give you a taste, it could of done with being a little bit thicker to give a better overall chocolate sensation.

And lastly, the price. Although we didn't buy these ourselves, I've seen how much they cost around Christmas time and think to be honest these particular biscuits aren't worth the money, whatsoever. There's plenty of other varities on biscuits for the same sort of price and are alot nicer than these.

*OVERALL*

Overall the McVities Victoria Selection is an OK product, nothing special about it. There are 3 biscuits that I could say I really liked, and would eat again out of the 12. The biscuits are pretty much all the same although they have different shapes, so the variety isn't great. The biscuits are quite expensive to buy, i'm not sure exactly how much but i'd say at least a fiver, and from what I've tasted i'd much rather spend an eighth of that amount on just an ordinary packet of decent biscuits and enjoy them thoroughly.
McVities are a decent brand, but I think these biscuits are their weakest product of the lot. The chocolate is thin, the packaging is attractive but isn't great, as it traps the orange flavour inside and makes all the other biscuits taste of orange, and basically some of the biscuits are just plain bland. Personally I wouldn't buy these biscuits for myself, but if i recieved them as a present I would happily re-wrap them and send them off as a thoughtful gift to someone else.

Thanks for reading.