Soggy biscuits

Here in the UK, many of us like to dunk our biscuits into a cup of tea; apparently dunking releases more flavour by dissolving the sugar they contain, as well as softening the texture; some are less likely than others to become so soggy that they break off and fall in!

And it turns out that we’re not the only ones who follow this tradition. According to Wikipedia, dunking is a popular way of enjoying biscuits in many countries. A popular form of dunking in Australia is the ‘Tim Tam Slam’, also known as ‘tea sucking’. In case you were wondering, it states that “the physics of dunking is driven by the porosity of the biscuit and the surface tension of the beverage. A biscuit is porous and, when dunked, capillary action draws the liquid into the interstices between the crumbs.” So now you know…

One of the most popular biscuits to dunk in tea in the UK is the McVitie’s chocolate digestive, while in the US, Oreos are dunked in milk and in South Africa and India, rusks are a popular food for dunking in both tea and coffee. In the Netherlands, stroopwaffels are commonly dunked in hot beverages, often after having been placed over the hot drink for a few minutes to melt the caramel inside.

This week, I read that we should also be dunking our Kit Kats, and I must admit that I quite like the idea, but as with many types of biscuit, apparently, there is a correct amount of time for dunking them – in this case up to eight seconds. Green Hat Design has created a guide to how long you should dunk a selection of biscuits for in order to achieve ‘perfection’, ‘extreme sogginess’ or ‘floppage likely’.

The question is, how do you eat yours?

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