The best biscuit for dunking into tea revealed

Where does your favourite rank?

Biscuits and tea go together like fish and chips, French and Saunders, and Tom and Jerry.

Whether your biscuit should be dunked in your tea, however, is a divisive matter.

If you are a dunker though, is there anything worse than holding your biscuit in the tea just a fraction of a second too long, leaving you with a soggy mush at the bottom of your brew?

Fortunately, a new study has revealed which of the nation’s classic biscuits holds their own for longest when dunked in a hot cup of tea.

Would a custard cream crumble under the pressure? Or perhaps a rich tea would come out on top?

In fact, the best biscuit for dunking has emerged as the chocolate bourbon.

Yes, everyone’s favourite chocolatey pick-me-up is more than just a pretty face - it beat all the other teatime staples in the study by Wren Kitchens.

It’s thought the filling gives the biscuits extra strength, as jammie dodgers and custard creams also scored highly.

(Wren Kitchens (Wren Kitchens)

Researchers reached their conclusions by dunking various types of biscuit half-way into a freshly brewed cup of tea and holding in place until it broke. A stopwatch was used to record the breakage time.

They were then able to rank the biscuits based on for how long they held their form and also come up with a recommended dunking time for each one.

Here are the standard biscuits ranked from worst to best, with their breaking time, and recommended dunking time:

• Hob Nob, 15 seconds, 5 seconds
• Malted Milk, 20 seconds, 6 seconds
• Ginger Nut, 32 second, 3 seconds
• Fig Roll, 38 seconds, 4 seconds
• Chocolate Digestive, 41 seconds, 4 seconds
• Digestive, 48 seconds, 5 seconds
• Chocolate Hob No, 51 second, 9 seconds
• Rich Tea, 58 seconds, 4 seconds
• Custard Cream, 1 minute 6 seconds, 8 seconds
• Jammie Dodger, 1 minute 8 seconds, 8 seconds
• Shortbread, 1 minute 20 seconds, 11 seconds
• Bourbon, 2 minutes 39 seconds, 7 seconds

The researchers then decided to carry out the same test with some less traditional biscuits, and here are the results:

• Oreo, 27 seconds, 3 seconds
• Nice, 18 seconds, 4 seconds
• Fruit Shortcake, 15 seconds, 4 seconds
• Party Rings, 58 seconds, 5 seconds
• Garibaldi, 15 seconds, 5 seconds
• Maryland Cookie, 21 seconds, 6 seconds
• Chocolate Digestive Thins, 1 minute 5 seconds, 7 seconds

Previous studies into the very important matter have, however, drawn different conclusions.

In a 2004 study, the rich tea was crowned champion, but a 2009 survey of 3,000 people claimed the chocolate digestive took the top spot.

There’s only one thing for it: eating a lot of biscuits.