A thin, low-bake, white wheat flour biscuit with a small addition of malt. It is typically 2ins diameter x ¼ins thick, but also appears in a finger form, always helpfully marked with its name.

The precise origin is not clear, though 'tea biscuits' are known from advertisements by several makers from the early 19th Century, and from the pioneering Huntley and Palmers from the 1840's. The term 'Rich Tea' seems to appear almost simultaneously around 1901 from two Scottish companies, Mitchell & Muil, and McVitie & Price


Rich Tea Biscuit
Image: Sean Whitton