imp's favourite biscuit

[EIM]

According to his profile, imp's favourite biscuit is the jaffa cake. By the packet.

Well, sorry imp. Legally the jaffa cake isn't a biscuit, so you'll have to choose again. May I recommend the Nice, which is not only tasty, but has a certain rakish charm to it.

[EIM]

imp's favourite biscuit

The Nice is also, of course, one of the world's few onomatopoeic biscuits.

[David Agnew]

imp's favourite biscuit

I bet you don't even pronounce Nice correctly.

[imp]

imp's favourite biscuit

Yeah, but it's not a cake either, is it? Unless you were in a 19th century Scottish Presbyterian household, you couldn't slice one up and decently serve it to eight people.

My great aunt Sybil used to come down and visit from Lanarkshire and tut at the way I shovelled down my biscuits. "We used to get one plain biscuit on a Friday, and my, how we used to look forward to that," she'd intone crisply, as I continued to shovel down platefuls of a selection that may well have included Jaffa cakes.

"See, great aunt Sybil, these aren't strictly speaking biscuits, they're cakes," I could have said if only I'd known the unborn EIM at the time. At Christmas she'd send a John Menzies gift voucher for 25p.

[EIM]

imp's favourite biscuit

I assume it's named after the French city, thus pronounced like that. But hey, the gag wouldn't have worked then.

[EIM]

imp's favourite biscuit

Well, apparently it is a cake, just a small one. It's the one part of Economics A Level I can remember. Apart from the law of Diminishing Marginal Utility (which you can experience from eating too many jaffa cakes). You don't pay VAT on cakes, see, so the classification is important.

Apparently when stale, biscuits go soft and cakes go hard. That's how you tell.

[EIM]

imp's favourite biscuit

Under UK law, no VAT is charged on biscuits and cakes — they are "zero rated". Chocolate covered biscuits, however, are subject to VAT at 17.5%. McVities classed its Jaffa Cakes as cakes, but in 1991, this was challenged by Her Majesty's Customs and Excise and the case ended up before the courts.[5] This may have been because Jaffa Cakes are about the same size and shape as some types of biscuit. A question that the court asked itself was "what criteria should be used to class something as a cake?"

McVities defended its classification of Jaffa Cakes as cakes. In doing so it produced a giant Jaffa Cake to illustrate that its Jaffa Cakes were simply mini cakes.

McVities argued that a distinction between cakes and biscuits is, inter alia, that biscuits would normally be expected to go soft when stale, whereas cakes would normally be expected to go hard. It was demonstrated to the Tribunal that Jaffa Cakes become hard when stale. Other factors taken into account by the Chairman, Mr Potter QC, included: name; ingredients; texture; size; packaging; marketing; presentation; appeal to children; manufacturing process. Contrary to a commonly held belief, whether something is considered a 'luxury item' is not a test for VAT purposes.

Mr Potter ruled that the Jaffa Cake is a cake. He further ruled that, if it is relevant, it is not a biscuit. McVities therefore won the case and VAT is not paid on Jaffa Cakes.

[David Agnew]

imp's favourite biscuit

Not all Jaffa Cakes are small.

[ian.64]

imp's favourite biscuit

Jesus, save me a slice!

Actually I've got jaffa cakes as a biscuit on my profile, but that's fine. They're super-biscuits, gorgeously rubbing out the line between brittle pieces of sweetness and spongey magnificence.

Mmmmmm....

[EIM]

imp's favourite biscuit

No it's not fine. Because they're not a fucking biscuit. Get it sorted.

[ian.64]

imp's favourite biscuit

They're a biscuit to me. I'm sorted, chummy.

[beak]

imp's favourite biscuit

Under UK law, no VAT is charged on biscuits and cakes — they are "zero rated". Chocolate covered biscuits, however, are subject to VAT at 17.5%.

What is this hillbilly gibberish? No wonder the modern world is so confusing, no wonder so many people are lost and depressed in life. Why the difference?

[Guest]

imp's favourite biscuit

I was in the supermarket a few months ago with my three and four year old. They were arguing over which packet of biscuits to buy. One wanted plain, one wanted chocolate, so I suggested we get a biscuit that's plain on one side and chocolate on the other, which was met with total agreement. Problem solved.
I should get a job with the UN really.

And if I was to fill in my favourite biscuit profile Nice would definitely be a top three contender.

[EIM]

imp's favourite biscuit

Some biscuits are zero rated like cakes, as they are seen as staples. But if you stick chocolate on top of that biscuit, it becomes a luxury and therefore subject to VAT.

Which is why McVities had to prove they weren't a luxurious biscuit but a run of the mill biccy.

[Guest]

imp's favourite biscuit

So a chocolate covered cake isn't a luxury item?

[EIM]

imp's favourite biscuit

No distinction is made for cakes. Cakes are cakes.

[Mumpo]

imp's favourite biscuit

If you let Jaffa Cakes go stale, presumably they take on the crunchy texture of a true biscuit.

[Moonlight Shadow]

imp's favourite biscuit

I actually prefer the M&S version of the Jaffa cake, with the dark chocolate covering, less sweet and the orange is a bit more intense. They often sale them at reduced price too, which is nice...

[Disco Child Ballads]

imp's favourite biscuit

I thought imp's favourite biscuit would be the lincoln biscuit.

[Ginger Yellow]

imp's favourite biscuit

Is Marie Antoinette employed by HMRC?

[Guest]

imp's favourite biscuit

Three things:

1) Jaffa Cakes are fucking vile, people. Have a word with yourselves.

2) The biscuit icon itself looks like a Nice biscuit, doesn't it? Or maybe a Lincoln, at a push.

3) I might change my biscuit to Malted Milks.

[Ginger Yellow]

imp's favourite biscuit

"If you let Jaffa Cakes go stale, presumably they take on the crunchy texture of a true biscuit."

Yeah, but that's what makes it a cake.

[EIM]

imp's favourite biscuit

Malted Milks are vile.

[Guest]

imp's favourite biscuit

Don't worry EIM. My feelings for you can survive a biscuit-related impasse such as this.

[EIM]

imp's favourite biscuit

Well I'm not sure I can say the same. Malted Milks indeed.