A cup of tea with a few biscuits on the side is a snack indelibly linked with British life. And many people think nothing of taking one of the biscuits and happily dunking it in their hot beverage.
But to dunk a biscuit in a drink is just not done if proper etiquette is to be observed, according to former royal butler Grant Harrold. Harrold, who served King Charles III when he was Prince of Wales, says a cup of tea should always be "sipped and enjoyed" and not be used as a medium for dunking - giving specific reasons why.
Harrold has teamed up with gaming website Slingo to offer his etiquette knowledge on National Biscuit Day. One biscuit with a cup of tea is sufficient, he says, but it should never be more than two or three at a time as demolishing three digestives is "overindulgent".
He also recommends ‘suitable’ biscuit varieties to keep in the cupboard just in case someone pops around for a visit, while explaining how dropped crumbs should be properly dealt with.
‘Never dunk a biscuit in your cup of tea’ and ‘three biscuits is overindulgent’
“We should never dunk anything into our cups of tea. If you dunk a biscuit in your tea, it will change the flavour of the tea, you will get some biscuit at the bottom of it, and it will be all soggy. You don’t want to be doing it. The idea of a cup of tea is that you sip and enjoy it. One biscuit is sufficient for a cup of tea, two is definitely ample, but three is overindulgent.”
‘Don’t drop crumbs, you might not be invited again’
“If you do drop crumbs, you don’t want to be drawing attention to that or yourself. You don’t want anyone to notice. If you have a dog with you, the dog will likely notice it and draw more attention to it. If you drop any crumbs or make a mess around you, hopefully, nobody has noticed this, because it’s possible you may not be invited back and it’s going to be a big cost getting it cleaned.”
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‘Opt for a Duchy Original over a chocolate biscuit for class’
“Digestive biscuits are a top favourite as well as any chocolate biscuit. But chocolate can be messy, and you don’t want to look like you’ve just been to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. I would suggest a plain biscuit, like a digestive would be fine. And if you want to push the boat out a bit more, and be a bit more classy with your biscuit choice, you could opt for Duchy Originals.”
