page_title: Digestive biscuit
section_title: Chocolate digestives
hierarchical_section_title: Digestive biscuit / Chocolate digestives
caption_attribution_description: English: A McVitie's chocolate digestive biscuit.
context_page_description: A digestive biscuit, sometimes described as a sweet-meal biscuit, is a semi-sweet biscuit that originated in Scotland. The digestive was first developed in 1839 by two Scottish doctors to aid digestion. The term "digestive" is derived from the belief that they had antacid properties due to the use of sodium bicarbonate when they were first developed. Historically, some producers used diastatic malt extract to "digest" some of the starch that existed in flour prior to baking.
  First manufactured in 1892, McVitie's digestive is the best-selling biscuit in the UK. The digestive is ranked the fourth most popular biscuit for "dunking" into tea among the British public, with the chocolate digestive coming in at number one. A YouGov poll saw McVitie's chocolate digestive ranked the third most popular and seventh most famous confectionery in the UK. The UK consumption of these biscuits is truly record breaking: with 6 million consumed each day, representing 70 each second.
context_section_description: Digestive biscuits which are coated on the underside with milk, dark or white chocolate are also available. Originally produced by McVitie's in 1925 in the UK as the Chocolate Homewheat Digestive, other varieties include the basic biscuit with chocolate shavings throughout (chocolate "chips" in the biscuit mix), or a layer of caramel, mint chocolate, orange-flavoured chocolate, or plain chocolate. American travel writer Bill Bryson described the chocolate digestive as "a British masterpiece". The McVitie's chocolate digestive is the most popular biscuit in the UK to dunk into tea.
caption: The coated side of a McVitie's milk chocolate digestive biscuit
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