Every time I'm in Selfridges I pick up the Biscuiteers Paddington Biscuit Box. For years. But I always end up talking myself out of it, telling myself it's too much to spend on a tin of biscuits - no matter how much I adore Paddington - and ultimately continuing to get my gingerbread fix via Waitrose for £1.75 (fyi Dan the Dinosaur is my favourite shape, because he's a dinosaur so obv... But Alan the Avocado is the same price and gives you 75g of biscuit to Dan's comparatively measly 30g.)
But - but! - the team at Biscuiteers have only gone and collaborated with the Natural History Museum.
Now, if there's one thing I can't resist - it's a dinosaur. My phone lock screen is a triceratops, my phone ring is a Rexy one from Coach, I buy every t-shirt Coach put Rexy on, Jurassic Park is one of my favourite franchises and my love for the first film goes so deep that I not so low-key burst into tears when Ellie and Alan appeared on the cinema screen in Jurassic World Dominion.
Added to that, I love history - and the Natural History Museum is one of my favourite museums in the world. It's one of my favourite places, full stop. In the way that Holly goes to Tiffany's, I would go to the NHM every time the mean reds struck if I lived closer.
So, on a rainy Monday morning in work, tipped over the edge by this collaboration and the 15% discount code they sent out to celebrate it, I finally tipped over and bought myself my first box of Biscuiteers biscuits.
For this first foray into the biscuiteers world, I opted for the Natural History Museum Biscuit Tin - which is £40.00 and contains all 8 biscuits from the collaboration.
First things first - packaging. I do love it. I even loved the outer postage packaging - it feels special right from the moment the postman (or woman!) hands the parcel over. And for the interior packaging - it's so lovely. I will absolutely keep the tin box and reuse it for something else (not quite sure what yet, but something!)
Secondly - more importantly - the biscuits. They come nestled in the box on black trays, which they're iced to to keep them secure before opening, and you have to peel back the tissue paper to reveal that top layer - all of which adds to the experience of indulging in these very special biscuits.
Presentation wise, they were beautiful. Almost too beautiful to eat, in fact. I mean, that almost goes without saying because realistically those hand illustrated finishes are what you're paying for here - and you definitely do get an aesthetically stunning biscuit for your buck.
But it is quite a considerable buck - and I can't downplay that. This absolutely is not an exercise in value for money. The eight biscuits in this tin come to approx 160g - for an rrp of £40.00. That's less than 3 Alan the Avocado's worth of biscuit grammage for a large amount more of your hard earned pounds. (I promise I earn no commission on Waitrose purchases, I'm just an emphatic fan!)
Since I don't imagine grams are actually much help, here are some of the biscuits with a MAC lipstick in shot to perhaps allow you to envision the size more accurately...
As you can see - they're not huge. The T-Rex is a little over the height of a lipstick, and the Dodo is about the width. Given the T-Rex (15g according to the website) retails for £13.95 on its own, I think had I ordered that and been delivered this little biscuit I'd have felt quite short changed to be totally honest.
The biscuits themselves are nice. The website does say they are gingerbread, but basing it on the batch I had they were a very subtle gingerbread - to be honest, if you'd told me they were a vanilla biscuit I wouldn't have questioned you. I imagine this maybe makes them more giftable and with wider appeal, which is probably the brand's main concern - but for me personally I do enjoy gingerbread and would have liked the flavours to be stronger. Were they the best biscuits in the world? No, but they may well have been the prettiest.
Will I buy more? Well, yes. There's no point in me pretending otherwise. Am I interested in buying more because I like specific boxes and designs? Also yes. If this was purely biscuit for biscuit comparison, Waitrose would be the winner. So whilst I have no intentions of making buying from Biscuiteers a regular habit, I know that the days will come when I will buy the Paddington Box, both the Peter Rabbit Boxes, The Snowman Box and probably the Nutcracker Box too. But I won't be rushing to purchase them and they are something I'll buy when there is a discount code.
So, after years of looking and not buying - I'm not blown away, but I'm also not highly disappointed. I do think, though, it's worth reiterating that I would have been disappointed if I'd bought one of the smaller packs. Although the tins are the most expensive offering from each of the collections, they offer you the most biscuits for your money and the tin itself can be kept - which feels like a far better use of £40 than say £27.50 on one dinosaur and 2 leaf biscuits would have felt, or the previously mentioned £13.95 for one.
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