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Shocked shoppers spot new ‘twist’ on classic British biscuit on supermarket shelves

These sound right up our street.

Emily Sergeant - 20th June 2024

McVitie’s has quietly just launched a brand-new “twist” on one of the most classic British biscuits of all time.

And shoppers have been pretty surprised by the news.

Given that new product launches tend to be something that shops, companies, and food manufacturers shout about from the rooftops whenever they get the chance to, you can probably understand why Tesco customers have been left so shocked after spotting what is a seemingly brand-new biscuit on shop shelves.

In the absence of what appears to be any prior reference or teasing of the product at all, McVitie’s has just dropped a new cocoa-flavoured variation on the humble Rich Tea biscuit, and they can only be found in Tesco.

People have been taking to social media to share their sightings of the new choccy biccie at their local stores this week – including popular UK food-spotting accounts like @newfoodsuk and @newfoodfindsuk.

At this point, it’s quite tricky to give you much more information on the new chocolate treat, other than the fact it… exists.

That’s because a quick Google search for the biscuit’s apparent name, ‘McVitie’s Rich Tea: The Cocoa One’, provides next to nothing on what the product is all about, and it doesn’t seem to be listed on Tesco’s website yet either, which probably means you can only get your hands on them if you actually shop in store.

Also, when we nipped to the little Tesco Express next to The Manc office earlier today to see if we could find them, we sadly came away empty-handed* (read to the end of the article to see what we did find instead though), so we imagine they’re just hiding inside the bigger stores or Tesco Extra stores for the time being.

Just from the pictures and videos shared by shoppers online though, what we do know is that the new product must be distinguished from the already-existing popular milk chocolate-coated Rich Teas – which have been a mainstay on UK shop shelves for several years now – as there’s no actual chocolate layer on these ones.

Instead, the biscuit itself is cocoa-flavoured, so it’s basically everything you know and love about the Rich Tea, only chocolate-ier (if that’s a word).

“A cocoa twist on the classic” is how McVitie’s have described it on the branding.

We can also see that, as mentioned, the new biscuits are exclusive to Tesco at the moment, where a pack will set you back £1.25 each with a Clubcard or £1.80 without.

We bet they’ll be rolled out in other supermarkets and shops sometime in the near future though, so make sure to keep your eyes peeled.

Read more:

• McVitie’s has released new cola bottle-flavoured Jaffa Cakes and fans are divided
• Cadbury is bringing back a legendary discontinued chocolate bar after 20 years
• Nestlé makes ‘difficult decision’ to axe popular nostalgic chocolate biscuit bars

* While we may not have got our hands on a packet of the new McVitie’s Rich Tea: The Cocoa One, we were pretty chuffed to walk away with a bar of the new and now-viral Cadbury Top Deck instead – which grabbed headlines earlier this week as it’s been resurrected from the 90s, and is now on sale at Tesco for the Clubcard price of £1.25.

** Correction – we ended up finding the biscuits in the slightly-bigger Tesco store on Market Street in Manchester city centre instead… what a day.

Featured Image – The Manc Group