Taking the Biscuit

This month our dedicated team of scientists, headed by local expert ‘Professor Kimberley’ have pulled out all the stops to bring you the latest in global research findings. We are sure that you will all be fascinated to know that in recent weeks, the science of ‘biscuit dunking’ has been receiving considerable attention in the British media. This is in part due to mass hysteria in the UK at the prospect of an invasion by the US Oreo biscuit (or ‘cookie’). It is thought that the Oreo biscuit which is ‘dunked into milk’ (heresy!) poses a threat to the great British tea drinking culture.

Here at the internationalist Rethymnon Coffee Morning Bugle, it goes without saying that not all of us are tea drinking fanatics; however, sad but true, some of us do have more than a passing interest in the history and mechanics of dunking. This issue first received prominence in the press in 1998 due to the work of physicist Len Fisher of the University of Bristol, who conducted several experiments to try and establish the optimum time that a biscuit can remain in a liquid before it starts to disintegrate. He used the Washburn equation – which governs the permeation time of liquid into porous materials and concluded that most biscuits should be dunked in hot liquid for 3.5 seconds. However, he also found that the time needed varies from biscuit to biscuit: A ginger nut takes only 3 seconds to be ‘dunkable’, whereas a digestive needs 8 seconds of dunking time. And this year, a German company called Bahlsen have launched a new range of biscuits, called ‘Dip It’ complete with dunking guide—biscuits should be dunked vertically—. So now you know!

In the meantime, thanks also to Kimberley for bravely sharing her thoughts about the menopause in the poem below!

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