I recently met a former colleague over a cup of tea at a new-age, fancy cafe where masala chai is sold in a kulhads, in air-conditioned environments, for truckloads of money which can easily buy a month’s worth of tea leaves at home. But despite the small fortune that I paid, what I really missed were Marie biscuits.
As a child, Marie biscuits were synonymous with tea, though I was not allowed to have tea. But come 6 p.m., I would eagerly join my parents for their evening cup of tea. I would quickly gulp down my “health drink”, which was rewarded with precisely two Marie biscuits which I would dunk in my parents’ tea before gobbling up the soft, tea-soaked medals that these biscuits were.
Marie biscuits were also my first partners in crime when it came to donning the culinary hat. After asking our maid to chop some onions and tomatoes, I would make Marie toasties and try selling them to my neighbours. Sadly, no one seemed to be interested in buying these home-made delicacies, and that was the end of my entrepreneurial journey, aged just 10. When I was in the mood for something sweeter, I would run creative experiments with a layer of butter and a dollop of chocolate spread sandwiched between two Marie biscuits and relish this sweet, buttery, and salty concoction of mine. Years later, I realised that sea-salted chocolate tastes similar, but is not very friendly on my pocket.
Marie biscuits have a very interesting history that goes back 149 years. The first Marie biscuit was created by a bakery in London called Peek Freans, way back in 1874. A special snack was needed to commemorate the matrimonial alliance between Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia and the Duke of Edinburgh. And these biscuits were named Marie, in honour of the Grand Duchess. Soon, these biscuits became immensely popular across Europe, especially Portugal and Spain.
With the early 20th Century seeing multiple civil wars in Europe, followed by a World War, Marie biscuits became symbols of economic recovery after bakeries produced them to consume the surplus quantity of wheat.
Owing to the British Raj, they made their way to the Indian Subcontinent, and are now available in multiple flavours and variants, ranging from Orange Marie, to Oats-based Marie biscuits. All put together, the Marie market in India is now ₹3,500 crore.
Marie biscuits are a staple at Indian teatime, offering convenience and fewer calories than our other favourite tea accompaniment, the samosa. Marie biscuits are no-nonsense, simple snacks that do away with any and all complexity associated with deciding what to pair with tea. They also have some of the lowest calories per biscuit, and coming from a family of doctors, this is probably why they have always been my family’s favourite teatime snacks. Interestingly, my fascination with Marie biscuits later helped me answer a question on these evergreen biscuits in a college quiz. Who knew that tea-time snacks could one day help me win something?
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