Penguins are milk

chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed in some form since at least the Olmec civ ...

bars filled with biscuit and chocolate cream. They are produced by

Pladis Pladis Global (styled as pladis) is a British confectionery and snack foods company encompassing United Biscuits, Ülker, Godiva Chocolatier and DeMet’s Candy Company. It was formed in January 2016 as a subsidiary of Yıldız Holding with its ...

's manufacturing division

McVitie's McVitie's () is a British snack food brand owned by United Biscuits. The name derives from the original Scottish biscuit maker, McVitie & Price, Ltd., established in 1830 on Rose Street in Edinburgh, Scotland. The company moved to various sites ...

at their

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factory.

History

William Macdonald founded Macdonald Biscuits in Glasgow in 1928. After seeing some biscuits from

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he was inspired to create a chocolate covered biscuit with a chocolate cream sandwich in the centre. They were first produced in 1932, and became a McVitie's product after MacDonald was taken over by

United Biscuits United Biscuits (UB) is a British multinational food manufacturer, makers of McVitie's biscuits, Jacob's Cream Crackers, and Twiglets. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. In Nove ...

in 1965. Each wrapper has a joke or "funny fact" printed on it and imaginative, often humorous designs featuring penguins that often pastiche famous works of art. The

Tim Tam Tim Tam is a brand of chocolate biscuit introduced by the Australian biscuit company Arnott's in 1964. It consists of two malted biscuits separated by a light hard chocolate cream filling and coated in a thin layer of textured chocolate. Hi ...

, produced by Arnott's in Australia and first sold in 1964, was based on the Penguin. Occasional media references include

tongue-in-cheek The idiom tongue-in-cheek refers to a humorous or sarcastic statement expressed in a serious manner. History The phrase originally expressed contempt, but by 1842 had acquired its modern meaning. Early users of the phrase include Sir Walter Scott ...

debates over which is the superior biscuit. During the 1980s, the Penguin brand became known for their television advertising slogan "P...P...P...Pick up a penguin!” In October 1996, Penguins were the subject of a court case between

Asda Asda Stores Ltd. () (often styled as ASDA) is a British supermarket chain. It is headquartered in Leeds, England. The company was founded in 1949 when the Asquith family merged their retail business with the Associated Dairies company of York ...

and United Biscuits, who accused Asda of

passing off Passing off is a common law tort which can be used to enforce unregistered trade mark rights. The tort of passing off protects the goodwill of a trader from misrepresentation. The law of passing off prevents one trader from misrepresenting go ...

their own brand "Puffin" biscuits as part of the Penguin brand. In March 1997, the court found in favour of United Biscuits regarding passing off, but found that Asda had not infringed the Penguin trademark. United Biscuits had been criticised for continuing to use trans fatty acids in the cream filling of Penguins. By December 2007, United Biscuits began to advertise the absence of trans fats from Penguins, having removed the ingredient from this product line.

Wrapper

The back of the wrapper typically has a joke.

Types

There are four variations of the biscuit: * Chocolate * Orange * Mint * Toffee

Spin off brands

In June 2003, McVitie's produced several "sub brands" or variations of the Penguin biscuit: Penguin Chukkas, Wing Dings, Flipper Dipper, Splatz and Mini Splatz. These variations were accompanied by a £5 million promotional campaign. In January 2008, McVitie's also produced Penguin triple chocolate wafers.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Penguin (Biscuit) Food brands of the United Kingdom Chocolate bars Scottish desserts United Biscuits brands Scottish brands