National Biscuit Day – Biscuits at the ready for tea duelling

Here at The Lincoln Tea & Coffee Company HQ, we celebrate and enjoy biscuits daily. But did you know that there is one day dedicated solely to biscuits? We’re not going crackers, it’s the 29^th May, officially referred to as National Biscuit Day.

Biscuits are loved by Britain and have been for years. According to Ivan Day, food historian, biscuits were originally made for and loved by sailors and soldiers as they were seen as a practical way to preserve carbohydrates. Nowadays there are many more reasons why we eat biscuits, enjoyment being one of them.

For those of you who don’t know, biscuit refers to being twice baked. In the 17^th and 18^th Century biscuits were dipped in sweet wine. Now although no one is stopping you from doing this nowadays, we wouldn’t recommend it.

For many, it is almost a crime to not have a biscuit when drinking tea. Biscuit dunking has split the nation for quite some time now. Many Brits enjoy a biscuit or two with their cup of tea and according to the Biscuit Appreciation Society, dunking is a fine art.

You have to ask yourself, am I a biscuit dunker? Here at The Lincoln Tea & Coffee Company we are divided.

If you are looking to add another dimension to your tea dunking, we would like to introduce to you… tea duelling. Biscuits at the ready!

Thank you to The Lincoln Steampunk Society for providing us with the rules. The society regularly takes part in tea duelling (not just on National Biscuit Day) and frankly, we don’t blame them.

A tea duelling game, more officially a “Tiffin Party” is strictly linked to tea, no other hot beverage, what a shame! Biscuit dunking is referred to as a sport and when we first heard this at The Lincoln Tea & Coffee Company HQ, we thought that we were in some sort of dream. An excuse to drink more tea? But much to our delight … We love to dunk in Lincolnshire Tea, but use chai if you want to follow the official rules.

To outline a few rules to ensure that your game doesn’t crumble:

The tea may be any blend of Chai
Milk and sugar can be added for taste- however many believe that this isn’t needed with Lincolnshire Tea
The tea should be no lower than 65 degrees during the competition (if the tea falls drastically below this, this is known as a “toddy”)
The tea should be referred to as the brew martial
Looking to add further spirit to the competition, upon agreement of participants, an alcoholic tipple may be added
The drinking vessel should be referred to as the “keg” and follow certain requirements
The duel should be monitored by a “Pot Master”. The Pot Master must check the keg (drinking vessel), brew martial (hot beverage) and the selection of what is deemed a “suitable” biscuit

Let’s get down to the nitty gritty, what type of biscuits are deemed acceptable? For tea duelling, a malted milk biscuit is required. However, bare in mind that this can be substituted for a “nice” biscuit, if there is any such thing as a “not so nice” biscuit. Gluten intolerant? You can still enjoy with gluten free biscuits.

For the purposes of tea duelling, brown and fruit biscuits are forbidden. Thankfully, only for the duration of the duel. All other biscuits that are prohibited are known as “fancies”. Good choice of a name considering that we fancy every biscuit going.

Let’s get to the serious part, the biscuit duelling itself. Biscuits at the ready…

For the main event, two duellers are required and their seconds. This is for precautionary measures following the circumstances where the initial dueller is unable to attend. You wouldn’t want to sacrifice dunking biscuits and you don’t have to!

You are prepared mentally, now you must prepare physically.

The Tiffin Master should now lay out the biscuits.

In the circumstance that you are the tea dueller (we hope for your sake that you are – who wouldn’t want to enjoy tea & biscuits. Surely you are a winner before you even compete?) you then place your brew martial on the table set up between you and your opponent.

The Tiffin Master places the biscuits on the table between the two (very lucky in our eyes) tea dunkers.

Tea dunkers then wait for the command “choose your weapons”. The participants select a single biscuit each. Bare in mind that there is no replacement of the biscuit – upon choosing, you are committed.

This is where it gets exciting. The dunkers then hold the biscuits in one hand, ensuring that their fingers and thumb are no further than one-half inch from one edge. As you can tell, precision is key here.

You wait for the signal “ready”. Both biscuits are then positioned over the keg (drinking vessel) no further than 6 inches above the lip, no matter how tempted you are.

On the command “dunk” both tea duellers immediately lower their biscuit into the tea (brew martial).

Please note, if you are too delayed in the dunking of your biscuits (if you love biscuits as much as us then you won’t be), but if you so happen to be delayed, “a bagging” penalty will be granted, and the biscuits will be (sadly) discarded. If this happens to take place, replacement biscuits will be chosen.

Given the Tiffin Master is happy that there has been a clean dunk, they will count to five. It is imperative that you do not remove your biscuit until the Tiffin Master has announced “five” no matter how tempted you are and be sure to dunk with confidence.

The tasting of the biscuit, temptation no more…

When “five” has been announced, to your re-leaf, it is then only that you can remove the biscuit to eat it. There are even rules attached to eating the biscuit itself. Be sure that 94% of the biscuit ends up in your mouth for a “nom”.

Please note that this isn’t an extensive guide for the sport and if you require any further information, you should make your way to “The Honourable Association of Tea Duellists” website or get in touch with Steampunk Lincoln through The Lincoln Steampunk Society. Although they don’t currently hold their own tea duels, they support parties that do.

Be sure to get your biscuits out on 29^th May 2018 for National Biscuit Day and to share your experiences with us on social media. Whether you are a tea dunker and regularly enjoy dunking biscuits or not, we love you all!

Looking for an alternative to Chai? Why not stock up on Lincolnshire Tea for your competition?