- Elegant cookie designed to stand up to dunking in tea.
- High quality, homemade taste, with a pleasant mix of peppermint and spearmint.
- Primarily organic ingredients.
- Available in a two-pack or a ten cookie box.
- OU-Dairy Kosher certified.
- Butter is not organic.
- May be difficult to find outside of specialty stores, and can be somewhat expensive.
- Traditional Scottish shortbread enhanced with organic peppermint and spearmint from Oregon.
- All-natural, mostly organic, suitable for vegetarians, and certified Kosher-dairy.
- Designed to be enjoyed with tea, the Biscottea™ line of shortbread is also flavored with tea leaves.
I first discovered Biscottea™ Shortbread in a museum cafe. I was intrigued by the concept -- shortbread flavored with actual tea leaves -- and impressed with the short, all natural, predominantly organic ingredient list. Unfortunately, I'd have to wait to taste them, as the museum had only expired two-packs. But as I suspected, this is a shortbread worth the wait.
The mint tea shortbread is generously flecked with a combination of both organic peppermint and spearmint leaves. The proportion of mint is perfect, and the blend of the two mints lends these cookies a more pleasantly complex flavor than a single variety of mint could. Modeled after a traditional Scottish shortbread, this Biscottea™ recipe possess the crumbly, slightly sandy texture characteristic of a good shortbread. Plus, thanks to the mint, these all-butter cookies have a balanced, refreshing taste not present in other shortbreads.
The cookies are a bit pricey -- I recently saw a box of ten for $6.00 at Pier 1. But given the high quality, mostly organic ingredients and the use of real butter instead of cheaper fats, that's perhaps to be expected. And each rich cookie is about a two-inch square, so one may be enough for that afternoon cup of tea. (I do wish the butter was organic as well, but wonder if that would make the price prohibitive for most buyers.)
Biscottea's cookies aren't the easiest to track down, though that may change as they gain wider distribution. At present, individual consumers can't purchase the cookies directly from the company's website. On the upside, because you won't find them everywhere and they are nicely packaged, they'd make a great addition to a homemade gift basket.
Overall, Biscottea's Mint Tea Shortbread stands out from other packaged cookies. Both innovative and tasty, they're a great teatime treat or special snack.