| People often ask me such questions as "what is your favourite biscuit?" and "what is the most popular biscuit?" and "why do we like biscuits?" and "do other people like biscuits as much as we do?" and you get the idea. What they haven't asked up till now, at least I don't recall anybody asking is "What biscuit has an army of loyal subjects whose fervour knows no bounds?". To which the simple answer is "The Choco Leibniz, although those Plain Chocolate Hobnob people are a bit forthright". I wonder, however, how many of the Choco Leibniz folks have even heard of its street wise off spring, the Pick Up.
Simply put the Pick Up is Bahlsen's go at turning the Choco Leibniz into a snack bar format, via that classic formula of the sandwich. Bahlsen have fashioned a jumbo 81mm x 39mm Leibniz biscuit and embossed it with the PICK UP! logo and retained the distinctive edge sculpturing. The unadorned Leibniz biscuit is one of those that teeters between blandness and brilliance, it could easily go both ways. By sticking to recipes that use butter rather than vegetable fat it keeps its self from toppling into blandness. In fact left alone with some Leibniz and a cup of tea one soon starts to appreciate this pure inner beauty.
What is apparent upon opening up the little flow wrap sachet that the PICK UP sits in is that there is a serious piece of chocolate lurking in here. The rich chocolately smell springs out at you as soon as you tear in. What you are left holding in your hands may take you aback a little in its pure simple brilliance. Yes it really is a big slab of really very good chocolate with biscuit handles on it. The chocolate comes out flush to the very edge too.
Further investigation reveals that Bahlsen have stuck to their magic number of 48% chocolate as witnessed in the Choco Liebniz. The fact that they are doing this in the presence of two biscuits indicates what a substantial inner core there is. Now it was somebody at Bahlsen who told me of some intricacies of VAT law concerning chocolate and its placement, and its my understanding that such an arrangement of biscuit and chocolate would be VAT free as inner chocolate is not considered 'Luxurious'. Thus a PICK UP should be a VAT free staple food stuff, and not some decadent choco indulgence... Right.
As you bite into this very solidly assembled biscuit your teeth which have made it through the crispy outer are suddenly arrested by the choc monolith forcing you to change into a lower gear and with a firm bite snap off a piece. This is a non standard biscuit eating experience and whilst the crisp buttery biscuit and chocolate in your mouth are starting to resemble that of a standard Choco Leibniz, your mind is trying to assess if there are any possible weak points where you could attack next. So thick is the chocolate that you actually have expend a bit of effort chewing it.
A final point worth noting is that the biscuits have a sort of dividing line across their middle between pick and up. I applied some pressure and sure enough it split obligingly in two. I think they look more impressive left as a whole though.
So where do you get your hands on this little chap? Well Tesco Express seem to carry them as do some other independent stores, and if you spot them they are well worth investigating.
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