I've been sitting on this one for quite some time--I actually ate these biscuits like 9 or 10 months ago. They're the last find from the great Indian grocery I've referred to many times--India Bazaar in Stratford, NJ. The cookies were all from the Britannia company--their milk biscuits, their Nutri Choice biscuits, and their digestive biscuits.
All the packages for these cookies said that they were manufactured in Oman, so initially I thought I'd be talking mainly about that Arabian Peninsula country. However, when I looked into it, I learned that Britannia is actually an Indian firm. They do have factories around the world, obviously, but they are not an Omani company per se. Anyway, that's why I chose the title of this blog post.
The history of the Britannia company is a bit vague. The official company website noted that it was founded in 1892, by unnamed British businessmen. Sometime in the next 26 years Britannia was acquired by the Gupta brothers, led by Nalin Chandra Gupta. Aside from biscuits, the company markets bread, rusks*, cakes, and dairy products. They reported 2019 grosses of 1,500,000,000 (in U.S. dollars), and a profit of 160,000,000 (again, converted to U.S. dollars). Currently Britannia is owned by the Wadia Group. That company, in turn, was started way back in 1736 as a marine construction company (i.e., shipbuilding). As an aside, the Wadia Group constructed the famous British ship HMS Minden, upon which Francis Scott Key may have composed "The Star-Spangled Banner," eventually the American national anthem. I say "may have" because historians seem divided on exactly which ship Key wrote the song on--he evidently was transferred on and off several vessels during the day in question. Wadia also built the HMS Trincomalee in 1817, which is the oldest English warship that's still intact, and still afloat. (The HMS Victory is older, having been built in 1765, but has been in dry dock since 1922.) Furthermore, for all of my readers obsessed with nautical history, the oldest commissioned naval ship still afloat in the world is the American USS Constitution, built in 1797.
As for fun Omani trivia, the country is known for its rich history of breeding the superior Arabian horses. It's also one of the few places in the world where frankincense trees still grow wild. A website I consulted said that the folks in Oman really love the American soft drink Mountain Dew. The only film that is Omani-made to date is 2006's "Al-Boom" (aka "The Dawn.") Its current IMDB rating is 7.4, which is very respectable.
Britannia digestive biscuit: These were light brownish in color, round, with a diameter of about 2.75 inches (about 7 cm.). They also had holes punched not quite through them, and "Britannia" embossed on their surface. I found these to be a typical European-style biscuit--kind of bland, and not that sweet. Okay, but not delicious or anything.
Britannia milk biscuit: These cookies were light brownish-yellow, and rectangular in shape. About 6 cm. by 4 cm., or about 2.25 inches by 1.5 inches. They also had a waffle-like pattern on them. Like the digestive kind, they were alright, but not very sweet or strong-tasting. Maybe a bit better than the average European-style biscuit, but not by much.
Britannia Nutri Choice biscuit, 5 grain digestive: This sort was oval in shape, about 8 cm. by 4.5 cm. (about 3.25 inches by 1.75 inches). Had a light brownish hue, and "Britannia" was embossed on them. Dry and crunchy, like the others. Taste was pretty similar to the other kinds, except for a slight fruity flavor, which seemed raisin-y. (Although the ingredient list didn't have any fruit in it.) So these were also rather mediocre, but slightly better than the other two Britannia biscuits I tried. A decent, but unspectacular biscuit. And if you're curious, the five grains were wheat, millet, oat, corn, and rice.
* The other rusks (which are usually very dry, twice-baked breads/cakes) I've discussed are as follows:
Finnish flatbread--November 3, 2018 post
Zwieback--April 13, 2019
Brazilian toast--May 11, 2019
Bangladeshi cake rusk--February 8, 2020
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