The McVitie’s Chocolate Hobnob has taken pole position as the nation’s favourite biscuit after winning 18.4% of the vote in a consumer poll. 

McVitie’s also won second place in the KernPack survey with its Chocolate Digestive (12.4%) and Jacob’s Bourbons came third (9.5%). At the bottom end of the poll, with a total of just 2% between them, were Rich Tea, Lemon Puffs and Nice biscuits.

Most respondents preferred to eat biscuits on the sofa (77%) while 3pm was deemed the best time to eat them (22%). When asked how many biscuits they ate in a single sitting, 11% admitted they ate the whole packet, while only 5% claimed they ate a single biscuit.

The nation was divided on dunking with 24.4% certified dunkers, 26% firmly against dunking and 49% sitting on the fence. The report claimed that dunking biscuits into a milky drink causes 11 times more flavour to be released than eating the biscuit dry.

When is comes to which drink people would choose to accompany their biscuit, the top choice was tea (63%) followed by coffee (20%) then hot chocolate (7.4%). Oddly, water made it to the list in second-last place (2.5%) and fizzy drinks ended the list (1%).

Commissioned by packaging machinery supplier KernPack, the survey questioned 315 consumers online. Bakery customers include Premier Foods, Crantock Bakery and biscuit manufacturers.

The full run down of the nation’s favourite biscuits:
1. Chocolate Hobnob 18.41%
2. Chocolate Digestive 12.38%
3. Bourbon 9.52%
4. Shortbread 8.57%
5. Custard cream 8.25%
6. Choc chip cookie 6.98%
7. Jaffa Cake 6.67%
8. Digestive (plain) 6.35%
9. Fig roll 5.4%
10. Ginger Nut 4.44%
11. Chocolate Finger 2.86%
12. Hobnob (plain) 2.22%
13. Jammie Dodger 1.59%
14. Party Ring 1.59%
15. Pink Wafer 1.27%
16. Crunch Cream 1.27%
17. Rich Tea 0.95%
18. Lemon Puff 0.95%
19. Nice 0.33%