Jacob’s, the United Biscuits-owned biscuit and snack manufacturer, has celebrated 130 years of its famous cream crackers by creating the world’s longest cheeseboard.

The board was 40 metres in length and ran through the Tower Bridge Walkway, London. It was divided into four sections (fresh, sharp, sweet and savoury) with each section focusing on one cracker from the Jacob’s range and pairing it with cheeses, drinks and other accompaniments.

The event lasted from 7.30pm -8.30pm on 11 November and invited people to come along and taste the spread.

To accompany proceedings, Jacob’s produced research which found that the average British person could only name four out of the more than 700 varieties of British cheese and one in six had never heard of Stilton. It also found that that those in the 18- to 24-year-old bracket enjoyed adding charcuterie meats and nuts to their cheeseboards in favour of the pickles and butter favoured by the over-45s.

Simplicity

Ted Linehan, director of savoury brands at United Biscuits, said: “The key to the longevity and success of Jacob’s Cream Crackers as the market leader is due, in no small part, to their brilliant simplicity. While we are constantly looking at ways to develop the brand and ensure it stays modern, it remains the classic cracker, using the same ingredients and special baking techniques as it has for 130 years.

“It is also deeply nostalgic. Despite a rapidly changing society, the distinctive packaging and advertising for Jacob’s Cream Crackers has consistently staked its claim as the ‘Original & Best’, ranging from 1911with the introduction of ‘The Original Famous Creams’, through to its logo revamp in early 2015.”

The spread was devised by food and drink expert Matt Day, who had to build boards around the Jacob’s Choice Grain, Jacob’s Cornish Wafer, Jacob’s Savours Salt & Cracked Black Pepper Bakes and Jacob’s Cream Cracker.

Day said: “When you pair cheese with the right biscuit, condiment or drink, it can elevate the taste to another level, but get it wrong and the flavour clash can be quite spectacular. Good pairings bring out the best in all the elements in a kind of symbiotic relationship and we wanted to pull together a few examples of that for people on the Jacob’s Longest Ever Cheeseboard.”