Hello biscuit lovers! I find myself with some spare time on my hands, so let’s review another of the Finnish biscuits that Jari kindly sent me last year – this time the Fasupala ‘Pantteri’ by Fazer.

The large yellow and brown plastic bag contains 215g of loose biscuits. There’s a picture of a slightly angry Leopard on the front (not a Panther, which is what I’d assume from the name?) along with a picture of the biscuits themselves – they look like some kind of chocolate covered wafer. Since Jari also sent me a packet of regular Fasupalu, these appear to be some kind of special edition (it’s pure chance I grabbed the Pantteri first).

Inside there’s probably 30 loose wafers – they are bite sized, at around 2 x 2 x 4cm, and fairly light, so we are definitely dealing with wafers here. Each has a thin chocolate covering, and the chocolate looks and feels a little waxy, so perhaps not the highest quality. The top of each biscuit has a large deep cross-hatch pattern (maybe for enhanced grip when wearing thick gloves during a Scandinavian winter?) and rough sides.

First bite is crisp – there’s definitely layers in here, although the wafer feels a little stale (looking at the back of the packet, they are past their best before date, so that might have something to do with it) – nevertheless the texture is pleasant. But wait, what is this weird flavour? It’s strong, salty, and cooling on the mouth, could it be some kind of berry? The exposed sugar layers between the wafer are dark, almost a dark blue, but this doesn’t taste like blueberry. I’m now deeply confused!

This is not really very pleasant at all, and eventually it becomes obvious these are liquorice flavoured biscuits! Yes, the dark layer in the middle is salty liquorice. It’s really quite strong, and seeps into the mouth and coats everything. There’s a definite sugar element too, so it’s sickly and salty and cooling and a little overbearing.

Again my expectations and assumptions are wrong, and again this is why foreign biscuits can be interesting and even exciting (although occasionally unpleasant). A bit of research shows that Pantteri (which is indeed Finnish for Panther) are a brand of liquorice-flavoured gum drops, also made by Fazer, so this is I guess a cross-over product.

So, would these be good for dunking? I honestly haven’t tried. I imagine they’d absorb quite a good amount of hot drink without falling apart, but do you want your coffee or tea to be liquorice flavoured?

In conclusion, I’m not a huge fan of the Fasupala Pantteri. The texture is nice, they look good, but the salty liquorice layers are totally overpowering. I don’t actually mind liquorice, but in a chocolate wafer biscuit it seems unnecessary. Are these very popular in Finland?

(As a word of caution, I posted this on social media a little after completing this review: “Ugh. It’s been over an hour since I ate a Pantteri, and I’ve had a cup of coffee, and my mouth still tastes of salty liquorice!”)

If you are feeling rich and daring, and want to try these for yourself, Amazon do sell the Fasupala Panterri wafer biscuits by Fazer