Hello biscuit lovers, and apologies for the long delay between reviews. Today, by popular demand, I’m going to try the Moomin biscuits kindly sent by Jari.

If you grew up in Europe or Japan, you are probably aware of the Moomins. However, in case you’ve landed on a spaceship recently, or hail from elsewhere in the world, here’s a quick recap: The Moomins are characters in a series of children’s books and comic strips by Finnish author Tove Jansson, and first appeared in 1945. The books are aimed at children but are whimsical and edgy enough to be appreciated by adults, and are arguably one of Finland’s biggest (and best?) cultural exports, having been translated into many languages and made into numerous films and television series.

The Moomins themselves are soft-looking white creatures that live in a tall round house in Moominvalley, surrounded by mountains, forest and the sea, where they have various adventures with their weird and eclectic mix of friends.

I’ve always subconsciously thought Moomins look like they would taste delicious – their soft white bodies remind me a little bit of marshmallow – so I’m interested to finally get a chance to taste them in biscuit form!

The 175g of biscuits are made by Fazer (a company I’ve never heard of before) and come in an attractive blue cardboard box – mine had a nice picture of the Snork Maiden picking flowers on the front. I understand other designs are available, as are tins. Inside is a plastic bag keeping the actual goodies fresh.

The biscuits are quite small – around 4cm high each. The trip from Finland, via the ungentle clutches of Parcelforce, has not been kind to the contents either. Around half are broken (which hopefully won’t affect their taste), so I’ve spent a little time engaged in forensic post-mortem biscuitology, and I can confirm the moulded (stamped out?) characters include Moomintroll, Moominmama, Moominpapa, the Snork Maiden, Little My and Snufkin – there may be more that I haven’t found yet. You might also be able to invent some new characters like a Snufkipapa or Little Snork by joining broken biscuits! The designs are quite clever, and the small details like the eyes and clothing are quite distinctive.

Each biscuit is a pleasant cream colour with a light brown round the edges and over their textured back where they have been baked. They feel quite heavy for their size, and are solid and rigid (no squishiness here!)

Now on to the tasting. First bite is crunchy – these are dense biscuits, with a slight tendency to crumb in the mouth, but probably not too much danger of exploding down your clothes. There’s a hint of vanilla and a little sweetness, but it’s not overpowering. The texture as you chew is quite fine, and these are very dry biscuits – they will require a bit of time to break down in your mouth.

In terms of taste these remind me of Nice biscuits (plain, not coconut), although they are slightly denser and possibly of a finer texture. Ultimately nothing too memorable, but nothing offensive either.

As dunkers, the Moomins may not be ideal. Their small stature means you can only get one dunk per Moomin, and the dense structure means they don’t quickly absorb liquid, although this will also mean they aren’t likely to break off and cause a soggy incident. Unfortunately no new flavours or textures are revealed by dunking.

In summary, these are pleasant but not ground-breaking biscuits. There is nothing offensive about them, but nothing to really recommend them either. I suspect they have deliberately been made a little bit uninteresting so as not to put anyone off, and their selling point is their Moomin association rather than any confectionery inventiveness.

Nevertheless, if you are a fan of Moomins, you probably need to try these at some point, if only for nostalgias sake. Since seeing these I’ve been reliving all sorts of Moomin adventures – who can forget the slightly menacing, silent Hattifatteners, or Moomintroll’s journey to the observatory in the lonely mountains to seek advice about the comet?

If you’d like to try the Moomin biscuits yourself, Amazon do sell them in the UK – have a look here: Moomin biscuits by Fazer