HobNob

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This article is about the oat biscuit. For the football site dedicated to Reading F.C., see Hob Nob Anyone?.

HobNob biscuits

HobNobs are oat biscuits manufactured by UK company McVitie's. Their main ingredient is rolled oats, making it somewhat similar to a flapjack.^[1] The biscuit is particularly suitable for dunking in tea, as it does not easily lose its shape.

McVitie's introduced the brand in 1985. A milk chocolate-covered version was made available in 1987, and the biscuit is currently available in many varieties, including dark chocolate, chocolate orange, and HobNob bars. Other HobNob-branded snacks include a HobNob flapjack. ^[2]

The original tagline of the HobNob was "one nibble and you're nobbled"^[3] , although it has been removed from the Chocolate Orange varieties.

1 Etymology
2 Popular Culture
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Etymology

The name comes from an earlier phrase, to hob or nob, meaning "to drink together, taking turns toasting one another," probably from Middle English habbe "to have" and nabbe, a contraction of ne + habbe, "to have not," hence, "to have and have not, to give and take." ^[4]

[edit] Popular Culture

HobNobs are Keane's drummer Richard Hughes favorite biscuit.

Comedian Peter Kay uses HobNobs in his trademark jokes where he calls them "the Marines, the bloody SAS of the biscuit world!". Kay has also called them the Steven Seagals of the biscuit world on another occasion. Peter Kay video

The fictional character Inspector Fowler from the TV-series The Thin Blue Line, who is played by Rowan Atkinson, often mentions chocolate HobNobs as being his favourite sweet.

In the webcomic Sheldon, the main character, Sheldon, his duck and the cartoonist himself Dave Kellet have proclaimed their love of HobNobs in a number of strips. Sheldon asking for distribution in the US and Dave Kellet fantasizing of receiving a full crate.