Guide biscuits 'just look different'

DIEGO OPATOWSKI/The Dominion Post

HALF BAKED: Sophia Crestani is not happy because the Girls Guide Biscuits are not as good as previous years.

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Their bakers swear they taste the same as ever, but the fundraising biscuits have left a sour note.

Wellingtonian Elspeth McMillan has eaten and sold Girl Guide biscuits for about 40 years. Her mother was a Brown Owl, she was a Brownie, and her two daughters were Brownies too.

"I can assure you that the Girls Guide biscuits that are produced now are not as good as they were when I was young," she said. "I was just talking to my mum, who was a Brown Owl from 1960 to 1992.

"They are definitely drier and flakier, not as buttery. I am assuming they have introduced cheaper ingredients to keep down costs over the years."

Girl Guide biscuits were a staple in her house as a child, her mother used to buy several cartons that lasted almost all year, she said.

But now, although she and her daughters had sold the biscuits for the past three or four years, both she and her mother had decided not to buy them this year.

Baker Griffins is adamant the biscuits, which were first sold in New Zealand in 1957, taste the same. But their appearance has changed this year. "The recipe hasn't changed, the taste hasn't changed," spokesman Barry Aikens said.

The closure of the Griffins factory in Lower Hutt at the end of 2008 meant production moved to Auckland. Mr Aikens said teething problems with the production line had meant the logo looked different and there was "pitting" on the back of the biscuit this year.

While the company could not say definitively whether the 1957 recipe was the same, its records – which weren't always exact – never indicated any change.

"Yes, we admit there are variations of the biscuit in appearance but not in taste. It had nothing to do with quality control."

Up to 1.7 million packets are sold annually, with more than 40 per cent of proceeds going to the guiding group that sells them.

- © Fairfax NZ News