Brazilian Brands: Bis
The British take biscuits (not cookies!) pretty seriously. I put this down to our tea drinking habit – tea and biscuits go together like, well, tea and biscuits!
If you ever find yourself with multiple British people and you feel the need to get the conversation going, just try bringing up the subject of biscuits. For example, you could mention that you heard that the best biscuit in the world is the chocolate digestive (a fine choice). Before long you would have people arguing over the relative merits of Hobnobs, custard creams and ginger nuts. We even had a big court case between the government and the manufacturers of Jaffa Cakes over whether their product was a biscuit or a cake (no seriously).
There are many sub-divisions of biscuit and one close to my heart is the ‘biscuit-bar’. The English biscuit bar of choice would surely be the Penguin. In Scotland they have a chocolate, caramel and wafer affair called simply Tunnock’s. The Australians favour something called the Tim Tam which can be ingeniously employed in something called the Tim Tam Slam (everyone should try this at least once).
The humble Penguin biscuit – two biscuit layers with soft chocolate goodness in the middle, all covered in delicious milk chocolate. Good stuff.
Before I get carried away with all this biscuit talk, let’s come back to Brazil shall we? In Portuguese, the word for biscuit is biscoito. Now I thought I was fairly knowledgeable when it comes to biscuits, but it wasn’t until I arrived here in Brazil that I was told about the origins of the word. Apparently it can be broken down to “bi” (2) + “coito” (coitus) – the er, ‘union’ of two biscuit layers! Can this really be true?
OK, let’s look at Brazil’s favourite biscuit bar and today’s Brazilian Brand:
Bis
Name: Bis (sounds like Beesh)
Product: Wafer and chocolate layers covered in chocolate.
Description: Is this truly a biscuit or more of a chocolate wafer bar? I don’t know, but let’s put biscuit semantics to one side and look at the product itself. The picture you see on the right is actually like a Bis mothership, containing 20 individually wrapped Bis bars. As you will see below, each bar is actually rather tiny and individually wrapped.
Inside the wrapping you find a fairly lightweight rectangular cuboid, consisting of four wafer layers, sandwiching layers of chocolate. The whole thing is also covered in chocolate and fits conveniently into all but the smallest mouth without the need for multiple bites.
I put the Metro card in for scale – these little bars are incredibly scoffable. If you’re not careful, half the pack will be gone before you know it!
Verdict: When I asked Mrs Eat Rio if she had any interesting anecdotes or information about Bis, she replied simply “Everyone loves them”. Well that’s pretty unequivocal isn’t it?
A Bis bar unwrapped.
For me, when talking about biscuits, “love” is a strong word – I’m not sure I can go quite that far with Bis. What I will say is that it is frighteningly easy to get through 6 or 7 of these tasty treats without even thinking about it. And Bis go very well with a nice cup of tea – the Brazilian biscuit passes the ultimate British test. Is there a better Brazilian biscuit than Bis?
Bis’ tag-line is probably best translated as ‘ Trust no one’ – that’s how much Brazilians love them!
**UPDATE**
Many thanks to Alessandra França de Moraes who very gently pointed out that I’d completely missed out on the fact that the word “Bis” means ‘encore’ or ‘repeat’ – people shout it at the end of concerts when they want to performers to come on out for one more. Seeing as these little biscuits are rather addictive (at least for some!), it’s a very appropriate name! Thanks Alessandra!
I love the “bis” + “coitus” joining together of two layers in a cozy manner etymology, which is much more interesting (and more Brazilian) than the actual etymology. “Biscoito”, Italian “biscotto”, French and English “biscuit” and other related words are all derived from Latin “biscoctus” meaning “twice cooked” (actually “twice baked” is a better translation here). It was called “biscoctus” because it referred to bread that had already been baked once (from dough), and then was baked or dried a second time, the way we do with toast.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biscuit
But I prefer your etymology and will never again be able to look at a biscuit the same way. By the way, as you probably know, in the US, the word “biscuit” is used to describe a specific type of baked good that is a lot like a roll. Depending on how they’re made, they sometimes do have two layers (joined together, lol).
We would probably use the term “wafer,’ “cookie,” or even “candy bar” to describe the delicacy you describe.
“I…will never again be able to look at a biscuit in the same way” – ha ha ha! Exactly what I thought – those naughty biscuits! :D
Yep, I must admit, calling these things biscuits is stretching things a little – there’s certainly no ‘coito’ going on (unless you count the wafers, in which case it’s a foursome!!).
Twice baked to describe a snack like Bis makes sense on more than one level (and that’s probably how the conversation goes when it happens . . .)
“Name: Bis (sounds like Beesh)”
In Rio, maybe!
Anyway… I like Bis – they remind me of the Tunnock’s Caramel bars – but they’re not a real biscuit are they?
I’m dunking Fox’s Golden Crunch Creams into my cup of tea as I write this. YUM!
Heh heh! I was wondering if someone would pick me up on my Carioca pronunciation guide! Well, this is EatRio after all! ;)
Fox’s Golden Crunch Creams! Drool! A great dunking biscuit – kudos!
Something doesn’t sounds right here. For some reason, I don’t think of Bis as a biscuit, more as a candy bar. I realize it’s biscuity inside but it’s also covered in chocolate and individually wrapped. A bit like a Twix, really. Do you remember what aisle they’re in in the supermarket?
I know what you’re saying Andrew – for me it is borderline. Not really a biscuit, but I wouldn’t call it a chocolate bar either. Luckily my favourite Tea & Biscuits site has a great section on the Taxonomy of Biscuits. According to their definitions, I would put this in the borderline “chocolate covered” region. I think the size and the relative simplicity (e.g. no caramel, nuts, etc) prevents Bis being a true chocolate bar.
I agree with Phil: bis + cuit = cuit 2 fois.
About “Bis”… no thanks. Well, generally I do not care about cookies. “Digestive” is quite ok. In Holland I enjoy thin almond cookies, sort of tuile aux amandes. No clue what the name would be in English… (???)
During my Brazilian life I had a preference for “Goiabinha Duchen” (Piraquê). Yeah, I would have some now if I could. They look like mini pillows, so cute. My family in Brazil always said “aaargh” to it. Ach, nobody is perfect.
You don’t like Bis Ana?! 8-O Hee hee, I must admit, they’re not the most sophisticated of ‘biscuits’. The Tuile Aux Amandes that you mention look incredible!
I haven’t tried those Goiabinha Duchen – I will have to hunt some down :)