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A biscuit (IPA /'b?sk?t/) is a small baked product; the exact meaning varies markedly in different parts of the world. The origin of the word "biscuit" is from Latin via Middle French and means "cooked twice", hence biscotti in Medieval Italian (similar to the German Zwieback). In modern Italian usage the term biscotti is used to refer to any type of cookie or cracker. Some of the original biscuits were British naval hard tack. That was passed down to American culture, and hard tack (biscuits) was made through the 19th century. A biscuit is a hard baked sweet or savoury product like a small, flat cake, which in North America may be called a "cookie" or "cracker". The term biscuit also applies to sandwich-type biscuits, where a layer of 'cream' or icing is sandwiched between two biscuits. In the UK, "cookie" is usually only used in the combination "chocolate chip cookie". Referring to the Sesame Street character the Cookie Monster, British author Chris Roberts quipped that he prefers the word cookies over biscuits "as a character called Biscuit Monster would never have worked".[1] The British usage of the word biscuit was defined in the defence of a tax judgement found in favour of McVitie's and their product Jaffa Cakes which Her Majesty's Customs and Excise claimed was a biscuit and was therefore liable to value added tax—chocolate-covered biscuits are liable to VAT, chocolate-covered cakes are not. The successful defence rested on the fact that "biscuits go soft when stale, whereas cakes go hard when stale". In Britain, the digestive biscuit has a strong cultural identity as the traditional accompaniment to a cup of tea, and is regularly eaten as such. Many tea drinkers "dunk" their biscuits in tea, allowing them to absorb liquid and soften slightly before consumption.
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