Pink wafer biscuits, eh? It doesn’t get much more sophisticated than that here in the UK (discounting cucumber sandwiches, naturally).

These flamboyant little numbers have a long and fabulous and tumultuous history. It’s really quite brilliant and tragic.

And we’re here to take the flamingo of the UK biscuit world and do it some justice with a glorious foodstuff feature.

What’s a Pink Wafer Biscuit?

Pink wafer biscuits have a light pink coloured wafer outer casing that contains vanilla flavoured cream filling within.

They’re very popular and tasty, often proving robust as a biscuit to dunk into tea.

They’re very popular in the UK and are a light and tasty biscuit, featuring a satisfying crunch followed by much sugary tastiness. That pink colouring really stands them out amongst the UK’s other biscuit ranges.

And that pink colouring is actually derived from beetroots.

They make a nice change from the likes of hobnob biscuits or Jammie Dodgers, providing a lighter way to enjoy one’s brew.

You can buy them anywhere these days, but pink wafers do have a troubled history. Let’s explore that… now!

The History of Pink Wafer Biscuits

The biscuits have been around since circa 1960. A company called Crawfords invented them in Edinburgh, Scotland.

The company United Biscuits (best name ever) took over Crawfords in 1960 and has been producing them ever since.

That’s great! But there’s another business that produced the wafers with a more troubling state of affairs.

Rivington Biscuits, based in Wigan, responsible for the Pink Panther Wafers.

Due to complications from Brexit, the business had to go into liquidation in December 2016. However, and heroically, six months later the distributor Asvina in Middlesex saved the brand!

They’ve revamped the biscuits and they hit the shelves again from June 2017 at the price of 70 pence. They’ve also introduced a variety of ranges around the brand, including:

• Iced biscuits
• Popping candy
• Marshmallows
• Wafer mallows (a Belgian waffle sandwich type thing)
• Ice cream cones

But the traditional biscuits were reformulated to include an extra-thick layer of vanilla cream. Asvina’s managing director Prasheel Kunwardia said:

“Asvina will build upon the Pink Panther heritage to drive sales across multiple food and drink categories. There are plenty of opportunities to create exciting new products.”

Nice one, mate! Keeping the dream alive.

The World Record For Speed Eating Wafer Biscuits

In the Guinness Book of Records, there’s a record (naturally) for the most cream filled biscuits eaten in one minute.

That astonishing feat of brilliance belongs to Patrick Bertoletti from East Dundee, Illinois on 14th January, 2012.

He ate seven of them in 60 seconds.

Sounds a bit crap really, doesn’t it? You’d expect 37, or something like that. Oh well.

Elsewhere online, we did find a guy called Jonathan Clarke from Ontario, Canada. On March 4th, 2014, he ate 500 wafer cookies.

As the video happily points out, this equalled some:

• 23,333 calories
• 2,000 grams of sugar
• 1,000 grams of fat

Do note out staggering jealousy at such an achievement. Full credit to Mr. Clarke for whatever record it is he set for whatever reason.

And Finally… Here’s the Pink Panther Theme!

Yeah, what with the whole Pink Panther Wafers branding, we might as well do a nod to composer Henry Mancini (1924-1994).

The Pink Panther Theme is a world-famous instrumental. Here’s the whole of it.

Mancini wrote the piece for the 1963 comedy film The Pink Panther, starring David Niven and Peter Sellers.

In fact, he wrote the whole soundtrack for the film. And it was nominated for Best Original Score at the 1964 Oscars!

The animated series The Pink Panther Show began in 1969 and ran for 10 seasons, naturally featuring the same theme music.

And now it’s still very much alive as part of this British biscuit range. Happy days!