Who doesn't like biscuits? For me they are the ultimate travel snacks keeping the hunger pangs at bay when the journey seems long and the next eatery is kilometers away. I make sure to always have them with me. So when Happyfoodies, get a chance to visit the factory of Julie's Biscuits (not to be confused with Julie's Bakeshop in the Philippines), Malaysia's most popular biscuit brand in (Melaka) Malacca, I felt like a kid sent off to a field trip. I was also excited to know what made Julie's the queen of biscuits in this country.
It was an invitation to join the event "A Date with Bloggers in Melaka" organized by 1AsiaFoodGuide. Julie's was one of the major sponsors, a company with a tradition of making biscuits that originated in Malacca. Established as Perfect Foods by two brothers with a small factory in Alor Gaja in Malacca in 1981, they initially sold their biscuits with no brand name. To add a European appeal, they named their biscuits as "Julie's" and persistently marketed their product through taste tests. It seemed the brothers captured the taste Malaysians like and eventually became very popular.
The factory visit showed the stringent process in manufacturing the biscuits. From the strict hygienic standards practiced by the workers to the clean, sterile environment. Seeing the machines do their wonders from fermenting the dough, cooking the biscuits, adding the filling, passing through scans for metals, right to the packaging, it was interesting to observe the manufacturing process. Now, the real test begins -- the actual tasting.
Julie's supplied us a pack of four of their popular biscuit variants which I took home some and shared with friends.
Ironwulf: The first one I tried was the Peanut Butter Sandwich. The biscuits delightfully taste like my favorite Fita with a hint of saltiness. The peanut butter filling was the real gem here, smooth and not too sweet which I liked.
Lagalog: The Oat 25 is not too sweet either, which I prefer. I would have wished the oats were not too refined, though, as I like my oatmeal cookie on the gritty side. I liked the Peanut Butter Sandwich better as the light saltiness complemented the peanut butter very well, a contrast of salty and nutty sweet.
Ironwulf: Love Letters are chocolate cream-filled wafer sticks. They're only half the size of the popular wafer sticks in Manila but what made this better was the premium chocolate they used. It does taste richer every bite on the crispy wafer makes me feel like writing a letter on how I love these wafers.
Lagal[og]: The Golden Crackers are crisp and very lightly salted with a hint of creaminess (perhaps, from the milk used) I presume they will go well with some hot tea.
Ironwulf: Next time I come back to Malaysia, I'll make sure to pack a few of these biscuits in my bag so I could snack happily during my journeys there.
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