Bath Oliver biscuits have been there for a long time and are often enjoyed with cheese or a cup of tea, but have you ever wondered how these iconic biscuits came into existence? Keep reading to learn more.
Bath Oliver biscuits are essentially a dry, hard biscuit or cracker that is often enjoyed and served with cheese or a cup of tea. It is an old biscuit that has been around for a long time. The Bath Oliver is made by using simple and accessible ingredients like flour, yeast, butter, and milk.
The biscuits have always been consumed as a snack, and their lightness with a mild flavor made them a great canvas for many toppings, like different varieties of cheese or simply dipping them in your cup of tea or coffee to absorb the flavors
The biscuit gets its name from its inventor, William Oliver of Bath, who invented it in the mid-eighteenth century. When Oliver died, he left the recipe and £100 to his coachman, Mr. Atkins, along with ten sacks of the finest wheat flour. Atkins quickly established his biscuit-baking business and got wealthy.
The recipe was passed down to James Fortt of Cater, Soffell, and Fortt throughout the nineteenth century. Between 1890 and 1980, this shop was the flagship store of Cater, Stoffell, and Fortt Ltd., a high-end grocer known as "The Fortnums of the West" with multiple outlets. They had a facility on Manvers Street that mass-produced Bath Olivers. The biscuits gained popularity and became well-known as the ideal complement to wine and cheese, along with tea or coffee.
Not just that, the Bath Olivers have also been featured in many period dramas, along with a number of stories that show the cultural impact they had at the time. The most famous inclusion of the biscuits came from poet Ezra Pound, who speaks about the Bath Olivers in Hugh Kenner's The Pound Era.
With their historic and rich origins, it would be fair to guess that these biscuits are here to stay forever. But that would be absolutely wrong. In October 2020, the production of Bath Olivers was completely stopped due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The biscuits were produced on a small scale in December of 2020, but by the time January came along, the production was completely halted. The biscuits from then on were totally impossible to get. But this wasn't the end of the story for Bath Olivers, as a campaign was initiated to make the return of the iconic biscuits possible.
This led to a change in scenario, and the Bath Olivers were once again in production as the bakery conveyers were running again. The biscuits were once again being packed for distribution throughout the UK, and now there is a Bath Oliver Preservation Society that dedicates itself to the preservation and survival of the iconic biscuit.