From Mythic Rites to Modern Comfort: The Hidden Psychology of the Chocolate Digestive Biscuit, 100 Years On

A while ago a radio advertisement caught my attention as it lauded “the nation’s greatest invention”. My ears pricked up – what was it - the steam engine? Mobile phones? Television? Any one of these has great merit surely. But, no, the accolade goes to the McVitie’s Chocolate Digestive Biscuit, whose advertising campaign is called ’100 years of the Nation’s Greatest Invention’.

“McVitie’s .. created Chocolate Digestives in 1925, a biscuit that has held the heart of the Nation ever since”. https://mcvities.com/en-gb/about-us/our-heritage

All of this got me thinking! Can Jung’s ideas have anything to say about this seemingly iconic tea-time classic that has been loved for so long and eaten by people from all walks of life and in over 100 countries of the world. According to the CMO of its parent company, “it’s part of our culture, our history ..”.

The first digestive biscuit was made in Scotland in 1839 by two doctors. It was believed that its high baking soda content could help us to better digest our food. The name was born. In 1892 Sir Alexander Grant developed a secret recipe which is used to this day by McVitie’s.

But is there more to this little biscuit than meets the eye? It would seem to be deeply symbolic and, perhaps even, archetypal. As an archetypal image, the chocolate digestive may be a metaphor for something more.

The Biscuit

Biscuits have been present in and consumed by many cultures across centuries but we Brits “.. eat more biscuits than any other nation; they are as embedded in our culture as fish and chips or the Sunday roast.” (Collingham, 2021). Practical, portable, pharmaceutical and, with the addition of sugar and spice, pleasurable.

There is some evidence to suggest that biscuits, in some form, were eaten in Neolithic times (think 7,000 BCE).

They were eaten by the Romans, in the form of a ‘rusk’, by the Anthony the Great (4th century AD), later combined with honey and spices and eaten as gingerbread, and brought to Europe in 992 AD.

King Richard took ‘biskit of muslin’ on the Third Crusade.

Centurions and sailors carried them because they were hard, kept well and were an important element of their diet. Sailors’ ‘hardtack’, as ship’s biscuits were known, wasn’t phased out until 1907.

As the spice trade flourished and sugar prices fell, sweet biscuits became more accessible. In 1444 in Sweden, gingerbread was made to help digestion and gingerbread biscuits were sold in farmers markets and monastic pharmacies. The advent of the Industrial Revolution saw the emergence of the biscuit manufacturers that we know today – McVitie’s, Crawfords, Huntley & Palmers – and the biscuit boom had begun.

Biscuits were often eaten at the end of a meal, as an aid to digestion and to sweeten the breath. Digestive biscuits were formulated originally on this idea because bicarbonate of soda was believed to have antacid properties – they were, originally, medicinal in nature. They could be bought at the chemist’s shop, alongside Johnson & Johnson’s Digestive Tablets.

This, then, was the premise and promise of the ‘digestive’ biscuit, the wholesome snack that also helps your gut.

The Symbolic Mother

Perhaps the digestive biscuit is also symbolic of the mother - she who offers sustaining food, reliability and familiarity. She is round and of the earth, her circular form is an archetypal shape representing wholeness, unity and the cycle of life. It is what Jung refers to as a “totality symbol” and representative of the Self (CW 6, para 790). He also refers to it as “signifying the roundness of Heaven” (CW 11, para 727). Ah, the body of the Great Mother archetype who sustains, anchors, and protects us. Even the name ‘digestive’ suggests her role beyond the physical provision of food but also that of caring for the body and informing how we learn to care for ourselves.

The digestive biscuit is baked from wholesome coarse brown wheat flour – from the earth - and to a secret, almost alchemical, recipe. They were the treats of royalty and, at one time, promoted as conferring “health and happiness” by their regular use.

When a Scottish maker tried to file for a patent for the digestive in the USA, he claimed it was “nourishing food for people of weak digestion”. Whilst you can purchase ‘biscuits’ there, it is still illegal to call them ‘digestives’.

“Eating a biscuit is a transformative experience. .. The snap of a digestive, ever so slightly muted and intriguing, can take you back to the place where you first bit into one. .. Biscuits are emotionally charged and we love them.” (https://ipo.blog.gov.uk/2018/08/24/take-the-biscuit/)

Is this true for you? It is certainly true for me as my mind slides back to my very favourite custard creams. The only way to eat them was to split them apart, lick out the middle, put the biscuit halves back together and dunk them in a mug of tea. That is a rather nice memory, I have to say.

The Chocolate

Chocolate. Something that is recognised the world over and has a deeply symbolic meaning. Its earliest roots begin in the myths of the ancient world of Mesoamerica, from Mexico to Costa Rica. In Mayan and Aztec ceremonies, the bitter brew of “xocoatl” was believed to bestow wisdom, vitality and the guidance of the gods on those who drank it. Cacao or chocolate was gifted by the god, Quetzalcoatl - he was banished from paradise for sharing it with humans. This has echoes of Prometheus’ story and the cost of defying the gods. Chocolate was symbolic of the favour of the gods and a connection between the upper and lower worlds.

These early Mesoamerican civilisations equated chocolate with the ‘blood of the gods’ – it symbolised life, fertility, and sacrifice. According to Jung,” blood always means the life force .. [it] is the real seat of life” (Visions Seminar). Chocolate was consumed in many of the Aztec religious rituals as they believed that it was a symbolic participation in the cycle of death, rebirth and integration which is at the core of the human psyche.

In our modern world, chocolate remains powerfully evocative and is widely associated with love, celebration and comfort. It is an integral part of the rituals of Christmas, Easter, and Valentine’s Day. We enact ancient rituals through expressions of love and connection, the giving of gifts, the celebration of new life, all echoing the place of chocolate as symbolic of unity and interconnectedness.

It is powerful in the way it can convey deeply felt emotions – the Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate advert “Mum’s Birthday” promotes the giving of chocolate as an act of kindness, generosity and human connection as the shopkeeper hands over a chocolate bar to a little girl for her ‘token’ payment which has no monetary value whatsoever. The sentiment of “there’s a glass and a half in everyone” is emotionally engaging and, of course, does wonders for Cadbury’s as we use their products to demonstrate our generosity and thoughtfulness.

Chocolate’s deep connection to romantic love places it within the realm of Eros, the universal principle that is about connection, and “psychic relatedness” (Jung, CW10, para 255). Jung developed his ideas about Eros from Plato, who said of Love, or Eros, “.. he is the most venerable and valuable of the gods ..” (Symposium, 202b) and “.. a mighty daemon” (Symposium, 202d) who moves between the human and the divine.

The Chocolate Shadow

Chocolate has evolved from its sacred roots to its modern-day sensual heights. But that is not without its difficulties.

When we coat the humble, sustaining digestive biscuit base in chocolate, we ascribe to it an element of Shadow – something of the indulgent, sensual and repressed erotic. Suddenly, the plain biscuit becomes more desirable, tempting and luxurious. The chocolate stirs unconscious desire, and the digestive is then raised to something altogether more indulgent.

Not convinced? Chocolate has deeply erotic associations. It is often portrayed in literature, art and advertising as a symbol of desire and sensuality. Its smoothness, flavour and rich aroma are unmistakable and together stimulate and heighten the senses, adding to its seemingly erotic nature.

Chocolate adverts are filled with sensual imagery, which adds to chocolates’ association with desire and temptation. Who can forget the heroic Bond-style, dark, mysterious man facing daring exploits, “and all because the lady loves Milk Tray”? And, of course, there was the Cadbury Flake Girl – so controversial that the Advertising Standards Agency received complaints about the sexual and suggestive nature of the advert. However you view it, she was a cultural symbol of indulgence and pleasure for an entire generation.

Togetherness

In Jungian terms, the chocolate digestive is a union of opposites – the ordinary and the sublime, the unassuming and the indulgent. Its opposing aspects come together into a wholeness.

This little biscuit is ubiquitous. It appears on tea-time tables across the world, in millions of coffee breaks, children’s packed lunches and as a comfort food for many in times of emotional stress or low mood. The factory produces up to 13 million biscuits a day which says a great deal about our relationship to this easily-consumable comfort fare. Collingham (2020) says quite succinctly, “.. biscuits and a cup of tea are a universal comfort food”.

It is deeply rooted in the collective consciousness because of a mixture of cultural, social, and individual factors. Chocolate biscuits are one of the foods that have become associated with emotions, memories, and coping mechanisms as well as comfort, reward, and even mild addiction. We perceive food through the very powerful lens of emotion and feeling. As a culture, we often find ourselves negotiating between our practical needs and our desire for transcendence and pleasure. The pull of biscuits like the chocolate digestive is a useful metaphor for that struggle.

Conclusion

The chocolate digestive represents the balancing of opposites in microcosm - the nurturing, grounding Mother archetype in the digestive biscuit and the complex, transformative, divine covering of chocolate. A marriage of wholesome nourishment and luxurious indulgence.

We hold the tension of these opposites every day – the ordinary, practical, grounding, day-to-day needs and our longing for transcendence, pleasure and transformation. This is not just about food – the same dynamic tension of opposites operates in our lives as we balance work and leisure, saving and spending, safety and risk, healthy lifestyle and indulgence.

The same balancing principle operates within the psyche – masculine and feminine, extraversion and introversion, light and dark. In Jungian terms, healthy psychological development requires that we integrate the opposites and, in that integration, we find balance and wholeness. The chocolate digestive works because it too offers an integration – a symbol of wholeness, rather than the polarised, split-apart opposing polarities that modern life often presents us with.

The collective love of this particular chocolate biscuit transcends its role as a simple biscuit and perhaps symbolises something about the relationship we have as a modern culture with these ‘little pleasures’ in life. Something that allows us to indulge, but not too much.