McVitie's Gold Billion Bar - 39g

McVitie's Gold sits in that very British category of thing that is not quite a biscuit and not quite a chocolate bar, and nobody has ever minded. It belongs next to a mug of tea at eleven o'clock, or at the bottom of a school bag, slightly squashed.

If you grew up with Gold in the tin at your nan's, the wrapper alone does half the work. People in Canada search for it by name because they want that exact one, and the Billion Bar is the version that makes people stop mid-aisle.

It is a single wrapped bar, so it lives happily in a cupboard, a desk drawer or a coat pocket. Keep it somewhere cool and dry and it will be fine, which is more than can be said for its chances of lasting the week. Lunchbox, long car journey, the dead zone between lunch and tea: all covered.

McVitie's is the name behind the digestive, the Hobnob and Jaffa Cakes, so a Billion Bar in the basket usually has a packet of something for dunking following close behind. Grab a few. One is never the number.