The original
Glico Bisco Milk Cream Sandwich Biscuits — 15 Biscuits
$4.39
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The strawberry one
Glico Bisco Strawberry Cream Biscuits — 15 Biscuits
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Glico Bisco Fermented Butter Biscuits — 15 Biscuits
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Product information
About
Bisco is a small cream sandwich biscuit Glico has been making since 1933: two crisp, lightly sweet biscuits around a milk cream with a faint yoghurt-like tang. It is mild rather than rich, and it is not a very sweet biscuit, which is most of the reason a box disappears. Everyday supermarket confectionery in Japan, not a gift-tin product. Buy it if you want something small and mild to keep in a desk drawer or a bag; if you are after something rich or chocolatey, this is the wrong biscuit.
ビスコ: bisuko. The red box with the boy on the front.
What you're getting
- A tang you won't be expecting. The cream tastes more like a yoghurt sweet than a custard cream: there is a real acidity behind the sweetness, and it is the first thing most people notice.
- Crisp and clean-melting, not dry. The biscuit snaps rather than crumbles and clears the mouth quickly. You won't need something to drink alongside it, which is not true of every biscuit this size.
- The cream is the reason the biscuit is a sandwich at all. Glico's founder wanted a live yeast culture inside a biscuit, and the yeast he wanted died in the oven, so he built a sandwich and put it in the cream instead, which is never baked. Glico still puts the cultures in the cream today, so the shape is doing the same job ninety years on.
- It looks like a children's snack and isn't one. The boy has been on the box from the start, but this is what a Japanese adult keeps in a desk drawer.
- Fifteen small biscuits in three sealed packs of five. They are small, and the three sachets are why the last five are as crisp as the first.
- The honest one: the sachets are stiff. They take a moment to tear, and a small child may not manage one on their own.
- Allergens: contains milk and wheat. Read the pack's own label before you rely on ours.
If you have seen Bisco sold as a long-life emergency ration in a sealed tin, that is a different product from this one: a different pack, made to sit in a cupboard for years. This is the ordinary box. The front of the pack makes a good deal of the cultures in the cream; treat that as part of what Bisco is rather than as a reason to buy it, because we are not making any claim about what it does. And if you are buying it for a child, Glico's own guidance is from about one year old, with an adult watching.
Ingredients
The maker's ingredient list, translated from the Japanese pack. Anything after the break is an additive — the Japanese label lists those separately.
Wheat flour (produced in Japan), sugar, shortening, lactose, vegetable oil, whole milk powder, inulin, fermented liquid, salt, starch, wheat protein, lactic acid bacteria
calcium carbonate, raising agent, flavouring, emulsifier, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, vitamin D
The printed label on the pack is always the authority on ingredients and allergens, not this page — please read it in full before you rely on our summary. If you are unsure about an ingredient, contact us.
Allergens
The maker declares:
- Allergens
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- Milk
- Wheat
The printed label on the pack is always the authority on ingredients and allergens, not this page — please read it in full before you rely on our summary. If you are unsure about an ingredient, contact us.
Details
- Maker
- Glico
- Prefecture
- Osaka
- Made in
- Japan
- Net contents
- 15 biscuits, three sealed packs of five
Our guide
How to eat it
- Open one sachet, not the box. Five biscuits is the portion the packing was designed around, and leaving the other two sealed is why the last five are as crisp as the first.
- For a cheesecake or tart base, crush them cream and all and press them into the tin. It is a standard thing to do with a box in Japan, and nothing else in that recipe needs a Japanese grocer.
- The individual sachets are stiff to tear. If these are for a small child, open them first. Glico's own guidance is from about one year old, with an adult watching.
In their own words
What Japanese buyers say
What do the numbers mean?
Counts of how many reviews mentioned each thing, not a score. One review can mention several. Every quote is our translation, with the original Japanese beneath it.
- What they like
Bought it after a long gap — the cream has a tartness to it and it's lovely.
久しぶりに買いましたが、酸味のあるクリームでおいしいです。
from monolog
- What they like
That cream's taste and texture are like the old Morocco Yoghurt penny sweet.
あのクリームの味と食感は駄菓子のモロッコヨ◯グルに似ています。
from monolog
Our tip: Morocco Yoghurt is a cheap Japanese childhood sweet — a little tub of sharp, yoghurt-flavoured cream eaten with a tiny spatula. It is the tang they mean.
- What they grumble about
The normal one is the tastiest, I reckon. But it's hard to open, isn't it — a kid can't open this.
ノーマルが一番やっぱうまいかな〜 しかし開けにくいよね 子供は開けられないよねこれ
mentioned in 2 of 50 reviews we readfrom monolog
- What they like
I'd assumed it was just a kids' snack, but eating it, the harmony between the biscuit and the cream between it matched exquisitely — really delicious.
子供が食べるオヤツ程度のものと思っていましたが、実際に食べてみるとまわりクッキー地と挟んであるクリームのハーモニーが絶妙にマッチして、とても美味しかったです。
from monolog
- What they like
Being in small packs means you always get it at its crisp best.
小分けにしてあるので、サクサク食感を食べられていいです。
from monolog
- What they like
One of my favourite snacks. Being in small packs, it's easy to eat even at work.
とても好きなお菓子の1つです。小分けになっているので仕事中でも食べやすい。
mentioned in 12 of 50 reviews we readfrom monolog
- What they grumble about
I never imagined days would come when I'd deny myself a favourite snack over the price, without even being on a diet.
ダイエットしているわけでもないのに、値段を見て好きなお菓子を我慢する日々が来るとは、想像もしていませんでした
mentioned in 5 of 50 reviews we readfrom monolog
- What they like
You'd think the individual wrapping would stop you overeating. It does not.
個装になっているので食べ過ぎ防止になるかと思いきや、そんな事はなかったです。
from monolog
- What they like
I keep one tucked in my bag for peckish moments. It stays with you, and it saves me when stopping at a café isn't practical.
小腹減ったとき用にバックに忍ばせて持ち歩いています。腹持ちも良く、カフェにわざわざ入ってというのが難しい時に助かります
from monolog
- What they like
The slightly tart cream goes really well with the crisp biscuit dough.
やや酸味のあるクリームにサクサクのクッキー生地がよく合います。
from mognavi
- What they grumble about
A shame a few were broken, but it's that same dependable gentle taste as ever.
何枚か割れてたのは残念だけど昔乍らの安定した優しい美味しさ
from monolog
- What they like
I've stopped buying it for the kids, who've outgrown it — but now and then the parent picks it up, as if remembering, at the sight of the packet. The taste never changes.
普段はもう食べなくなった子供には買わなくなりましたが、時々親のほうが思い出したかのようにこのパッケージを見て手に取ってしまいます。変わらぬ美味しさです。
mentioned in 16 of 50 reviews we readfrom monolog
- What they grumble about
Small packs are welcome since I eat it at work. It has got smaller, though.
会社で食べるので小さいパックは嬉しい。 小さくなったなぁ
from monolog
- What they like
One of the snacks I can give my child with peace of mind. When she was about two, she ate the cream and I ate the biscuit.
子どもに安心して食べさせられるお菓子のひとつです。子どもが2歳くらいの頃はクリームは子どもが、クッキーは私が食べてました。
from monolog
- What they like
It's for emergency supplies. Even stockpiled, it vanishes by itself — one bite and you can't stop.
非常食用です。ストックしてても勝手に無くなってます。一口食べたら止まらなくなる味です
mentioned in 5 of 50 reviews we readfrom monolog
- What they like
Reliably tasty Bisco! Snap one open and the little heart in the cream is adorable.
安定のビスコおいし！ 割って食べるとクリームハートのところが可愛い！
from monolog
Real quotes from Japanese review sites (monolog, mognavi), translated by us. We show no star rating from those sites.
The maker
Where it comes from
- Glico
- Osaka
Glico started in Osaka in 1922 and put Bisco out in February 1933, calling it the company's second nutritional confection after the caramel it is named for. It was priced from the start to be an everyday purchase rather than a treat.
The name is an abbreviation that wore down. It began as kōbo bisuketto, yeast biscuit, which got shortened to kōbisu, and said quickly and often enough, kōbisu-kōbisu-kōbisu turns into bisuko. Glico liked that it came out at eight strokes: the same as Guriko, which is how the company's own name is written in Japanese, and drew it with rounder letters than the parent brand.
The boy on the front has been redrawn five times, in 1933, 1951, 1956, 1982 and 2005. He began as a Japanese reworking of a German confectionery poster showing a child with his cheeks full, which is why the cheeks are exaggerated.
Product facts here are checked against the maker's own page: glico.com (opens in a new tab)
Often bought together
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Glico Bisco Milk Cream Sandwich Biscuits — 15 Biscuits
$4.39
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