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If there’s one biscuit that has witnessed everything from rainy-day chai sessions to late-night hostel gossip, it’s the unassuming Marie — light, round, and always ready to be dunked. However, few realise that this modest teatime favourite has a royal European history. The Marie biscuit was not created in an Indian bakery, but rather within the refined kitchens of 19th-century Europe.
The story dates back to 1874, when London’s Peek Freans company decided to celebrate the wedding of Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia to Britain’s Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh. They baked a new type of biscuit — simple, elegant, embossed with the name “Marie” in her honour.
The biscuit soon spread across the British Empire, travelling with ships, trade routes, and the colonial craving for afternoon tea. Its simple, crisp flavour was meant to complement, rather than compete with, the drink. When the British brought tea culture to India, Marie quietly tagged along in the luggage.
However, while colonial India had no shortage of imported biscuits, the real desi takeover began after Independence. Indian biscuit makers like Parle and Britannia saw potential in this understated treat. It was easy to produce, had a long shelf life, and was well-suited to India’s growing tea culture. By the 1950s and ’60s, Marie had gone truly native — the biscuit of choice in every railway pantry, hospital canteen, and home where guests were offered “chai-biskit”.
Over the decades, the Marie became a symbol of modest comfort — not too indulgent like butter cookies, nor too plain like glucose biscuits. It was the biscuit you could eat after a fever, offer during exam breaks, or dip endlessly while chatting with friends, or turn into a sandwich with kissan jam if you were on a tight budget. It survived competition from cream-filled cousins, oat impostors, and diet fads, and somehow managed to stay relevant — re-inventing itself in the age of Instagram aesthetics as one half of the “chai and Marie moment”.
Today, the Marie biscuit has become an essential part of India’s teatime snack culture — a link between colonial history and daily tradition. From the Queen’s tea table to your kitchen tin, its journey narrates how India not only embraced but also adapted the British teatime custom, making it uniquely its own.
