Jacob’s Club

“If you Like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit join our club”.

W & R Jacob and Company started producing the “Club Milk” biscuit in Dublin just before the outbreak of World War I, using images of playing cards from the Club suit to illustrate and advertise the new product.

In 1970 the Irish and British parts of the Jacob’s company split into two firms. The Club biscuit had by this time become popular throughout Great Britain and was marketed in five varieties.

The original Club Milk (made with milk chocolate) was joined by a Club Plain (made with plain chocolate). Two flavoured versions, Club Orange and Club Mint, were made by adding flavouring to the cocoa cream. The Club Fruit variant included raisins in the cocoa cream between the two biscuits. A further Club Honeycomb variety followed.

Club Wafer = Pale blue wrapper
Club Milk = Red wrapper with the queen of clubs
Club Plain = Green wrapper with a picture of a golf ball
Club Orange = Orange wrapper with a picture of an orange 
Club Fruit = Purple wrapper with a picture of a bunch of grapes
Club Mint = Dark Green wrapper with a picture of a Mint leaf

In the mid-1990s both the Irish and British Jacob’s companies were acquired by French-owned Groupe Danone who redesigned both the biscuit and the packaging. The two biscuits held together by cocoa cream were replaced with a single biscuit, topped with cocoa cream. The real chocolate exterior was replaced with a thinner layer of chocolate-based coating. The original milk and plain biscuits were discontinued.

In September 2004 the Jacob’s brand was sold by Danone to British-based United Biscuits, who restored some of the traditional elements of the Club biscuit. From 2013 United Biscuits rebranded the product as McVities Club, using the Jacob’s brand for savoury biscuits and McVities for sweet products.