Sussex Biscuit Co

Sussex Biscuit Co began in a village hall kitchen when two friends tired of supermarket biscuits listing palm oil and flavourings where butter and flour should be. We rented oven time, bought local butter, and sold shortbread at farmers' markets until the queue justified a proper bakery on the edge of the South Downs. Our name reflects where we bake; our recipes reflect how we think food should be made — simply, honestly, and without ingredients we would not keep at home.

All-butter is non-negotiable. It costs more and behaves temperamental in heat, but it gives snap to a digestive and melt to shortbread in ways margarine never matches. We mix in small batches, rest dough where recipes require, and bake on steel sheets that give even colour. No palm oil, no artificial flavours, no shortcuts that extend shelf life at the expense of taste. If a biscuit stale after a fortnight, we accept that as the price of integrity.

Our range grew slowly — ginger nuts for winter, lemon shortbread for spring gifts, oat biscuits for everyday cups of tea. Tins and boxes use paper and card first, plastic only where food safety demands and then minimally. We employ local bakers, train school leavers, and sell seconds cheaply rather than waste mis-shapen but delicious trays.

Market regulars still ask for the shortbread that first built our queue, and we keep that recipe unchanged even as the bakery grows — a small promise that quality is not negotiable, however busy the ovens become.

Today Sussex Biscuit Co supplies Maxwells with biscuits that belong beside a proper brew. East Sussex is gentle country; our baking is not flashy — just consistent, buttery, and proud to list every ingredient without embarrassment, batch after batch from our South Downs bakery, still mixed by hand where it matters.

Values: All-butter, no palm oil