Australia's favourite biscuit 2026

Australia's favourite biscuit has changed - at least according to the latest national consumer satisfaction research.

While Tim Tam Original topped Arnott's 2024 sales rankings, a 2026 survey of 2,390 Australian biscuit buyers produced a different winner: the century-old Arnott's Scotch Finger.

Australia's favourite biscuit is the Scotch Finger

My immediate thought was the Anzac biscuit. Then the sales figures pointed me towards the Tim Tam. But there is newer evidence, and it changes the answer again.

On 30 June 2026, the Two Doting Dads podcast discussed the announcement that Scotch Finger had been named Australia's number-one biscuit. That claim can be traced to Canstar Blue's 2026 sweet biscuit customer satisfaction ratings, rather than supermarket sales figures.

Canstar Blue surveyed 2,390 Australians who had purchased and eaten sweet biscuits during the previous six months. Its research was finalised in April and published in May 2026.

Scotch Finger finished first for overall satisfaction, ahead of Arnott's Classic Assorted and Kingston. Monte Carlo was fourth and McVitie's Digestives fifth. Tim Tam, despite its enormous sales and cultural profile, finished sixth in Canstar Blue's published ordering.

That makes the question of Australia's favourite biscuit more interesting than a simple look at supermarket sales suggests. Scotch Finger is the current consumer satisfaction champion; Tim Tam remains the sales powerhouse.

Why Scotch Finger won in 2026

Canstar Blue's research was not a poll simply asking respondents to nominate a favourite biscuit. Consumers rated biscuits they had actually bought and eaten, with the survey measuring overall satisfaction as well as value for money, taste, variety and range, packaging and texture.

Scotch Finger received five stars for overall satisfaction and four stars for taste, value for money, texture and packaging.

The result returned Scotch Finger to the top of Canstar Blue's sweet biscuit ratings for the first time since 2022. Tim Tam won in 2023 and 2024, while Mint Slice took the award in 2025.

That recent history shows how different the result is from a permanent declaration of one national favourite. Consumer satisfaction can move from year to year, and the survey only includes brands that receive enough responses to qualify.

Nevertheless, among the 2,390 Australians surveyed for the 2026 ratings, Scotch Finger was the clear winner.

A 120-year-old biscuit beats the Tim Tam

Perhaps the biggest surprise is the age of the winning biscuit.

Arnott's Scotch Finger first appeared in 1906, making it almost six decades older than the Tim Tam. Its appeal rests on an exceptionally simple formula: a buttery, crumbly shortbread-style biscuit with the distinctive centre line that makes it easy to snap into two fingers.

It is also one of those Australian biscuits inseparable from the ritual of having a cuppa. Its relatively dense construction makes it particularly suited to dunking in tea or coffee, although generations of Australians have developed their own opinions about precisely how long it should stay submerged.

The biscuit's age has not translated into declining popularity. Arnott's sold about 11 million packets of Scotch Finger during 2024, with sales increasing strongly. Reported sales growth reached 19.4 per cent in the year to October 2024, following growth of about 13 per cent the previous year.

Today the familiar original sits alongside variations including Chocolate Scotch Finger and Gluten Free Scotch Finger, as well as smaller formats.

Scotch Finger has been around since 1906

Scotch Finger belongs to the early history of Arnott's rather than the modern era of elaborate biscuit flavours and limited editions.

William Arnott, the Scottish-born founder whose bakery business eventually became one of Australia's best-known food companies, arrived in Australia in the 19th century. The company developed a biscuit range that would eventually put products such as Milk Arrowroot, Scotch Finger, SAO and Iced VoVo into generations of Australian kitchens.

Scotch Finger arrived on Australian shelves in 1906. Its survival is remarkable in an industry where products routinely disappear or are reformulated as consumer tastes change.

More than a century later, there is very little mystery about what people are buying. It remains essentially a straightforward buttery biscuit, and that simplicity appears to be part of its strength.

But Tim Tam still has a powerful claim

The new result does not mean the Tim Tam has suddenly stopped being enormously popular.

The apparent contradiction comes from comparing two different measurements.

Arnott's 2024 sales data ranked Tim Tam Original first among more than 130 varieties of biscuits and crackers sold by the company in Australia. More than 2.8 million Australian households bought Tim Tam Original during the year.

The scale of those figures is considerable. Australians bought more than 300 million packets of Arnott's products in 2024, amounting to roughly eight billion individual biscuits and crackers.

Tim Tam Original finished ahead of Barbecue Shapes, Chicken Crimpy, Pizza Shapes and Jatz. Tim Tam Double Coat was sixth, followed by Salada Original and Mint Slice.

Scotch Finger came ninth in that sales ranking.

So if "favourite" means the Arnott's product purchased most widely, Tim Tam Original has compelling evidence behind it. If it means the sweet biscuit receiving the highest overall customer satisfaction rating in Canstar Blue's latest national research, Scotch Finger wins.

Sales and satisfaction measure different things

The distinction matters.

A sales ranking measures what consumers buy. A customer satisfaction survey measures what participating consumers think about products they have bought and eaten.

Price, packet size, availability, promotions, household size and purchasing frequency can all affect sales. Satisfaction research instead asks consumers to evaluate their experience with a product.

There is another important difference. Arnott's 2024 ranking compared products within Arnott's own extensive range and included savoury crackers and Shapes. Canstar Blue's 2026 study compared qualifying sweet biscuit brands and products from multiple manufacturers and retailers.

The 2026 field included Arnott's favourites alongside McVitie's Digestives, Lotus Biscoff, Oreo and Coles Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Scotch Finger therefore did something the Arnott's sales figures alone could not demonstrate: it finished ahead of competing sweet biscuits in a multi-brand Australian consumer satisfaction study.

The rest of Australia's favourite biscuits

Arnott's dominated the upper reaches of Canstar Blue's 2026 results.

Behind Scotch Finger came Arnott's Classic Assorted in second place, followed by Kingston and Monte Carlo. McVitie's Digestives interrupted the Arnott's run in fifth position, followed by Tim Tam.

Arnott's Assorted Creams, Ginger Nuts, Lotus Biscoff and Mint Slice completed the first ten positions in Canstar Blue's published ordering. Oreo, Coles Chocolate Chip Cookies, Coles Scotch Fingers, Arnott's Shortbread Creams, Iced VoVo and Tiny Teddies followed.

The result is particularly striking because Scotch Finger is among the simplest biscuits in the field. There is no cream centre, jam, elaborate coating or fashionable flavour combination in the original. Its principal characteristics remain butteriness, sweetness, a crumbly texture and that familiar snap down the middle.

What about the Anzac biscuit?

The Anzac biscuit remains in a category of its own.

Its importance has less to do with commercial rankings than Australian history and commemoration. Recipes resembling the modern oat, flour, sugar, butter and golden syrup biscuit appeared around the period of the First World War and its aftermath, although the popular history surrounding Anzac biscuits is considerably more complicated than the familiar story of biscuits being routinely sent to troops overseas.

The Anzac name also receives protection that ordinary commercial biscuit names do not. Australian government policy permits "Anzac biscuits" provided the products broadly conform to the traditional recipe and shape, while the term "Anzac cookies" is not considered acceptable.

That gives the Anzac biscuit an extraordinary cultural position, but it does not make it the winner of a contemporary consumer satisfaction survey.

So what is Australia's favourite biscuit?

As of the latest available 2026 consumer satisfaction research, the strongest answer is Arnott's Scotch Finger.

Canstar Blue's research involved 2,390 Australians who had bought and eaten sweet biscuits during the preceding six months, and Scotch Finger received the highest overall satisfaction result. The research was completed in April 2026 and published in May, shortly before the result attracted further attention on Australian audio programs in June.

Tim Tam retains a different title. Arnott's 2024 purchasing figures show Tim Tam Original was the company's biggest-selling biscuit or cracker product, and its extraordinary household penetration makes any claim that Australians have abandoned it impossible to sustain.

The two results are not mutually exclusive. Australians buy vast quantities of Tim Tams, but when Canstar Blue asked biscuit buyers to rate their satisfaction in 2026, a much older and considerably simpler biscuit came out on top.

After 120 years in Australian biscuit tins, the humble Scotch Finger is Australia's latest favourite.