Flaky and puffy, the fine biscuits were once the favorite tea-time snack of many. Many Irani chai restaurants in the city used to have fine biscuits filled with a caramelized filling. In fact, Mohd Azharuddin is said to be a huge fan of the biscuit, the flavor of which is getting lost amidst an overload of fast food that Hyderabadis are now used to.

Incidentally, fine biscuits are the biggest of the biscuits and could be found in every bakery back in the day. However, today it’s rare to find these biscuits as not all bakeries sell them anymore. The price of making has gone up, while the demand has gone down with changing times. There was a time when one would get four fine biscuits for Rs 1; today, they cost Rs 15 per piece.

Also, people who enjoyed fine biscuits with their tea are all gone now, and the younger generation is more into pastries and doughnuts. For bakeries that want to keep the tradition, it has become tedious as the process is laborious, involving making layers and layers of pastry dough.

Azharuddin, it is said, used to frequent Broadway Irani Cafe in Banjara Hills for tea and fine biscuit. The owners say he still orders it, but rarely. Morine bakery was making 300 fine biscuits till 2014-15. But now, they have cut the numbers down to 100. The old-time bakery owners say that the demand has come down as the new generation thinks it is a poor man’s snack.