Your ViewsKeep your e-mails pouring in, it's good to know that there are lots of you out there with views and opinions. To help you work out what is what, are now little icons to help you see biscuit related themes. And now you can see at a glance which are the most contested subjects via this graph (requires Flash 6.0 plugin). Please keep your mails coming in to nicey@nicecupofteaandasitdown.com | If you like, you can use this search thingy to find stuff that matches with any of the icons you pick, or use the fantastic free text search, Yay! | Your e-Mails |
Mark Hamlett |
Hello Nicey and Wifey,
Am I the only person who drinks nothing but tea at home, yet drinks nothing but coffee at work? In my case, it’s because the tea at work smells of mushroom soup, but I’ve always done that. Anybody else?
Best wishes,
Mark Hamlett |
Nicey replies: Yes nothing more off putting than a trace of fungus. |
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John E Noir |
Dear NIcey/Wifey/YMOS
As a resident of Tadcaster, a small town with 3 Breweries ( 2 varieties of Smith’s – Samuel and John’s) and a Coors brewery (that used to be Bass) I know all about the various niffs that drift round our town depending on who is brewing what, but generally I find the smell of brewing beer quite pleasant I even enjoy sampling rather vast quantities when the sun is over the yardarm, or the teapot is cold!
But as Tadcaster is about 8 miles south of York I can throw some light on the various debates about what happens there.
Two great chocolate producers there are Rowntrees home of the ubiquitous Kit Kat mentioned elsewhere in your excellent website. And Terry’s home of the Chocolate Orange when driving through the right parts of York you could always tell the two different chocolates apart. Alas Terry’s is no more so the hint of Orange choc drifting over the racecourse has now gone but the Kit Kat and Mint Aero provide a welcome bouquet to the nose in the north of the city.
The burnt cake smell described by Ally Beal is not something that emanates from the Jorvik Viking centre but is almost certainly the by product of the old sugar beet factory. I would actually describe it as more like the smell of the inside of Maltesers but maybe I led a peculiar childhood where Maltesers had to be licked clean of chocolate before crunching the middles!
I say Old because as of 13th Feb this year the last ever load of sugar beet was delivered so only Kit Kat remains to assault the nasal passages of York residents! |
Nicey replies: Right that's the smell of Bury St Edmonds too. It has a vast sugar beet plant, next to the A14. I think Google earth should have all this stuff in so you would know what places smell like. I'm mildly certain I spent a night in Tadcaster about 20 years ago sleeping on somebody's floor, it was certainly a place just south York and with lots of breweries.
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Andrew Hackney |
Dear Nicey, Wifey, /et al/
I'm afraid I have to disagree with Lizzie Arnott in her opinion of York's defining smell. The smell of melting chocolate floating from the Nestle KitKat factory is surely one of the best smells ever. I and a friend (another Arnott - no relation) always try to find an excuse to pass the factory whenever we're in York, just on the off chance they're melting chocolate that day. This can be quite difficult to explain to other occupants of the car as you're driving towards the factory and your destination is actually in the opposite direction. Even more bizarre is the need to roll all the car windows down and stick your head out of the window. There is a set of traffic lights near the factory and to be stuck at a red light on a day of chocolate production is just sheer heaven...
As for bad smells, I think the smell from the 'Birds Eye' fish finger plant in Hull (Kingston upon Hull) takes some beating. On the days when the wind is blowing in the wrong direction, the whole city centre seems to suffer under a noxious miasma of what smells like fish-meal.
Also I'm glad to see your nose icon is getting some good usage recently.
Nasally yours,
Andrew Hackney |
Nicey replies: Thank you for that message that gently drags us back in the world tea time and for the support for nose icon which really appreciates it.
We should also spare a thought for Captain Birds Eye who's had a lot of issues of late. It must of been very traumatic loosing thirty years going all Timothy Dalton style with an electric pelican and flying submarine, then to suddenly age again by about thirty years. He wants to get back to that island where all the kids swing around on ropes, live in tree houses and feast on vast platters of fish fingers and peas. |
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Helen Rees |
Hi Nicey,
Hope you are well. Here in Swansea we miss the smell of smoky bacon or roast chicken from the Walker’s crisp factory which sadly closed last year. A fine building it is too. I remember in my youth visiting Haverhill in Suffolk and there was a factory nearby called something like International Flavours and Fragrances. The whole town would smell of whatever they were boiling up that day – I was only there for a few days but I recall variously smelling chocolate, strawberries and roses. All a bit surreal. It must be close to you, maybe you could pop over and check if it’s still there. Or maybe I dreamt it. Mind you, the smell of my childhood is Scotch tape from the 3Ms factory in Gorseinon. Ok it’s not food but I only have to smell a post-it note to be away...sorry I’m rambling now
Regards,
Helen Rees
P.S. Of course I forgot to mention that greatest of Walkers products , the pickled onion monster munch which I think was the last thing they made in Swansea. Now that was a lovely smell. |
Nicey replies: Hello Helen,
Yes Haverhill isn't far from us and has a strange looking factory on its ring road, but I didn't notice any strange smells. I of course want to head over there right away and camp on the road side now.
To reach you at Swansea via the M4 one has to run the gauntlet of Port Talbot which has its own aroma (Hydrogen Sulphide I assume), probably due to the steel works. |
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Trina Fitzalan-Howard |
Hi Nicey and crew
There’s a patch of the A52 on the inner ring road of Nottingham which whiffs of warm pizza and raw tobacco on the way out of town. In ancient days the pizza smell was roasted chicken but they seem to have shut up shop.
Trina |
Nicey replies: Hi Trina,
Note that for smells on roads to count they need to be strong enough that you can detect them with the windows up in the car and travelling in excess of 40mph. |
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