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| David Tonge |
Dear Nicey,
Thanks for your speedy reply yesterday. After reading all of the correspondence from the civil service and others on the vexing question of the white bourbon it was clear to me that it would help a lot of
people to get to the bottom of this particular mystery. I decided to go straight to the horse's mouth and write to the customer services people at United Biscuits.
According to the makers it's a Dark Vanilla Cream Finger. I think I preferred it when it was called a White Bourbon but I suppose its nice to know that it tastes of vanilla. I've included the email from McVities below.
Thanks again,
David
"Thank you for your e-mail regarding the above. The biscuit that looks like 2 miniature Hobnobs stuck together with soft brown filling is a Fudge Brownie Cream. The one that looks like bourbon creams but have a white filling is a Dark Vanilla Cream Finger."
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| Nicey replies: 'Fudge Brownie Cream' in a Rover tin, its a bit transatlantic for a British institution isn't it, no wonder they kept the name under wraps! I bet they used 'White Bourbon' as its project name when it was in development in secret underground biscuit caves, and all McVities/Crawfords operatives have all had 'Dark Vanilla Cream Finger' drummed into them. |
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| David Tonge |
Dear Nicey,
Here at my office we are kept well fed with supplies of McVities Crawfords Rover 1kg selection packs. Some of the biscuits are particularly nice and while we can spot a bourbon or custard cream quite easily some of the other biscuits are harder to identify. I wonder, do you know what are the usual biscuits in a pack of Rovers? We're really puzzled by the ones that look like two mini hobnobs with a soft brown filling, and the ones that look like bourbon creams but have a white filling.
Thanks,
David |
| Nicey replies: Excellent probing questions indeed. Yes the oat sandwhich one also turned up in the lovely retro selection tin that McVities did at Christmas called 'Baked to Perfection' which had pictures of old biscuit tins from the 1920 - 1940s. I don't know what its called but I think it has bits of hazelnuts in it and is really fairly posh for the Rover selection. At a push I would say its an 'oat and hazelnut chocolate cream sandwich'. The 'white cream bourbon' was the subject of a totally informal investigation by some members of the civil service last year, who were trying to find out how these biscuits kept turning up at meetings. I think if you trawl the site a bit via the search box you'll turn up some mails about them. |
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| Peter Turpin |
Dear Nicey,
This morning with tea at elevensies we had some Mr.Kipling Apple pies with custard and a lattice pastry top which were quite superb. But by 3pm they had all gone so we (the management & I) tucked into our biccy tin. Our dilemma is now should we buy more of the apple & custard pies or should we think of our waistlines?
Regarding cream teas in devon & cornwall I can thoroughly recommend the ones served at the Lee Abbey tea rooms at Lee Bay near the Valley of Rocks by Lynton - they are so good that on occasions we have had to opt for the mini-tea which has only one scone if we to reserve room for dinner.
Kind Regards
Peter Turpin
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| Nicey replies: I always advise in these situations just steaming into them in the hope that you'll get sick of them. Mind you biscuit enthusiast Andrew who I used to work with tried that with Double Coat Tim Tams, but the whole thing got away from him. Last I heard he had enrolled in the local gym and lost two and half stone.
I'm sure I had a cream tea near the valley of the rocks years ago, it was a long time ago but it was a good one. |
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| Natilie Mann |
Please can you help me locate the whereabouts of a biscuit which I have a terrible craving for but cannot find anywhere. They are manufactured by Burtons and are called Jamboree biscuits. They were a gorgeous biscuit covered with coconut dipped marshmellow, with a line of jam down the middle, they came in pink, white and apricot.
Please help.
Thanks, Natalie Mann
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| Nicey replies: Well if you are really set on getting some Burtons ones then try the old corner shop and petrol station search. You can often turn stuff here that isn't to found on the supermarket shelves.
Other than that you could settle for Jacobs Mallows which are basically the same thing and available in the big supermarkets.
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| Alison Debenham |
So that's what those little silver balls are - no wonder they break my teeth when I try to eat them....
I probably bake a batch of fairy cakes about every 2 - 3 weeks for the teenage members of the household and their friends. These cakes are topped always with icing (usually pink or yellow) and variously with dolly mixtures, jelly sweets, mini-eggs at Easter time, or whatever else I can think of to ring the changes. Lakeland also do some very sweet little seasonal icing sugar pictures which are very popular. In fact, I think you should do a link up with Lakeland as they sell all sorts of things associated with nicecupsofteaandsitdowns.
Regards to The Wife and Junior Members.
Alison |
| Nicey replies: We love our Lakeland fat separating jug, its got nothing to do with sit downs but The Wife does like making chicken stock.
I can see me having to make some Fairy cakes in the next day or two as I spent most of Friday thinking about them for the book. The application of mini-eggs to cakes is very underrated. I can see a plan forming.. |
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