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 Bussemeier |
While I anticipate you poking your mate in the ribs and saying, “Listen to the note I got from some dumb American…” I will go ahead with my post…
I’m sitting here enjoying a lovely cuppa PGTips and examining my favorite cup, the interior of which has long since ceased being white, but is now a deep brown. Before I have to explain to my wife what’s happening to our cups (now that I’m well addicted to my breakfast, morning, noontime, afternoon and evening tea), is there anything I can do to prevent the discoloration of our vessels from occurring.
I thought I would turn directly to the experts.
Your poor American cousin,
Mark |
Nicey replies: Hello Mark,
Firstly well done on the proper tea drinking.
The build up of tea stains in your cup is usually related to the hardness of the water in your area. Hard water which has calcium and magnesium salts in reacts with the acidic compounds in tea to create salts of tannic acid (we think) and that is what builds up on your cup. Given all the chemistry I've just mentioned you would think that some of reverse chemistry would do the trick. Some people even turn to such things as bleach, but all that does is whiten the stain and leaves it otherwise intact ready to give a foothold for even more staining.
We find the best thing is simply to use a nylon pan scrubber and a bit of hot soapy water, to remove the stain completely. For tricky recesses fold the scrubber over the end of a teaspoon and rub away the staining with that. Once it's all off a quick scrub once or twice a week with the scourer should keep things nice and shinny. |
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Romie |
Perhaps Sandra means Huntley & Palmers Capt. Scott's Expedition Biscuits? They are the very same that provisioned the attempt for the Antarctic pole, and seem relatively sturdy. I believe they were only recently reintroduced.
Regards,
Romie |
Nicey replies: Do you know, you could be right. I saw those in our local outdoor shop just before Christmas, but was too engrossed in Christmas shopping to buy them. And the box was all battered which always puts me off.
Good thinking!
Wifey |
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Rachel
Foxs Party Rings Review |
Dear Nicey,
I’ve been trying to find a biscuit I used to have when I was little and can’t remember what it’s called. I’ve looked in supermarkets and online but still can’t find it. It was round with a frilled edge, and was mostly covered by a round, flat circle of icing, which was half pink and half white. I think there was another version which had pink/brown and white/brown as options too but I could be wrong.
Any ideas what is was? I’d love to get hold of them again!
Thanks
Rachel
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Nicey replies: Do you mean party rings? That's the nearest I can think of.
Wifey |
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Sandra |
My grandmother used to send us excursion biscuits when we were young. She has since passed away. My daughters have heard my sisters and I tell of these delicious biscuits and are eager to try them. I can’t find them here in the U.S. Do you have a source that I could order them from?? I have googled my fingers to the bone . . .
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Nicey replies: I have never heard of them. Can you describe what they were like - maybe that'll ring a bell? Nicey's still away, maybe he can help if none of the other NCOTAASD crew can.
Wifey |
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Romie |
With regards to the "nice cup of tea in the morning" song, rabid googling suggests that the song was originally written by playwright AP Herbert for a 1937 musical revue. (More detailed reference here.) The credits I can find for the melody simply say "Sullivan," which I would assume meant Arthur Sullivan (of Gilbert and Sullivan), but he would have died before the song was written. Perhaps it was another Sullivan, or perhaps Herbert reused a pre-existing melody. In any case, the song was used as an advertising jingle in the '70s for Brooke Bond's D-brand tea (thanks again to Chelsea97 over at The Answer Bank), which muddies up the question of when it entered the general British consciousness.
What wonderful news about hobnobs. I have been mourning for months.
Regards,
Romie |
Nicey replies: Yep, you win the prize for being first to find out all about it.
Honourable mentions also to Richard Clark who adds "'Ring up the Curtain' by Ernest Henry Short and Arthur Compton Rickett first published in 1938 attributes the song to a Revue 'Home and Beauty' staged by Charles B Cochran, lyrics by AP Herbert to a tune by Henry Sullivan around 1936", Katie Exton and m b-w who remembers "in the sixties black and white ads "the tea set " you ran around with a tea cosy on your head singing the song, i remember , but dont know who paid for the ads! Also at this time bank managers were kept in cupboards and nimble bread floated about on baloons. That was proper telly, and then you could watch the next episode of Thunderbirds or man from u.n.c.l.e.Or Sunday night at the london palladium."
Well done everyone!
Wifey not Nicey
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