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Your e-Mails

Nick Q	Dear Nicey   Just to add to the debate, I was under the impresssion that almost all teabags produced these days were designed for the mug. The teabag manufacturing companies have resigned themselves to this fact, despite whatever "serving suggestion" may adorn the packaging. This is how most tea is made these days. The tea in teabags is "designed" to release it's colour and flavour as quickly as possible so the mug drinker knows the bag has done it's work, can hoist out the bag after a few seconds, burn his/her fingers, make a mess on the top of the flip-top bin and be off on their merry way. Release of colour and flavour in a few seconds is of less importance to the more up-market brands (Twinings etc.) as they expect more of their bags to be used in pots, hence the rather disappointing mug performance of the more costly bag.   I, of course, speak from a position of absolutely no authority on this matter.   By the way, I agree with Katie, my personal preference is one bag per cup.   Nick
Jim Fussell	Nicey,   I'd like to stick up for Katie a little.  I am a one bag per cup man, not because I am a man of infinite tea resources, but due to the fact that surely the second cup made will be of superior strength and quality.  Also, I have always heard the theory when making a pot of tea, that x+1 bags should be used.  Where x is the number of cups required.  This is even more excessive than the one bag per cup method employed by Katie.   One thing I can't disagree with however is the main ethos in all tea making matters.  Make it how you like it.  In fact I think I will...right now.  Excuse me.   Jim.
	Nicey replies: Jim, I hear what you are saying but I think its one 'spoon' each plus one for the pot. As I said teabags tend to be a bit generous so I think that equation may not hold true except for people who have big teapots and like strong tea. In a very scientific test I've just scrunched a Pyramid bag onto a teaspoon and it looks like a heaped spoonful. Perhaps other people could estimate the contents of other bags? I would say that because the flavour of the tea leached from the leaves changes as the tea brews due to higher molecular weight tannins being released, then the second cup can taste different if both are not made in quick succession. Again as with all tea matters personal taste is every thing here, but for the Wife and I the teabag is only in the mug of boiling water for a matter of a few seconds to get it to how we like it nice and refreshing.
Katie Drummond	I am disappointed that the judgement has gone against me, but I did hold you up as the ultimate arbiter, and so I must bow my head and accept your decision. But I don't want any of you thinking that I'm about to start recycling teabags. My pride may be dented but my standards are as high as ever. Keep on composting! Katie
	Nicey replies: You make it how you like it Katie. Hoorah! for and your decadent one bag mugs. Mind you, when an imminent tea bag famine approaches as can happen from time to time in offices, for instance when the person who sorts out tea bags etc leaves or is made redundant, then doubling up on tea bags becomes a important survival technique.
Katie Drummond	Dear Nicey Controversy rages in our office and we need you (and your readers) to arbitrate. I just went into the kitchen where my otherwise esteemed colleague Jane Leonard (I'm sorry, but she needs naming and shaming) was making three cups of tea. I caught her in the act of fishing two teabags out of one of the mugs and asked what was going on. It transpired that in order not to 'waste' tea she had used one teabag each in two of the mugs, then transferred both the USED bags into the third cup. Clearly this is some kind of wartime economy measure gone mad (and anachronistic given Jane's youth). But on the basis that the box of 240 bags of Waitrose 'Premium Gold' tea (highly recommended, by the way, as an all-round crowd-pleasing blend of Kenyan and other African teas) costs £3.75, each teabag is worth less than 2p. My innate horror of a cup of tea made from recycled teabags meant I couldn't bring myself to try the offending brew (we gave it to the accountant), but my suspicion is that the supposed saving is JUST NOT WORTH IT. Jane on the other hand mainatins that this is 'normal' practice, and grossly extravagant to do anything else. What do you think, Nicey?
	Nicey replies: Katie, Tea bags are designed for pots, not mugs unless they are the one cup variety with the string thing. What this means is that each tea bag is more than capable of producing two cups of tea, as this is a civilised amount of tea to brew for a a single person who may require a second cup. The upshot of this is that you can, and indeed the Wife and I do, make two perfectly good mugs of tea with one bag. When thinking of tea economy I'm always reminded of Donald Plesence in the Great Escape who had used his tea leaves for about the thirtieth time. So in short I'm with Jane on this one, of course you have to be using proper sensible tea in the first place.
Victoria Williams Crawfords chocolate rings Review	Afternoon all,   Must say that I'm nearly falling off my seat in excitement at sending my first feedback to ncotaasd. Absolutely fantastic site too, for one whose dietary intake comes largely from the biscuit food group, I feel quite at home here.   Anyway, having read an earlier May review, just wondered if anyone else has come across these fabulous little chocolate covered biscuit rings called 'Filipino's' which appear to be remarkably like the aforementioned, more dully named, Crawford's chocolate rings? Dodgy name could be something to do with the Spanish production, but I hope not as it's ruining my fantasy of moving to the Philippines one day, spending the bulk of my time on the beach and subsisting entirely on what I presumed was the national food.   I can also reliably inform you that you can get these little beauties in dark chocolate form (highly recommended), as well as a somewhat Caramaccy toffee type flavour (interesting diversion). Clearly one of my most memorable hours was when a now very good friend brought a packet of each flavour round for a nice cup of tea and a sit down. There were few survivors.   Hope to be back soon!   Vicster
	Nicey replies: Oh yes you are quite right 'Filipinos' and 'Crawfords Rings' are one and the same thing, which is why the Crawfords biscuit is made in Spain. Its a perfectly nice little biscuit, and apparently United Biscuits are now making tubs of the holes, that is, the bit punched out from the middle all covered in chocolate. I still think its a bit cheeky passing them off as some kind of Crawfords traditional brand steeped in 150 years of Scottish history when its clearly one of the most popular biscuits in Spain. Still its nice that UB can use its acquisition of brands across Europe to bring a bit of variety to different markets, even if smoke and mirrors are sometimes employed.
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