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 |
Giles Strachan |
Tea was never meant tobe made with Teabags. The best biscuit tea is Earl Gray. Simply place a pinch of the tea leaves in a seive, place the seive over the mug and add boiling water. The tea should be quite weak and have NO milk and NO sugar which are the tea equivelants of McDonalds and Burger King (no flavour and bad for you).
Oh yes, a pinch is between the thumb and forefinger and should be about 6 leaves.
The Pedantic Earl Grey Drinker
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Nicey replies: Do you like tea or do like Bergamot oil? I like tea with milk, I'm not keen on after-shave, another use for Bergamot oil, although I did used to know somebody who used to drink aftershave. The chap in question would be sent aftershave by his Aunties who didn't realise that he handn't really shaven for about 4 years. He used to drink he stuff with tonic water, as its mostly alcohol.
Dispite his hairy appearence some women found him strangely aluring, depending on what he had drunk and how recently he had burped. |
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Paul Cook
Botham's Tea, Shah Ginger and Ginger Choc Chip biscuits Review |
I suspect the recipe may have been obtained from the late MacTavish AlMacToum whose family were also responsible for the introduction of haggis to Iran in the late 18th Century. The creatures perished unfortunately as their small legs sank into the sand dunes in a way not generally encountered in the Highlands.
The biscuits were baked by the cook at Castle MacToum as a celebration of the birth of MacTavish's first son, who bore the family traits of red hair coupled with an Arabic skin tone, hence the name Ginger Shah. |
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Tim Porter |
Dear Nicey,
We have been developing a fantastic new biscuit game. The concept is quite simple – you just have to imagine what your biscuit persona might be. My friend Tracy thinks her persona would be a Wagon Wheel – whilst a somewhat ample and rather substantial biscuit it is packed full of delightful sweet gooey things and covered in a layer of rather enticing chocolate! A word of warning though – if the Wagon Wheel, whilst popular with a predominantly male audience, is too chilled, there is a tendency for the chocolate to flake off onto one’s rather nice shag pile!
Whilst I would love my persona to be something as glamorous and extrovert as the wonderful Boaster, delighted upon by housewives around the globe, the reality is probably something more akin to the Lincoln!
Nicey – if you were a biscuit what do you think you would be?
Tim Porter
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Nicey replies: I would be a Garibaldi, with small gaps in my crust revealing my inner contents of flat currants, oh and the occasional missing corner. How am I doing? |
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Joanne Fry |
Sorry, but this important question has just come up - surely if you put cold milk in tea there is no need to pour out hot tea and replace it with cold tap water? Similarly, why is it that although in posh coffee houses they make coffee with hot milk, no-one ever makes tea with hot milk - why not?? |
Nicey replies: All to do with the denaturation point of casein the main protein in milk. By forming complexes with the tannins in the tea the milk protein softens the taste, which is how most of us like our tea. Hot milk doesn't do this as well because the protein is all mashed up. Of course this was the central point to the recent study by the Royal Society of Chemistry on tea making. |
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Brian Parker |
Just a note to follow-up on Hel Moo's mail about pouring tea out and replacing with cold water from the tap.
My father has done this all his life, and I've never understood why. In fact, when I've brewed him a cup at home I feel vaguely insulted that my careful infusion of the leaves (well, ok, bag - but it's the thought that counts!) results in 25% being thrown away. He's thankfully never been so extreme as to throw away 50%. Neither has he ever satisfactorily answered me when I've asked him why.
Maybe it's subconscious throwback to a pagan ritual, to ensure that the tea is appropriately "monied", ensuring continuing good luck, or riches or whatever.
I should add, maybe it's worked - he's 75 and still driving coaches to and from coastal towns (don't worry folks - he takes an annual medical to ensure his capability) - and at least he prefers good caffs to pubs..... |
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