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 |
Alex Wrottesley |
Nicey
Visited your lovely website today for the first time, and was truly impressed. Surely, no man before you has sacrificed his time so freely for so few. I am one of those few.
And I have a story to tell...
... a story about a biscuit shrouded in mystery: The Chocolate Garibaldi.
It appeared in our biscuit tin (a lovely square 50s job with a rosy-faced young boy on the lid) in the early 80s when I was a just a lad. No more than 2 or 3 packets.
I can taste them now... the crunchy shiny garibaldi biscuit, the "squashed flies" that got satisfyingly stuck between your teeth and the thick layer of milk chocolate that melted so deliciously in a steaming cup of milky sweet PG. Ahhh... happy memories indeed.
And then just as quickly as they appeared, they were gone...Those halcyon days lasted but a fleeting moment...
Imagine the tears - the *sorrow* - that filled my young heart. Imagine if you will the desparate mother searching every aisle of every supermarket, minimarket and local corner shop for just *one more packet*.
But alas... they had gone for ever. A homemade batch was produced but they
were never the same, the secret formula eluded my mothers efforts.
Were they real? Were they biscuits from another (more perfect) dimension? Were they part of an evil plan formulated by vengeful biscuit makers? Why, for the love of God, why were they sent to earth? To enlighten? To torment? Alas I fear we shall now never know.
I know I am not alone -- google refers to two other "chocolate garibaldi". But there the trail ends?
If you could help me to trace this mystery of my childhood I would certainly be a happier, better adjusted person.
All the best
Lex
PS. An autobiographical aside: Biscuits in the blood. My great-grandfather was a director of Huntley and Palmers in Reading, perhaps one of the greatest biscuit factories of the 20th century. Check out this lovely little ditty from the Reading Collection website
Huntley & Palmers song: "For Every Mealtime There's a Biscuit"
"First stop Reading, Take your seats please!"
We're off to Reading, Hooray, Hooray
At Huntley and Palmers to spend the day
We're longing to reach this wonderful town
To taste their biscuits so crisp and brown.
All hot from the oven before us displayed
We see how these world famous biscuits are made
And now for our breakfast, dinner and tea
The biscuits we must have are H and P. |
Nicey replies: I have only had chocolate covered Garibaldis once, and that was back in the mid 1970s, and I think they were home made. Even so they were possibly the most exciting and impressive biscuit I had experienced up until that point, which is how come I can recall it. It was at a village fate.
Alas I haven't ever seen them in packets. Perhaps Crawfords could do some that would be good!!
Good stuff about the now departed H and P, of course Reading is better known nowadays as that Berkshire town just outside Microsoft and Oracle. |
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Sarah Ward
Jam Sandwich Creams Review |
Dear Nicey,
Would you be able to settle an argument between my colleagues re the Jammy Dodger?
Faction 1 states that the original Jammy Dodger was made by Burtons and does not contain a layer of cream and the jammy bit that sticks out of the hole is not sugared.
Faction 2 states that real Jammy Dodgers have both cream and sugar.
And another thing - one of the numptys from Faction 1 has just told me that Jammy is spelt Jammie (does this tell you where my loyalties lie?).
Are you able to adjudicate?
Yours hopefully
Irate Faction 2 Member.
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Nicey replies: Sarah,
Fraction 1 are of course 100% right. Fraction 2 are deluded and badly informed in the ways of biscuits, as they thinking of Jam Sandwich Creams. |
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Tom Brickman
Tunnocks Wafer Review |
Dear Sir,
I enjoy a good Tunnock's Caramel wafer now and again. But today to my disgust was handed a Tesco "Caramel Wafer". Now I know you?re wondering - Well what?s the problem with that? My problem, Sir, Is that this is a pathetic cheap imitation of the Tunnocks Caramel Wafer Biscuit. Its taste was an insult to Tunnocks. I wonder if T. Tonnock is aware of this?
Take care. |
Nicey replies: Very good, but I doubt if you would want it any other way.
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Al teacakeman Fyfe
McVitie's Lyles Creams Review |
Dear Nicey
I loved your description of Mr Lyle's trademark as "barking".
Abram Lyle was a famous son of Greenock, Scotland, near where I live. The Lyle fountain stands in the central square in Greenock, but sadly does not pour forth syrup. A brief biography of Mr Lyle tells us he inherited his uncle's business as a cooper and fishing-smack owner. Thankfully we don't smack fish in Greenock any more, but sadly there is precious little sugar-making either.
Incidentally, Lyle the Greenockian never met Mr Tate of sugar cube and art gallery fame.
Cheers
Al "teacakeman" Fyfe |
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Justin Homer |
Hello.
Never e-mailed you before, son, but I'm sure that you'll be delighted to see this report. It's the proof of what we all knew, deep down in our tannin-stained souls. Tea is the ultimate health drink. Sod fruity smoothies, or carrot juice, or any of that other rubbish. It's tea we need. I only wish that I'd been one of those lucky "human volunteers".
I only wonder whether they got biscuits with their experimental tea? If so, maybe it's actually your average 'penguin' or 'garibaldi' that's really the good stuff? I'm more than willing to find out, should NiceCupOfTeaAndASitDown wish to fund any further research into this important issue. |
Nicey replies: Yes I think we all instinctively know that. I see the research was done by Americans in America, we can only guess at the results they would have got if they had used proper tea. As you also speculate were biscuits involved, and of course were they seated? It all has a bearing. |
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