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 |
Katie Drummond
McVitie's Lyles Creams Review |
Dear Nicey
I have just found your website and am suitably impressed. Possibly even better than www.rathergood.com and its Uber-Pea animation.
Anyway, I just wanted to inform your readers about the origin of the dead lions and bees motif on the golden syrup packaging. In Book IV of his long poem (in Latin) on country life, Virgil wrote about the ever-fascinating practise of bee-keeping. In this book he examines the mythological origin of bees. It was believed that Aristaeus was the keeper of bees and he lost his swarm somehow (I don't actually have the book on me at work, and left university a long time ago so can't recall the full details here.....). Someone or other (a god possibly?) told him that they would arise again from the carcase of a dead lion if left long enough, so he found a dead lion and left it for a while and sure enough the bees swarmed out of it. Or something like that.
Keep up the good work and stop slagging off Marmite.
Katie
PS have you ever tried drinking tea THROUGH a Tim-Tam? Bite off each end and suck. Recommended. |
Nicey replies: I'm not sure anything compares to Crab bloke's Uber-Pea.
As for lions and bees, I'm sure your right and that was what Samson was banging on about too in his own brand of wit.
I wasn't slagging off Marmite, just making fair and rational observations.
And finally, yes thats the Tim-Tam slam, and no we didn't try it as it seemed a bit sordid. |
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Brian Barratt |
Dear Mr Nicey,
Inspired by the recent feedback and comments, I would like to investigate:
The Zen of one biscuit snapping.
In a distant forest, naturally.
I remain your obedient and humble servant,
etc.
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Nicey replies: Good plan Brian. |
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Pete Biggs |
Hello
A new biscuit review! Yay! Plus I was quite excited that they were treacle related biscuits, a fairly new concept for me. My exciting news is that I have got a new job where I get to spend a lot more time with biscuits - hurrah!
I'm working in the civil service (yawn) in Londinium but the great thing is that unlike pr, which I was doing before, it has a great biscuit culture. We never buy them, they come from meetings etc. This is actually quite exciting, in the last few days I have ran two covert missions to obtain biscuits from unattended meeting rooms. Fortunately the fact that the plates of biscuits are covered in cling film makes them easier to steal... Generally quite standard fayre - bourbons, custard cremes, jammy dodgers, oatie biscuits, shortbread rings etc.
However, more excitingly, we believe that we may have discovered a new species of biscuit! Recently we have been 'finding' bourbons with WHITE filling! We are unsure if these are a sub species of bourbon, or an entirely new biscuit, as they don't say bourbon on the outside but have a
curious pattern.
We would be fascinated to know if you have any experience of these, or what they may be called. Also if you would like a review do let us know.
Kind biscuity regards,
Pete.
p.s - Have you ever thought of doing anything on tea? I realise it would probably be impractical to do something on sit downs, but teas are many varied. We're quite into Sainsbury's Red Label at the moment, a great biscuit tea. |
Nicey replies: Pete,
Great news to hear the civil service is powered by plates of biscuits.
A picture of your strange Bourbon sub-species would be thrilling if you could get one. |
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Glen Pougnet |
Dear Nicey,
Our Biscuit Cup has reached the last four Gariballdi vs GingerNut and Rich Tea vs Boaster. Having exhausted all the usual criteria of taste, dunking, performance, design etc we created some random challenges.
Someone had to buy a packet of each semi final biscuit against the clock. All were achieved in under 2min 30 except Gariballdi which took over 40 minutes to find. Also against the clock was opening a pack and eating 3 of each - the dry Rich Tea struggled here.
We weighed, measured and counted sugar content where the Boaster scored highly But the boaster struggled on our value per biscuit calculation. We even got a dog - Harry to choose his favourite Harry loved the Ginger Nuts.
The Ginger Nut easily beat the Garibaldi in the first match but the other semi final was a titanic struggle and the scores were all square after all challenges.
The sudden death challenge was 'The Shopping Bag Drop Test' We dropped a packet of Rich Tea and a packet of Boasters on to the floor to see how many biscuits survived in whole.
Boasters - 2 out of the 9 biscuits survived intact (22% survival rate)
Rich Tea - 21 out of the 36 biscuits survived intact (58% survival rate)
So despite it's fancy dan tray packaging, the Boasters crumbled under pressure to the tightly packed Rich Tea.
FINAL: Ginger Nut versus Rich Tea
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Nicey replies: Glen,
Big Woos on the advanced biscuit testing, inspiring stuff. I'm also impressed that Harry the dog displayed any sort preference at all. I often drop single biscuits to hear the sound they make, you can tell quite a bit from that. |
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Paul Wayper
Tim Tam vs Penguin Review |
Dear Mr Nicey,
I have been priveledged to have brought the Tim Tam to the US, where I can attest that the natives are just as able in the Tim Tam 'Slam' as Antipodeans or Britons (who I have also introduced this many-talented biscuit to). Observations of said Britons indicate that the Penguin would be far inferior to the Tim Tam when used as a straw, but either would be quite satisfactory when eaten separately.
This may be incidental to your site, but Tim Tams can also be used as straws for a variety of alcoholic liquids, port being a favourite.
Have fun,
Paul |
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