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 |
Heidi Thomas |
Dear Nicey,
I have been a lifelong afficionado of the Tunnock's Caramel Wafer, and have introduced many another consumer to it's charms. Today, in my local supermarket, I was intrigued to notice an unfamiliar product on the
shelves. Has anyone come across the Tunnock's Caramel Log Wafer With Roasted Coconut? They are presented in an all-gold wrapper, featuring the slogan "Crunchie Biscuit, Munchie Caramel" (sic) and appear to be sold as an
eight-pack only.
I sensed that something was wrong as soon as I removed the outer packaging. Accustomed to the geometric snugness of the classic Tunnock's livery, I was dismayed by the loosely-fitting gold foil paper that enveloped the individual biscuits. It gave them a very blowsy appearance. Once removed, the full horror of the makeover was revealed: a perfectly customary and blameless Caramel Wafer had been trawled through a pile of toasted desiccated coconut whilst the chocolate was still damp, and so the whole thing was bristling with nasty dusty brown bits. Consumption was a very disconcerting experience - it was as though a decent respectable Wafer had been interfered with by a Nice biscuit, and this was the bastard offspring.
Due to the use of the modish term "Roasted" (as opposed to Toasted or
Desiccated) or I am assuming this is a fairly recent development at
Tunnock's. How far are they likely to push this sort of boundary? Does
anyone have any inside information ?
Perhaps Saffron Walden is the last place on earth to be subjected to this
unsettling hybrid and the rest of Britain has long been happily lathered in
Roasted Coconut, but half-way through the eight-pack, I am finding hard to reconcile myself to this grotesque caprice. |
Nicey replies: She has let herself go a bit since the WonderBra ads but I wouldn't go as far as to call her grotesque. |
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Malcolm Coghill |
Andrew Waite, a big biscuit fan said he quite willing buys broken biscuit selection boxes. This is very, very wrong. The texture of the biscuits is ruined, and often these boxes have several different types all mixed up.
This has the oh-so unfortunate effect of blurring the flavour, and oftem imparting the taste of say, custard creams, to digestives. This is something my wife keeps doing; putting custards creams in with the digestives. It is just not on ! Putting my hand into a box of broken biscuits to retrieve a chocolate digestive is an unpleasant occurance I have no wish to repeat ! There is always a liberal coating of crumbs on each broken biscuit, and the biscuits often seem to be not only broken, but of an inferior quality!
Interesting to see that brands are seemingly stolen, maybe their is an EEC broken biscuit brand directive that allows cross-matching of different, but broken, brands ?
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Andrew Waite |
A big biscuit fan, I recently decided to consider those which I had never
considered before. I ususally ignore the Broken Biscuit Selection boxes,
prefering a premium product but on this occasion, I bought:
1.3 K.G "House of Lancaster" Broken Biscuit Selection - £1.99
1.0 KG "House of Lancaster" Chocolate Broken Biscuit Selection - £1.99
From a small shop in Chestefield, Derbyshire, and then:
1.5 K.G. "House of Lancaster" Tumble Packed Biscuit Barrel - £3.29
From my local shop, near Matlock in Derbyshire.
First of all, I've never seen any complete biscuits made by "House of
Lancaster", so perhaps these people specialise in these products? Do they have broken biscuit making machines? Or do they make biscuits and then break them before packaging? I just don't know.
Secondly, I found a large number of Cadbury brand biscuits. Correct me if
I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that The Horizon Biscuit company held the licence to make most, if not all Cadbury biscuits. Therefore, why are "House of Lancaster" stealing from the Horizon Biscuit Company.
I think the broken biscuit selection box is a phenomenon I shall never
understand unless you can shed more light upon it.
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Nicey replies: Perhaps the House of Lancaster is just particularly clumsy, although I think you have tumbled the enigma as emanating from the Horizon Biscuit company. Dark horses that lot, they are behind many a pack of biscuits. Indeed the Lyons (a Burton's brand) chocolate sandwich biscuit (a Penguin analogue basically) is made by the Horizon biscuit company. |
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Andrew Harper |
There's an absentee from your review list. Morning Coffee biscuits used to be my favourites, rather perversely, for dunking in tea, while Rich Tea biscuits belonged essentially in coffee (though both had a tendency to wind up in contact with clothing or carpets once they'd achieved an adequately hydrated state). Please could we have a suitable eulogy to this not often visible denizen of the biscuit world.
Congratulations for generating and maintaining this socially vital web resource! |
Nicey replies: Yes we have really exhausted our capacity to review these dry old biscuits for the short term, the Thin Arrowroot pack really did for us. We will get round to the Morning Coffee but not in the immediate future, as we need some indulgent biscuits for the next few weeks. |
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Steve Quiller |
Help
For years I have been experiencing cold turkey cos I could not find Jacobs
Lincoln biscuits anywhere in London (well not all over London because I don't go all over London, but you know what I mean) or Surrey. I haven't had a Lincoln for years and years and thought they had disappeared and then I go to Eire for a holiday and there they are in packets by the thousand in the supermarkets and corner shops. Wots going on I ask? I can't even find a website for Mr. Jacob to complain. Somebody please put me out of my misery and tell me where I can get Lincoln biscuits in London or Surrey. God, I'm starting to dribble at the thought of some now.
Tar very much
Bi
Steve |
Nicey replies: You'll be able to get McVities Lincoln biscuits without too much bother, but Jacobs don't do the same brands for Ireland as for the UK. I don't recall ever seeing Jacobs Lincoln biscuits. Jacobs have a bakery in Liverpool that serves the UK market and one in Dublin for the Irish market.
Hope this helps. |
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