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 |
Paul Darken |
Hi there,
You're either a dunker or your not. I don't like dunking my biscuit in my tea and prefer to eat them separately. My wife, however, loves to dunk.
Her latest trick is to sit down with a nice cup of tea and a Penguin (Puffins from Asda are better though) and bite off opposing corners of the biscuit until the chocolate flavouring (or the white or orange stuff depending on the flavour you choose) shows through. Now here's the tricky bit... dip one of the bitten off corners into the tea and suck on the opposite corner until the tea comes through. Your mouth explodes with a multitude of flavours. It could be minty tea or orange tea or chocolatey tea. You have to be quick now though and stuff the whole biscuit in your mouth before it collapses in the tea (ruining an otherwise great sit down with a nice cup of tea). It may take a few cups of tea and several sit downs to get it right but it's worth it. My wife has shown half the staff at the hospital in Liverpool that she works in how to do this and regularly you'll see a Doctor or nurse with chocolate down their front because they weren't quick enough to eat the biscuit before it collapsed!
Great site... and we all love a sit down with a nice cup of tea... it's just that some prefer to dunk. |
Nicey replies: Yes this is the British version of the Australian Tim-Tam slam, popularised by aussie songstress Natalie Imbruglia. |
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Jon French |
Hello,
Your site is a wonderful source of information and amusement. One subject
that I can't find any mention of is the storage of biscuits. I am
particularly partial to McVities Chocolate Hobnobs and Chocolate Caramels,
but I find both of these to be far nicer when eaten directly from the fridge.
They are also less crumbly, and you can usually snap one in half with no
fuss or bother (unlike when they are at rom temperature).
Fridge-based storage also has the effect that the cold chocolate creates a
delicious melting sensation in the mouth.
What do you think?
Keep up the good work - and thanks for all the information. The biscuit
reviews are invaluable.
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Nicey replies: Jon,
Well, I think the taste is not so good if chocolate is chilled, but the texture change is certainly of interest. I imagine a chilled chocolate caramel would put up a bit of a fight. Of course I would advocate biscuit tins as the way forward on storage. |
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Russell Liddell |
Dearest Nicey,
Whilst visiting an old chum in ancient Bath recently, I was offered a biscuit called a "Vast Banket". This delicious morsel was encrusted with peanuts, which shone due to the rich glaze that had been added to the biscuit's surface, presumably as a last action and final thought of the genius inventor of this treat.
It was undunkable, but complemented tea very nicely, as long as said cup of tea was nice and sweet.
On returning to my home, I was unable to procure a packet of Vast Bankets for love nor money; though I dearly wish to do so, as the name alone has put it in my Biscuit Top Five.
Can you or any of our lovely friends tell me how this assumedly European biscuit ended up in my friend's biscuit jar; where it was purchased; and it's delicious origins? The only explanation he gives to me is that "the wife must have bought them", an action which she has no recollection of. I would appreciate any insight into this most elusive and mysterious biscuit.
yours,
Pub Lunch
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Phil Lively
Kimberley and Chocolate Kimberley Review |
Dear Nicey,
You are indeed a wise and brave man to take on such a subject with such honesty and candour. I have these last 14 years or so been married to a lass of Irish lineage and have several friends of Irish descent to whom I affectionately refer as "Plastic Paddies" who would turn in their graves would they to read your review of the Kimberley and Chocolate Kimberley biscuits (and, of course, were they dead, which they are not by the good grace of God).
I must, however, agree wholeheartedly with you on this most Important-To-The-Heart-Of-The-Irish subject as I can see no redeeming qualities in this stalest of stale-tasting piece of cr@p that they revere so highly. I was beginning to doubt my own sanity as everyone remotely Irish seems to love them. I too went through the "are you sure they were stored in a dry place..." experience and fail to see the attraction. It may be that their taste-buds are being over-ridden by their nostalgic memories of childhood holidays in that most beautiful Emerald Isle (Nice place, shame about the biscuits) I am beginning to think that that the Irish do not just inherit the Guinness Gene and its marvelous powers of post-drinking recovery.
I have now, however, been inspired by your description of the chocolate variety of Kimberly to actively seek them out.
I shall recommend your website to every one of my friends. They will both find it interesting. |
Nicey replies: Yes, I just called it the way I saw it. The Wife is Northern Irish and as such doesn't have the Kimberley tolerance gene. Tony from the fig-fest has an Irish wife and has exactly the same tale to tell. |
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Patrick Rooney
Marie Review |
Hi Nicey,
Thought I'd just drop you a note to tell you about a great little bikkie annecdote that I was recently told by a work collegue. We were all sitting down to cups of tea instead of the usual formal team meeting. I had read the Rich Tea review and it got me thinking about how I used to like them when I was a small tacker - the Australian ones have raisins in them - so I'd dashed down to Clancy's and bought a packet. Unfortunately the old nostagia thing caught me out again - they were very dissapointing - my suspicions should have been raised by the $1.62 price tag. I subsequently had the humiliating experience of failing to peddle them around the office for free.
Anyway, though I know that story is riveting enough but it wasn't the one I was going to mention. We didn't end up getting much work done but we were having a broad back-to-basics type discussion about some very in-depth topics including some stuff along the lines of "how much do people really like biscuits and who are they". One of my team mates is from Bangladesh and while she was saying that she can't really get too fired up about any kind of bikkie - even chocolatey ones aparently - she claims that her husband is quite the opposite and will readily eat several packets at a sitting. He likes to recall times in his late teenage years when his passion for Marie biscuits led him to cycle to India once a week (aparently Maries are unavailable in Bangladesh). Even though the border between the countries might have been a matter of only 10 ks or so, I still think the story is a terrific little heart warmer about grass-roots biscuit committment. Although, aparently the said husband doesn't bother much with Maries these days, even though they are available here, the dazzling array of contemporary Australian sit-down fare eclipses those younger days.
Regards
Patrick
PS: Thanks for the recent work, it's all nice. |
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