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 |
Jon Karen |
Does any one else remember waiting for the biscuit tin to finally be empty so you can eat all the lovely multi flavoured crumbs left in the bottom?
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Thom Curtis |
Dear Nicey,
I enjoy a good biscuit as much as the next person, but I especially enjoy dunking biscuits. I don't, however, like dunking biscuits in tea or coffee as the chocolate would melt; I enjoy dunking biscuits in water. Is this unusual? |
Nicey replies: Yes Thom, of course this is unusual. As to being odd, most of us are, with the possible exception of identical twins who may be even. |
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Matthew Goodsall |
Hello there Nicey,
Your opinion piece of biscuit tins brought back a wave of emotive memories about the biscuit tins at my house during my formative years. My mum was very much of the belief that biscuits should be stowed in a robust airtight receptacle in a cool, dry cupboard above the kitchen work surface, a philosophy I believe she inherited from her mother, who incidentally was called Ingeborg which in itself is noteworthy.
We always had 3 separate biscuit storage units, which were for clearly defined use:
1. Large, pliable semi-opaque colourless biscuit barrel with sealable lid, for storage of dry/semi-dry, conventional high-volume munching biscuits such as Rich Tea, Custard Creams and Finger Creams
2. Small biscuit barrel, construction as above, for high potency biscuits with the potential to distress the flavour of normal biscuits via the phenomenon of osmosis, such as ginger nuts
3. A medium sized metal tin for chocolate biscuits, typically Bourbons and chocolate digestives; on reflection I believe the science behind this is that the surface properties of plastic tins are unsuitable for chocolate biscuit storage at room temperature because there can often be 'chocolate creep', leaving an unsightly brown residue on the biscuit barrel, hence the use of polished alloy with low co-efficient of friction and high specific heat.
This biscuit storage methodology was successfully implemented for fully 15 years at my house, although now my parents have moved to the country and they have a larder, which features lower ambient temperatures and is thus more conducive to keeping biscuits in their packets. Coupled with fewer children being around to eat lots of biscuits, sadly the barrels have now been consigned to the big cupboard under the stairs. I would be very interested to know if other people used such a strictly teutonic approach to biscuit warehousing or is it more normal to just chuck everything in one big tin and enjoy the inevitable flavour morphing?
Kind regards.
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Ley Halligan-Davis |
Dear Nicey,
As a recent convert to the nicecupofteaandasitdown.com I am just coming to grips with some of the stronger issues in the field. Today, after much thought I purchased for myself and my colleagues the above mentioned McVities Homebake, Chocolate Flapjacks. (Not cheap, but moderately edible). Due to the bourgeois nature of our eating establishment, (it's a bistro instead of a caf) the odd biscuit is generally quite odd and we have to make do with chocolate bars (OK in their place, preferably a lunch box belonging to a small, but discerning child, but no substitute for a biccie!).
We are now concerned that we have moved into an area in which we have little experience and could easily be lead astray. Please help us by identifying the niche of the pre-packaged flap jack.
Yours in excited anticipation. |
Nicey replies: Well, the flap jack is grouped in with cakes dispite its biscuit like ingredients. This is mainly due to the nature of its baking, as a large flattened mass, and its sheer size in comparison to biscuits.
I hope this helps.
I'm also interested to know exactly which home McVities baked these in. Presumably to produce industrial levels of flap jacks they would need a large number of homes, each equipped with a substantial oven. |
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Emma Tucker |
Hello,
Emma and Hattie here, having our very own nice cup of tea and a sit down...in front of a computer screen yes, but its all the same really. Hattie has a monkey round her neck integral to the feeling of today. as avid followers of your gorgeous website we were debating the need for warm winter nights and tea dunking with the biscuit of the week, the fox's butter crinkle crunch (what a long name for such a small thing). Emma has never personally experienced this, however she has experienced the joys of a half melted chocolate digestive dunked in tea, on a cold winters nite, wen ur all alone. this in Hatties opinion does not match the crinkle crunch in any degree. While on the topic of biscuits...my grandparents have many a biscuit canister, and it has become family tradition 2 buy them a new one almost every christmas or for birthday..they cld open a museum. We also have some aged metal ones, covered in flowers, taht are oh so stylish and go with our bright yellow kitsch kitchen cupboards :)
also, i think that the subject of mug size shld be brought up (i mean its all about size isnt it..and in the long run..course it matters). I think that if ur having tea it has 2 be had in a LARGE mug...possibly with a..humurous message on it :) the nature of the message or design is not important but i have experienced tea in two mugs of equal size, one with a company slogan on it, another a plain white bucket sized mug. the ritual of the making and drinking of the tea was, although subtley, enhanced by the slogan, and it makes a lot more of a satisfying cup.
we'd like 2 end this by saying that tea is 2 us, like heroin is 2 junkies...
love and hugs
may ur biscuits be forever dunked...in tea of course
xxxx |
Nicey replies: I shld like 2 thank u for ur biscuit/biscuit tin/mug thoughts.
My day time mug is a Giant Bee mug, which is particularly effective at enhancing the tea drinking moment. Prior to this I used a Pink Viz mug for many years. TheWife and I enjoy tea from a number of mugs, the least successful of these being a Jar-Jar Binks mug which has strange powers of staining. |
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