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 |
Mark Daszkiewicz |
Once again, Hello Nicey,
Thank you for your contribution to our debate regarding malted Milk and Toffypops. Siobhan and I have since agreed to a compromise and have implemented a four-biscuit rotation sytem, which also includes Jammie
Dodgers and Custard Creams.
I just thought I'd drop you a line to ask for your standpoint on Iced Gems.
There is a concensus here that they are amongst the worst kind of biscuit
imaginable. It is just too small to be filling and too bland to be satisfying, whilst the lacklustre dollop of icing on each one is so haphazard that you get the impression no care has gone into it's presentation at all. Due to the size it also lacks dunkability, which surely undermines it whole status as a biscuit. The only thing I can see of any value in the Iced Gem is the intricate biscuit graphics that have gone into it, but this in no way makes up for the finished product, which ranks alongside the dreaded Nice in the pits of Biscuit Hell.
On a sidenote, I would like to say how much I miss the 'Iced Shortie'. These are of course a shortcake biscuit with a generous smothering of icing on the underside. Simple, but superb, and an example to Jacobs of how an iced biscuit should be done. Has anyone out there seen these fine biscuits recently? Whilst Party Rings are admittedly similar, I would still like to get in touch with this old friend.
Thank you for your help, and your biscuit advice.
|
Nicey replies: Mark,
Glad to hear that you Siobhan have come up with a biscuit rotation scheme, this very sensible, there are a lot of biscuits out there many of which are worthy of attention, Perhaps you could have a wild card for a fifth biscuit.
Now on to iced gems, they are indeed regrettable. Due to their size, taste and texture, they seem to be a more related to something that you would get from a builders merchants, such as quarter inch chippings or dry walling. I certainly would not advocate eating them not least due to the nasty sharp spikes on the icing.
|
| |
Amelia Jones |
Hi there,
I agree, to a degree, with you opinion about Petits Beurres. But have you tried the "Galettes Bretonnes"? LU make them and they are lovely although if you go to Bretagne you can get home made ones which are to die for.
When I was a kid in France, we used to put Nutella on them (I was 8) but now think that they are the best biscuit around. With dark chocolate digestives, obviously.
Best wishes,
Amelia |
Nicey replies: Amelia,
No I haven't tried them, next time I'm in France I 'll give them a chance. Home made ones do sound interesting, a lovely lady in Perigord, Mdm Mouliner, used to make Walnut tarts for me using the walnuts from the tree I camped under, they were delicious. Hoorah for Walnut trees.
I once heard of a French girl, a friend of friend, mistake Marmite for Nutella a spreading about half a jar on a bit of bread. She was so truamatised after taking a bite that she had to cut short her study visit by several weeks and return to France. |
| |
Patrick Rooney |
Dear Mr Nicey,
Still enjoying 'Biscuits of the Week' but I have to say that I was
particularly arrested by the Wagon Wheel entry.
I found it to be spot on but here's the thing: In Australia we have a
Wagon Wheel that fits your description down to the ground but it is branded 'Westons'. They also come in the odious four-pack with suspected incremental shrinkage over the last couple of decades. HOWEVER, you can still buy them in single packs and, I couldn't be sure, but these ones still seem pretty big to me. I refuse to buy them in any other form. Surely their greatest appeal must lie partly in nostalgia, (how else do you explain the enjoyment of such a strange cacophony of unappetising components?) and to keep this up they need to be the same size we remembered them as back when we squirrelled them away from the tuckshop under our jumpers for fear of snack bandits. Maybe this wasn't your experience but such were my memories of primary school in the meanstreets of North-western Sydney.
Just lately I have seen them in 'White'. What is it about chocolate
confection makers in recent years that they think we're all going to faint
with excitement at the very sight of a new 'White' version?
Strike me pink and call me a wafer, they must think we're a bunch of
duffers.
thanks again
Patrick |
| |
Siobhan Williams |
Hi Nicey,
Myself and a colleague of mine who will remain nameless ( Mark Daszkiewicz), have been having a week long debate on which biscuit is better, between Malted Milks ( my personal favourite ) and Toffypops. I was wondering if it would be possible, with the help of your good self, to conduct a mini survey to see what people in the snack world prefer.
I would like to thank you in advance for your help. |
Nicey replies: Glad to hear you like Malted Milks, they are fantastic. Without wanting to influence the debate,I would side with the malted milk over the Toffee Pop, I mean which is likely to stand the test of time? |
| |
Mark Daszkiewicz |
Dear Nicey,
How pleasant to finally find a website where those us who want nothing more than to sit down with a biscuit, a nice cup of tea and occassionally a good wordsearch can come and put our metaphorical feet up.
Now, a question which has risen between a lady colleague and myself. Toffypop or Malted Milk? As biscuits, the two could not be further apart, but if you had to choose one, which would it be? I myself come down firmly on the side of the Toffypop, for their nostalgia value and convenient size. The crumbly shortbread like base which perfectly matches the generous scoop of chocolate and caramel on top is also pure genious as is the vending machine style of packaging, whereas when you have finished one column of biscuits, a mere tilt towards you propels more Toffypops into the void and you into biscuit Babylon. I firmly believe that without the Toffypop, McVities would never have dreamed of inventing the Chocoalate Caramel and we all know what that would be like...
Whilst the Malted Milk as praised by my colleague Siobhan, is a more than adequate biscuit (and the way I see it the traditionalists choice), I feel it is more suited for coffee than tea breaks and it's time has now passed, whereas Toffypops humble beginnings have laid the foundations of the soon to come Caramel revolution in the biscuit world.
Boasters are also lovely, though this is inconsequential.
Your thoughts would be appreciated. |
Nicey replies: Mark,
Its good to know that you have strongly held views on the subject of Caramel based biscuits, and your point about Burtons leading the way with Caramel over the mighty McVities is well made. They are indeed racy and exciting, all bells and whistles. However, do not dismiss the Malted Milk, it is a classic biscuit founded on sound biscuit design principles, plus it has pictures of cows on (fantastic).
The Wife however prefers ToffeePops and has now decided we need to get some. |
| |
|
|
|