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Jim Fussell |
Hi Nicey,
How’s tricks? Hope you, Wifey and YMOS are all well. I thought it was about time I contributed a mail to the site again…..it’s been too long.
I’ve just come back from a work trip to the USA and as per usual getting any sort of cup of tea over there is tough, let alone a decent one. Anyway, it was a two and a half week trip and frankly something had to be done to satisfy my tea craving. In my hotel room was a coffee maker, 4 Lipton Yellow Label tea bags and 3 sachets of Coffeemate. How wrong could it go? I loaded the tea bags into the coffee jug and filled the machine with water. A flick of the switch and I was only 5 minutes away from a delicious brew. The slightly hot water landed onto the bags and the level rose until I was satisfied there was enough for a couple of cups. I poured and added a sachet of Coffeemate. I’m sure you can imagine how it tasted……so I nipped over to McDonalds and got a tea from them, which to my surprise didn’t taste too bad….or maybe anything would have tasted good after my effort.
Regards,
Jim. |
Nicey replies: It takes one or two truly woeful and tragic cups of tea to knock that plucky British optimism out you. I also think Ray Mears has a lot to answer for here as he seems to be able to conjure up most of life's necessity's using just some sticks and a bonfire, it seems reasonable that we should be able to comfortably come up with a cuppa using the resources of a hotel room, even an American one.
If there is a next trip perhaps you should camp out in shrubbry next to the car park and brew up billy can tea.
I'm sure those innovations style catalogues full of executive toys and gadgets have something that could be used to make tea in such a hostile environment. |
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Cathy |
Hello from California, USA! Do you know of any way I can order some Empire biscuits to get here? I love them, but haven't had any since I visited Glasgow about seven years ago.
Both my parents were from Glasgow. When I was a child growing up in Brooklyn, New York, there was a Scottish Bakery called "Drew's Bakery" near our apartment. We used to get Empire Biscuits there. I do wish I could get them here. They are so lovely with a nice cup of tea!
Just happened to see your web site on "Google", and thought I'd drop you an email to see if you knew of some way I might be able to order some.
Thanks so much and have a great day.....Cathy |
Nicey replies: I don't think that's possible. They are the sort of thing that just turn up in small local bakeries and not the places accustomed to shipping things worldwide.
They are very simple things really, you should have a go at baking your own. Here is a charming blog page I found on just that.
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John Black
Club Milk Review |
The cutaway profile of the legendary Club Milk does look like the biscuits I remember from Days of Yore
But your review fails to mention whether it is still possible to nibble away at the chocolate and “Free the Biscuit” I recall that freeing the biscuit from its chocolatey coffin was the sole purpose of Club biscuits perhaps you can enlighten us on the viability of this technique today.
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Nicey replies: Indeed as I mentioned the biscuit is moulded differently from the old Liverpool built Clubs. Old style biscuits had round edge implying that they had been moulded on both faces, the new ones seem to be moulded on one side then scraped thus giving the flat bottom. This does mean that the chocolate seems to bond a bit tighter on the new ones but I still managed to bite off chunks as I mentioned. I didn't have enough of them under ideal circumstances to attempt the complete de-chocolating, but I would think it is possible.
Also the one in cross section was one of the few to make it out of Ireland. We had to leave in quite a hurry due to the weather, in fact there were floods in central Dublin the day we left. This meant that my strategic and comprehensive last big biscuit buy up didn't happen. The rather lob-sided one here made it out in the top pocket of my ruck-sack. |
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Kate Talbot |
Hi,
Just found your site and love it! Thought you might like to see my latest finsihed artwork on a biccy theme. It is made entirely from wool and is called:
Grandma, what big teeth you have!
Alas since being diagnosed coeliac ten years ago, the joy of biscuiteering is lost to me though I still have very fond memories and if I close my eyes and concentrate I can still taste a custard cream.
Ah! Those were the days!
Thanks for the memories,
Kate
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Nicey replies: I'm very impressed by your attention to detail, it elevates what could have simply been an average common or garden knitted plate of biscuits, with a knitted cup of tea and a knitted selection tray of biscuits and knitted cellophane pack complete with illustrations and knitted insert tray to something truly extraordinary.
As for those custard creams it seems the only coeliac biscuits worth messing with are the custard creams.
Its these same custard creams that have caused so much confusion recently leading the OED to include Custard Cream this year. |
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Darryl Snow
Fox's Whipped Creams Review |
It strikes me that these new-fangled whipped cream biscuits from Fox are essentially just crunchy scones.... am i wrong?
Darryl Snow
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Nicey replies: Although I completely follow your logic they are nothing like that. |
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