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 |
Ronald Lewis Tuckwell |
Greetings Nicey!
This is my first contact.
I must say that I relate to Lucy's teacup. Mine is very oftern like that, but not from intent. Its more to do with having several cups of tea each day, and only doing the dishes every 3-4 days. People who see it have a standard response, "How can you bear to drink from that?" My response to that is, "None of that is going into my stomach!"
Attached is picture of my teaspoon. It's not the only one I have, and I do know where all of the others are. But, this one is special. I live in South Australia and in 1963, at the age of 29 I was on my way to Theological College in New South Wales. At the stopover in Sydney I bought a plate, a mug, a knife/fork/spoon set and a teaspoon that I could have in my room at the College. This teaspoon is all that remains of that purchase.
The accompanying stainless steel teabag squeezer is a much more recent addition and follows experimentation with the plastic versions, which all break.
Must go ----- my cup's empty!
With kind regards,
Ron
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Nicey replies: Nice composition Ron. |
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Brian Barrett |
Esteemed Mr Nicey,
A very small dash of cinnamon sugar can add zest to a good black Italian coffee. Being genetically multigustatory, I've been awaiting the arrival of the tea equivalent on the supermarket shelves of the leafy eastern suburbs of beloved Melbourne.
It's here! We're now able to sample, enjoy, nay, relish Twinings Chai, in luxuriously impressive black boxes of 50 teabags. The list of ingredients tells the full, glorious story:
Tea, Ginger Root (10%), Cinnamon Bark (10%), Natural Spice Flavourings including Star Anise and Clove (5%), Natural Flavour (Cinnamon).
You can add milk, if you really feel the need, 'cos that's how it's served in India.
All we need now is the Dilmah version, and, verily our cup runneth over.
I ever remain, kind Sir, and Mrs Wifey, and Smallpersons,
Blissful but ever 'umble,
Brian Barratt |
Nicey replies: Well I'm not sure about that, but I do fancy a chicken curry now.
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Brian Crowley |
Dear Nicey and Wifey,
What a lovely web site you have! Much more fun than working!
Anyway, to business. I read with interest your Tim Tam vs Penguin review - I must say that even as an ex-Brit, I lean towards the Tim Tam myself. And I have tried Penguins recently, and they are not what they used to be.
But seeing the special "Black Forest Fantasy" packet featured in the responses brought back into my mind the torrid controversy which occupied the staff tea room for a good fortnight a while back. "Black Forest" refers to the Black Forest cake, a cake with a strong theme of cherries (which feature prominently on the biscuit packet) as well as the inevitable chocolate. If we turn over the packet and read the ingredients, we find that these biscuits do indeed contain real cherries.
0.01% of them.
That's about 2 milligrams per biscuit!
I have seen the accusations of a reduction in chocolate content in order to create a market for "double coated" variety, and maybe this has caused some sensitivity about other ingredients diluting the dominance of chocolate, but surely it is taking it too far to reduce the cherry content to below the levels approved for many food additives!
What can be done? Well, perhaps you can help me raise public awareness of this shabby behaviour...
(Incidentally, have you tried the Chili flavoured Tim Tams? Quite nice, but not really enough chili, in my humble opinion. Probably about 0.01% I suspect...)
All the best,
"BC" |
Nicey replies: I think I'm more concerned about the Chilli flavour Tim Tams than the levels of Cherry in the Black Forest ones. |
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Luke
Tim Tam vs Penguin Review |
Dear Nicey and Wifey,
I bought a packet of the Tim Tam's Black Forest Fantasy tonight, having seen the positive comments from one of your readers. When I first opened the packet I was very dissapointed, there are only 9 biscuits in the packet! And it is not as if they are double dipped, there is a very large gap between each biscuit. I presume it is to keep the price similar to the ordinary Tim Tam's. Recovering from this, I next noticed the rather strong smell, chocolately and sweet cherry. The biscuits are quite dark, and very crispy compared to normal Tim Tam's. Also rather then a clean break, there is a line of chewy cherry mixture down the middle between the 2 biscuits. The taste is as expected, lots of chocolate and cherry flavours.
An interesting addition to the Tim Tam lineup!
Luke
PS Am not called Victoria, but do live in the state of Victoria.
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Nicey replies: Luke,
Thanks for that report from the front line, and the lovely pack scan, it's a bit fruity isn't it? I don't know what's come over NCOTAASD today. |
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Garry Hrustinsky
Tim Tam vs Penguin Review |
Hello Mr. Nicey,
I have just had a dig through your archive and found the “Tim Tam vs Penguin” debate.
After living in London for several years, I do have to say that co-workers who tried to convert me to penguins were unsuccessful. Whilst they are pleasant enough (if tim tams aren’t immediately at hand), for me it is still like comparing pot noodles to a lovely home cooked lamb roast. National pride (being Australian myself) has nothing to do with it. The flavour is simply superior in a tim tam.
As a little bit of an update, I thought you might like to know that there has been (yet another) product extension on the range. Amongst the several new flavours available in Melbourne, I saw black forest. According to people that I have spoken to, this is one of the best flavours they have released to date.
Also, to throw a slight spanner in the works over this debate, my lovely wife, who hails from distant New Zealand shores, introduced me to chit chats (produced by Griffin’s). Looking a tad fancier than either penguins or chit chats, they have a zig-zag chocolate line running across the top. I have tried them and reckon that they do give plain tim tams a run for their money. Unfortunately I haven’t found any shops around Melbourne that stock them.
Anyhow, keep up the good work.
Regards,
Garry Hrustinsky
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