Your Views

Keep 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!

Type some key words here to search the feedback section

Your e-Mails

Ben Riordan	Hi Nicey, I was rather hoping you could offer some advice. My lovely girlfriend and I are going to the Far East for 6 months soon and, although they do have some wonderful varieties of Tea over there, I am concerned that we may find ourselves longing for that Great British Taste at some point or other. Now, as Tea Bags and their packaging are liable to splitting when put under continued stress, do you know of any practical, yet classy method of transporting Tea Bags. I am always aware that I am travelling in an almost Ambassadorial role when it comes to the Great British Taste so presentation is also of the utmost import whilst abroad. Many thanks in advance for your help and, of course, for the pleasurable moments spent in front of nicecupofteaandasitdown. Yours, Ben Riordan
	Nicey replies: You are very wise to plan ahead like this. Wifey just returned from a short girls trip to Florence with marathon running Bezzer, and she forgot the tea bags (it normally falls to me to remember them). After four days of Liptons Yellow Label she returned home late Monday night in a quite scary tea frenzy. I find those re-sealable sandwich bags do a good job. Providing you don't put too many tea bags in them (60-80) then they can be easily packed inside other things and act like tea flavoured flow wrap. The space inside of shoes is very appealing but you might want to double bag them for that. Also six months is a long time, so you'll need to develop sensible techniques to maximise the longevity of your stash. I would suggest that you certainly look at our preferred two cups from one bag method, or the use of a small pot. Finally you might want to to get some more sent to you, or preceding your arrival. If your employer is sympathetic to your needs then maybe you can have some sent to a regional office by your colleagues back home. The setting of supply dumps are the sorts of techniques used by explorers, mountaineers and advancing armies to ensure vital supplies are in place.
Tristan Stephens Cornish Fairings Review	Hi Nicey, thanks for your Fairings review, and on the subject of them disappearing, I too had to hunt high and low for them whilst on holiday. In addition, I was dismayed to find out the cylindrical tin is no longer available. On a brighter note I found this news. hooray! Regards Tristan Stephens
	Nicey replies: Rescued by the Proper Cornish Food Company. I like the name.
Linda Dunn	Hi, Last year I switched from coffee to tea, and have quickly become spoiled for the U.K. imports. My favorite by far is PG Tips. But there is something I simply don't understand: why do you Brits not have tags and strings on your tea bags? All the UK teas available at my local tea store (Typhoo, PG Tips, Taylors of Harrogate, etc. etc.) are stringless and tagless. I do a lot of tea drinking at work, and can never find a spoon handy (i.e. am too lazy to wash and dry one every time I use it). I've got perpetually burned fingers. Then again, I occassionally see a PG tips tag hanging out of a mug on your site, further confusing me. Is it just that you keep the tagged bags for yourself, and ship us the tagless offerings? I'm starting to wish the colonies had never split from your country at all, if this is the case. Without exception, all the US teas have strings and tags. The only problem is that the tea hanging off the end of the string is crap. Any help with this appreciated (love your site, btw). Linda
	Nicey replies: The tagged bags are one cup bags, although most people prefer (us included) just to bung a normal bag in their mug and fish it out with a spoon, rather than having all that extraneous string and cardboard. Also the spoon is vital to a properly stirred cup of tea and sort of agitating a suspended bag in your cup does not cut it. Most brands have such tagged bags but they only really figure largely in catering type scenarios such as trains, and hotel rooms. The ones on our site are various one off promotional ones and I suppose they like the tag as it adds branding. So really the only advice I can offer is to start taking teaspoons more seriously.
Rachel Pearce HobNob Review	Dear Nicey, I yield to no-one in my admiration for the (original) Hob Nob, especially as a (tea-)dunking biscuit. However, with coffee, rather than tea, I have long preferred the plain chocolate Hob Nob (obviously not dunked). I find these are becoming rarer and rarer, and now cannot reliably be sourced anywhere near here (I live in rural Derbyshire). None of the big supermarket chains seem to do them. I am reduced to buying them from petrol stations etc. when I find them. Do you know anything about this shortage? Have they in fact reduced or (heaven forfend) ceased production? I noticed that before the unavailability problem there came the changed packaging - tubes rather than wrapped. I think they were trying to take them up-market. Can you or your other correspondents cast any light on this mysterious disappearance? Rachel Pearce
	Nicey replies: Yours is not the only message we have had about this, and indeed I was unable to find any when I last visited a Sainsbury's. Given the steadfast following that it enjoys it is a mystery as to why its failing to grace many a supermarket shelf. I'm assuming the demand is there, I don't imagine there is a problem with supply so I'm as perplexed as you.
Finnbar Jacob's Orange Club Review	Hi Nicey, Nicholas Bryan writes that the sugar-free Farley's Rusks were delicious. I'm not so sure. Back in 1989 I worked in the Quality Assurance labs at Farley's factory in Plymouth (it is now the site of a Morrisons supermarket). Apart from all the microbiological, chemical and physical (for packaging) testing which was required, one of my tasks was tasting the rusks. I dreaded sugar-free rusks. They were revolting - like eating sawdust. In reverse order, my favourites were sugar-free, original, banana and (yum!) orange. Still, the sugar-free rusks weren't as bad as the Breakfast Timers - a slurry which passed for baby food. Another of my jobs was to empty the contents of the Insectocutors (those blue lamp insect traps). Each set of dead insects was bagged and labelled, then I would go back to the lab and look for any pest organisms (e.g. flour beetles) amongst the corpses, using a binocular microscope. best wishes, Finnbar
	Nicey replies: I used to use one of those binocular microscopes as a student to do insect dissections. I remember a fairly gross incident with a cockroach where its head, which I had been instructed to remove, crawled back into my field of view using its antennae. As I recall I spent the rest of the practical in the tea room dissecting a Jacob's Orange Club biscuit instead. Anyhow sounds like you had a dream job there, although I'm not sure whose dream it was.
	<< Previous | More >>