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 |
| Isabel Stainsby |
Dear Nicey,
I'm glad that you have decent jam at NCOTAASD HQ - this means you can try drinking tea Russian style. I lived in Russia a few years ago and when I first came across tea-with-jam, I thought "Yuck!" - until I tried it. It's easy to make - make ordinary black tea the way you like it best, then stir in a generous teaspoonful of good-quality, preferably home-made jam. Don't add milk, and obviously you won't need sugar.
Incidentally, the Russians don't always drink tea like this, just when they have people round for tea. The jam (in Russian, varenie) is provided in bowls and people also put it on slices of bread - and it's always home-made and extremely nice.
I do hope you like this new tea-drinking experience. I'm going to go and eat some biscuits now.
Isabel
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| Nicey replies: That is so much more impressive than fruit tea. |
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| Liz |
I've just tried the Korean spin on instant tea, crystallized ginseng. It's a product of the Dongwon Korean Ginseng Company based in Seoul. I don't get that same steepy goodness from this tea that could be expected from the root itself, and to get the right strength two packets of the stuff should be used (10 to a box). The crystals dissolve instantly with a fizzly sound, producing a thin layer of froth in the cup. I recommend honey as a sweetener if desired, but only in moderate amount so as to not overpower the ginseng. It has a pleasing warmth to it, and soothes the throat in the opposite way of the cool slightly minty Echinacea brews. Although the idea of instant tea may initially put off, it's crystals rather than powder and worth a try simply because it's so convenient and will even dissolve readily in cold water (I prefer it hot, of course).
-Liz, Wisconsin |
| Nicey replies: Washed down with some Purple Yam biscuits no doubt.
I think we'll stick to PG and Digestives.
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| Mrs Ann Day |
Good afternoon Nicey,
Love the site. Anything that keeps me off of eBay is a good thing!
Where do you sit on the subject of date slice? Is it a biscuit or a cake or something else? I have made loads of these as they go well at a cricket tea along with the jam and cream scones, chocolate cake and strong tea. I always know when to start brewing the tea....it's when my husband goes in to bat.
As an addition to my extensive cake repetoire I have invented the bakewell slice and the mincemeat and marzipan slice. Basically the same constrution as the date slice but filled with marzipan and mincemeat/jam of your choice. I especially like making them as my husband hates marzipan and I get to eat them all ;-)
On the subject of tea I have been to India on a number of occasions and they can't make tea worth a damn. what with the hot milk and boiling everything up together in a saucepan. What is it with Lipton's Yellow label tea? It seems to be all you can get in hotels. I've travelled extensively and the only hotel where it wasn't on the breakfast table was in The Dominican Republic where they served proper Twinings Breakfast tea.
Best wishes
Ann |
| Nicey replies: Ann,
We had a discussion on this very topic not so long ago and agreed that 'slice' should be a recognised term deserving of its own circle in our mighty Venn Diagram of the baked goods world. It has the significant advantage of neatly solving the 'Flapjack dilemma' that has plagued cake biscuit taxonomy theory for years.
Of course the only problem in all of this is that I had just got the diagram looking very nice for the book and I'll have to redo it. |
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| Peter Burgess |
I thought you may be interested to learn that the vending machine in the physics department of imperial college (a place at the very forefront of scientific invention) has a vending machine of the 'clix' brand which in addition to the regular vending machine issues you have highlighted also revels in giving you the 60p you get back from a pound in exchange for your steaming liquid entirely in 1p pieces.
In continental tea issues my girlfriend is currently living in Germany where they seem to have pioneered a kind of halfway house between loose leaf and the tea bag. I'm not sure if you are aware of this development but essentially it is a very long teabag which is open at one end, the theory is you put your loose leaf into the bag and then put it into your mug. The teabag is just long enough that it stands in your mug without the contents spilling over into the tea when you add water. I think they're rather clever.
Yours Peter Burgess |
| Nicey replies: No I'd not heard of those DIY teabags, they sound like they could be well received by 'ALL tea bags are filled with sweepings' brigade. One such lady last Tuesday tried to tell me that those little metal ball things on chains were marvelous, that I should go to India to see how tea is really made before having an opinion on it, and that as she was a wine writer she knew a thing or two about things and I was best advised not to argue with her. I told her that we drink PG and this seemed to annoy her sufficiently. |
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| Lisa Green |
Hi - I'm responding to the item saying that Manchester water used to be shipped to Ceylon to taste tea with.
Did you know that all Ceylon tea tasting has to be in Colombo, i.e. at sea level; the best high grown tea (usually made into broken orange pekoe or BOP) is produced between 4 an 6,000 feet above sea level and kettles boil at a lower temperature, and therefore don't make very good tea.
Apprentice tea growers are known as creepers, hence the local expression 'He's creeping under Mr. Premadasa at the moment.
I have nothing to do with the Ceylon tea industry, just brought up there: I would ask you all please to resolve to drink lots of Ceylon tea in 2005 to help boost the economy of this shattered country.
Lisa Green |
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