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 |
Sarah |
My husband will not have a bulbous kettle in the house, no matter how nice a cup of tea it makes. Is this normal?
Hi there, mister husband here. Here is a classic example of a bulbous kettle Although you can see the water boiling, which is nice, the kettle is still very bulbous. Bulbosity is worsened by opaque, often garish greenish sides.
Googling for this I notice there are a lot of kettles about which are triangular, which is also bad. Some are both bulbous and triangular.
When we bought our last kettle, we were able to find only 1 kettle in some 7 or so shops that was not either a) bulbous or b) triangular, or c) otherwise overdesigned. And even this is IMO a bit flash. Also our first one electrocuted me because water kept leaking into the handle, but that is by the by.
My parents recently bought which is neither bulbous nor flash. I wish it were mine.
I think my wife just wanted to tell someone she thought I was weird, but I would like to propose a poll:
Kettles:
Bulbous?
Triangular?
Bulbous Triangular?
Transparent?
Other?
or Normal?
I am not sure if there is any technical merit in bulbous or triangular kettles (maybe they boil faster). When I ask google "is a triangular kettle better" I get "The Beaver Fur Hat" & "Corn Chip Review". I'd be interested to hear if there is any engineering reason for bulbosity, but it will not induce me to buy one.
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Nicey replies: Sarah,
Please pass along to your husband our compliments on some excellent kettle links, and for his efforts with Google and the splendid poll idea. |
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Lin Gilbert |
Hello, Nicey.
I'm delighted to see from Glyn's email that I'm not alone in my dunking habit. Putting butter in tea is part of Tibet's cultural legacy to the world and should be embraced by us Westerners.
In fact I'm happy to dunk anything that I could eat with a cup of tea. Victoria sponge cake is a particular favourite, but needs a bit of hand-eye coordination and a fast mug-to-mouth return.
Yours with soggy crumbs all over the table, Lin. |
Nicey replies: Yak's milk butter at that. Some friends of ours about ten years ago walked to the base camp at K2. They camped each night in their state of the art tent and sleeping bags, after a nutritionally balanced re-hydrated meal. Meanwhile their Nepalese guides fashioned a shelter from a few rocks a sheet and stick and brewed up tea with lumps of melted yak butter in it. |
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Theo |
Hello,
New product alert! The Teastick appears to be the perfect synthesis of tea leaves and spoon.
It's one of those things that I've got an incredible amount of admiration for, yet absolutely no intention of buying.
Theo |
Nicey replies: Stuff like that mildly annoys me. |
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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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Lucy Martin |
Dear Nicey and Wifey,
I work for Oxford Archaeology and with so many temporary diggers around at this time of year I am constantly facing the problem of how to keep my tea cup my own. In recent months I've taken to cultivating a dark layer of tannin on the inside of my cup (see photo) so as to render it unattractive to a casual opportunist (I gave it a scrub before filling it each time so though it looked horrid it didn't flake off in my tea). This worked wonderfully well while it lasted but I have now acquired a new mug, one which I'd like to keep clean. I found the hints and tips on this subject on your wonderful site entertaining though not terribly useful ...
With regard to the spoon matter, as I don't like sugar in my tea I am perfectly free to use anything I please to perform the duty. Being archaeologists, when out on site we feel for our trowels as Ford Prefect does for his towel so we generally use them for everything; including stirring our tea when on breaks. I find I have quite a high tolerance for muddy tea water.
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Nicey replies: Well done Lucy, your cup is truly filthy, but we'll forgive you as you have such a lovely new mug. Given the huge amounts of black muck I'm sure you have rendered your old cup not only off putting to casual passers by but also to high flying aircraft or indeed orbiting satellites. |
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