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 |
Steve Blyton |
Yes, clear memories of Duchess biscuits - but not oval, they were round with a serious serrated edge.
Made by Scribbans Kemp near Grimsby - they were a staple `luxury` biscuit of my granny in the 60`s
Steve |
Nicey replies: Thanks Steve, this is all new to me. |
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Mark Hamlett |
Hello Nicey,
Futher to a previous rant about the tea from our machine at work, in which I complained of it smelling like mushroom soup, I can confirm that it has improved considerably, to the point that it is now my beverage of choice.
Thank goodness for that!
It’s still not as good as a proper cup of tea, but it’s close enough that you suspect that a tea-leaf may have been involved in it’s creation, rather than a fungus.
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Nicey replies: Mark,
Thanks for the heads up on that. |
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VP |
Hi,
Thought you might like to have a look at something I spotted at the Ideal Home Show last week. Love both your blog and the book!
Best Wishes,
VP |
Nicey replies: Sigh.. another one of those lovely designer chappies has come to the aid of all us hapless tea drinkers and dunkers with some woeful bit of tat that is supposed to turn our lives around. Doesn't it ever cross these peoples minds that if you like to dunk biscuits in your tea then you might have actually become semi proficient at it and not require some basket device in your cup. Besides which its your tea, its not some kiddies paddling pool filled with plastic toys.
Honestly there is only one thing worse that the designers who can't see over the brim of their own tea cup for inspiration, and thats the web-designers wishing for somebody else to make them a cup of tea cause they are too busy / bone idle to make it themselves. Not so busy that they can't while away a few days/weeks knocking out some web page thingy that is going to choose somebody next to them to go and make it.
Recently Cravendale Milk got in touch to say they were working on a super secret tea related web application, and were we interested. I said yes but I hope its not one of those 'Who's turn is it to make the tea?' sort of things as they had been done to death. They went quiet for two months.. then came back to us saying, yes it was indeed a 'Who's turn is it to make the tea sort of thing' and it was all but ready to go. If they had asked we could have given them our painfully distilled wisdom about why these things are a all a bit useless and given the amount languishing out there un-used a really sure fire way of paying some web-designer to a load of cash to re-invent a particularly un-necessary wheel.
Well here it is. Their innovation is that it doesn't let you send the 'make the tea' message again for another 2 minutes after you have just sent it. I just thought of two ways round that just this second. As always it chooses people at random, rather than in order, and it's completely unaware of people's days off, holidays etc. As I said they only had to ask. |
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Joan Ward
Lincoln Review |
Hello Nicey and Wifey,
Just read your book and it was brilliant. My husband was relieved I had finished it though as I kept reading bits out to him which didn`t go down too well if he was watching any cricket
To name all biscuits would have been too much for you to do I agree but I seem to remember a biscuit called \" Duchess\" they were oval shaped with a criss cross pattern on top and the name on? Some of my friends think I am mistaken, hoping you may have heard of them?
Thanks J Ward |
Nicey replies: Hello Joan,
Well those are two very distinctive features yo mention. From time to time people mention a shortcake style biscuit with a raised pattern of square ridges on and I recall these too. However these were round, very much like a retooled Lincoln.
Perhaps some of our readers recall your biscuit. |
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Ian
Tregroes Toffee Waffles Review |
Hello There Fellow Biscuit Appreciaters
I am fairly new to your great site, I am sure it is a valuable reference source for all enthusiasts.
I am an expat living in Holland and I would like to share information on one of the products that is common here. I may be mistaken but I never encountered anything like this growing up in the UK.
The product I speak of may actually not even qualify as a biscuit. The european rulings on categorisation of confectionary I am not 100% familiar with. Here, it seems everything that comes at elevenses with your tea or coffee, be it a pastry based product, biscuit or cake is \"koek\".
The clue to its id may lie in its name :\"siroopwafel\" or \"stroopwafel\". The appearance of the item, the criss-cross/square design on the surface certainly lends itself to a waffle identity, but it is further baked to give it a more biscuit texture. However, the 2 waffle discs actually form a sealed sandwich (Breville style) around a layer of firm caramel/syrup, which imparts a chewy texture to the \"biscuit\" upon eating. I liken the texture of it to the chocolate digestives which have been reinforced with a sublayer of caramel.
A popular way it is enjoyed here (although it seems to me the ritual is dying out in the younger generation), is that when your tea arrives (most likely coffee here), you place the biscuit like a lid over the top of the mug for a minute or 2 and the heat from the drink subsequently softens the internal caramel layer prior to eating.
My guess is that each biscuit contains the daily calorific requirements of the average coalminer, but in practice it is seldom easy to put less than 2 away in any session.
I hope the above link works, this is one of the best images I could find to support my email. As you can see from these images, despite being an everyday item, they can also be given as gifts in special packaging and tins. They are often baked on the street in city centres and the smell is fantastic, I have now come to associate this smell with Christmas, as they step up production at that time of year to feed all the Christmas shoppers.
I am sending this info because I would be interested in seeing if there is/was an equivalent product and ritual in my home country, and where it\'s status lies as a biscuit or otherwise.
Good Luck with the Site
Regards, Ian, Holland |
Nicey replies: Hello Ian,
Indeed there is a source of authentic Stroop waffles in the UK and we reviewed them a while back. Interesting your comment about coal miners as they are made in South Wales, albeit the South West rather than the valleys. Their site has information about who stocks them and where you can get them. |
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