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Your e-Mails

Mike Gilmour	Hi nicey, In my world a kettle was a kettle, it boils water just like it says on the box.  That was until I met with the Hinari JS501SS Jug kettle.  Okay it boils water fine...but how can one kettle possibly make that much noise coming up to the boil!!  If World War III broke out whilst I was making tea I'd never ever know.  Our kitchen trannie won't even go loud enough to be heard over the kettle and any quiet conversation escalates in volume to that of a shouting match. It makes me wonder about Hinari's R&D dept., maybe its sited in a really noisy part of the factory and no one ever noticed the kettle was that noisy. I'm waiting for it to break down but knowing sods law it'll go on for ever...arghhhh. Cheers Mike
Fiona Spence Bourbon Review	Thanks NCOTAASD, Woah. When I could only get a small pack of Bourbons in our local Sainsbury's this week, I was a little miffed, but not unduly concerned. Now I pop to your site, as I do from time to time, and find there may be something more serious afoot. What I would like to point out is that in recent weeks, Aldi has stopped stocking bourbons. They used to keep packs of mixed bourbon/custard creams, which were in perfect proportion for my families biscuit preferences. However, they now only stock custard creams. Has the bourbon problem been in the pipeline for some time? Will it be solved before, indeed, crisis point? Yours, Fiona Spence Cumbria
	Nicey replies: I possible explination for the problem lies near to your goodselves with the United Biscuits factory at Carlisle that was damaged by flooding. I'm sure I was once told that Bourbons were made up there. Custard Creams are made at Ashby in the Midlands.
Buzzy Murray Fox's Mint Echo Review	Hello Nicey & Wifey, I've been addicted to your site for quite some time now - it's fab! I work in a very nice office where the attitude to nice cups of tea and sit downs is pretty relaxed.  In particular, the biscuit-providing arrangement is interestingly unregulated: basically, everyone just brings in some biccies whenever the tin looks a bit empty. So far this has proved entirely sustainable, with the only biscuit-drought occurring immediately after New Year when I think everyone felt that they'd overindulged somewhat so ought to give the biccies a brief miss. Anyhoo, the biccy of choice at the moment, courtesy of a "2fer" at some supermarket or other, is the Fox's Echo.  We've had both plain and mint varieties but there's only minty ones left now.  It'd be interesting to know how you felt about these biccies but that's not why I'm writing.  I'm really wanting to see how widespread the incidence of illicit TimTam Slamming was... I was reading Murray James' letter detailing his difficulties with The Slam (you've got to suck it up quick and slam the second the tea hits your tongue, mate) when it occurred to me that the Echo was of a similar construction to the TimTam - biscuit + filiingy bit enclosed in a choccy coating. Being a bit bored now with the minty taste, but still wanting the choccy and biscuit I threw caution to the wind, made sure no-one was looking and proceeded to Slam my Echo.  And you know, even with the minty bit, it really was not bad at all. The choccy at the end that got dunked went very melty so I wouldn't recommend this for younger members of staff (well, not without a suitable amount of plastic sheeting laid out to a 2m radius anyway) but overall it was a good mix of choccy biscuity meltyness. Bit too much mint filling for my taste but I'd spotted that before I started and was ready for it when it came. I really do think you ought to give it a go.  So, I'm now inspired to experiment with other biscuits.  Is this rash? Foolhardy, even? Does anyone else do this? I can't imagine I'm the only person to have spotted this potential in other biscuits.  And, most importantly, would you have any particular recommendations? Yours meltily, Buzzy Murray Edinburgh
	Nicey replies: Yes the Cadbury's Finger comes in for a fair bit of this treatment, so I'm told.
Alan Perry	Dear Mr Nicey and Mrs Wifey, Tomorrow and Friday, my wife and I will be entertaining electrical engineers while they do some work to our house. Of course we are concerned that we give them the right tea and biscuits for the occasion. We plan to give them Sainsbury Red Label tea (from tea bags) as we find this to be a good reliable brew. You can easily get two mugs out of one tea bag and the taste seems to suit most people. However, we are not sure what would be the best biscuit: my immediate thought was the Rich Tea (although we do only have digestives in the house at present). In your experience, is there a biscuit that you would recommend for feeding electrical engineers whilst they are at work? Would they be disappointed by a Rich Tea or a Digestive as these bisuits are non chocolate and a bit traditional? Yours, Alan
	Nicey replies: Alan, I think you have it all under control, of course you might need to have the sugar handy as they could require up to three spoonfuls per mug although two is more common. I would normally serve Rich Teas to any trades people who are working outside, as they are optimised for high speed dunking in rapidly cooling tea. Presumably your electrical work is inside in which case the Digestives should work well, or maybe some nice Fruit Shortcake, or Custard Creams. You should always be aiming to offer a biscuit that is humble yet tasty, in this way your 'guest' will feel quite comfortable tucking away as many as they fancy. If the biscuits are too fancy then people can feel inhibited, and not take as many biscuits as they should. If you feel their work has been of exceptional quality and their manner courteous and thoughtful then you might wish to serve them a Penguin with their last cuppa.
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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