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.

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Your e-Mails

Fiona Taylor	Dear Nicey and the Wife, Just recently stumbled across your inspirational website (where have I been for the last 3 years?) I have a long affiliation with tea - originally being from Yorkshire it has been a staple part of my diet since I were knee-high to a grasshopper! I also briefly worked at Twinings tea shop in London (no PG Tips there though) Although the subject of dunking is covered in magnificent depth on your site, I can find absolutely no refernce to the actual biscuits named "Dunkers" (I have no idea if they are still in production and can't remember which company manufactured them) They were almond-shaped, roughly 10cm long and and 5cm at their widest mid-point. Obviously some research types decided that these are the ideal dunking dimensions and indeed, they fitted neatly into one's mug. They also managed to retain an unsurpassable amount of tea without crumbling. I vaguely remember a rather dodgy TV ad for them involving a car with steamed up windows... However, their fundamental flaw was that they tasted minging. The dominating flavour was malt - in fact it was basically Horlicks disguised as a biscuit and who in their right mind would pollute their cuppa with a hefty teaspoon of Horlicks? I'm sure even the custard cream-in-port lady dunker would have difficulty in stomaching aforementioned. However, on the subject of bizarre dunking, the strangest by far - and not altogether unpleasant - that I have sampled is cheese. Let me explain - as there are extenuating circumstances. It was many years ago before my tastebuds developed the refinement they now posess. I was on an aeroplane, so not a particularly nice sit down and also an environment not wholly familiar with the nuances of tea preparation. In fact, let's face it, aeroplane tea is absolutely diabolical (Although not quite as appalling as that which I encountered on a GNER train last summer - in First Class no less!). Anyhow, we encountered a spot of turbulence during which I was unfortunate enough to drop a piece of cheese in my cuppa. Now I forget why, but instead of quickly retrieving said solid dairy mass, I let it lie. Then, (once again, inexplicably - although in my defence I was very young) I continued to sup my beverage. And then - yes, you guessed it folks - I ate the cheese (I was quite a piggy-jack porker of a kid). And you know what - it was surprisingly palatable. Can I blame altitude sickness? Yours dunkingly, Fiona
	Nicey replies: Fiona, First congratulations on getting the dunking, cheese and airplane icons altogether, well done. Yes, those Dunkers have been mentioned to me once before, I never had them and as you elude to it doesn't appear that they are sorely missed. As for melting cheese in your tea, that is something that you have obviously come to terms with, and if by sharing it with the world it helps you work through it then we are glad to help. As we are now officially in book plugging mode, I would like to point out that I discuss trains and planes in our sitdown section.
Nick Fletcher	Hello I read with great interest the piece on banjo biscuits and can confirm Dominic's ingredient suspicions I was lucky enough as a young lad, in the very late 70's, to work on a tv commercial for the snack and still find myself singing their jingle to this day. And if that wasn't interesting enough,the lyrics hold a clue to the delightful ingredients To the tune of "Banjo on my knee" (of course) "banjo,banjo,the one for me and you light and crispy wafer and roast nut flavour too" hope this is of some use
Carol Schaessens	Dear Nicey Your newsletter arrived today, which was timely as I was today pondering the issue of biscuit packet length in the local co-op where I saw some packs of McVities plain digestives that seemed to be about 14-15 inches long. For me, this is, however, strangely untempting. I prefer the very short packets of choc digestives which, though vastly more expensive per biscuit, seem somehow more desirable. This makes we wonder what is theoretically now achievable in terms of biscuit pack length given current packing technology? What is the longest packet anyone else has seen? I enjoyed your newsletter as usual, and your continued uncompromising commitment to dictionary-free spelling!! Best wishes Carol Schaessens
	Nicey replies: Carol, You raise a very thought provoking point about biscuit pack length. I think perhaps one of the longest packs I've seen is Burton's chocolate biscuits which are called something a bit naughty like 'homeblest' or something, they must of been getting on for 18 inches, maybe. Wouldn't be great if somebody took up the challenge and made packs that were right on the edge of what was possible, I'm guessing that's about 4'6", or 1.5m. You could take them home on your roof rack. As for the spelling guilty as charged, which is why I put the apology at the end of every newsletter. Two spell checkers and a literate Wife are still not enough. For the book they had four people proofing it, just to be safe. Of course what people who can spell well don't realise is that its very difficult to use a dictionary if you can't spell very well, as you only have a very dim idea of how to look up the word your after. In fact the bigger the dictionary the worse it gets it can take ten minutes to find what you're looking for. Also they seem to think we do it out of lazyness, but of course we don't realise we are doing it, which is why we never use the dictionary in the first place. Its also a good reason not to use Word as it hates everything I write, throwing itself into dementia as it underlines everything trying to think of a different way of putting it. I get twisted pleasure if it actually crashes due to my lousy spelling. I think they should animate the paper clip throwing itself under a bus or something at this point.
Maddalena Feliciello	Hello my dear Nicey and TW What a fascinating site you run dear sir Keiths experiments raise the question, has anyone experimented with the healing properties of varied biscuits in Homeopathic dilution in tea, potentially as a by product of dunking? Is it based on individual metabolism or can one extrapolate to a generic response. Or is it just sludge and leave it at that? Lxxx
	Nicey replies: I think most of us have dabbled in that at some point in our lives. Indeed right now I can hear the clatter of biscuit tin lids as the youngest member of staff has just discovered that requesting a small cup of tea gets him a limited pass for the Gingernut tin.
Keith O'Kane	Dear Nicey and the Wife, I was sorry to read of the mishap suffered by Louise Frank and her partner while attempting a spot of biscuit healing. The problem lies in the use of a chocolate digestive as a pendulum.  The chosen biscuit is too heavy and fragile for this purpose and is difficult to tie securely with thread.  The correct choice for a pendulum is of course the party ring.  This is lighter and less crumbly than many biscuits and the hole in the middle makes it easy to attach securely to a thread.  Party rings are also available in a choice of colours so that you can choose one which is more attuned to your own particular aura. I must stress that under no circumstances should biscuit healing be attempted by anyone without the proper training and equipment as this could result in injury, death or damage to a perfectly good biscuit. Keith O'Kane
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