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 |
Richard Thomas
Bahlsen Afrika Review |
Dear Nicey,
I feel that I have to spring to the defence of the exquisite Africa biscuit. This was a staple biscuit where I spent my childhood in the Netherlands and its lack of availability in the UK until recently was a sad loss.
The biscuits are a good size - small enough to pop in your mouth in one shot, rather than wasting time nibbling. The dark chocolate, with crisp, thin wafer is perfect and encourages more scoffing. One area that I do agree with you on is that it is more suited to a nice cup of coffee than tea, although with a sweetened tea it can be a fine accompaniment.
Most excellent biscuit inspired site - I'm off now to put the kettle on and dunk a couple of Jam Sandwich Creams!
Mmmmm!
Yours biscuitly,
Richard
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Geoff Cardigan
Bahlsen Afrika Review |
Dear Nicey,
I have admired your site from afar for around 18 months, but have never been moved to put pen to paper (or whatever it is you do with e-mails) until now.
As the enthusiastic host of the Bristol Guild of Biscuits Appreciation Society (North West and Westbury-on-Trym division), I am constantly on the lookout for new varieties of biscuits for our members to comment upon. We pride ourselves here on being a particularly progressive and modernist society, yet I feel compelled to report certain recent events which have threatened to tear the group asunder.
The wife and I recently returned from the local Tesco's haven taken full advantage of a "2 for 1" offer on Bahlsen's Choco Leibniz. Infused with renewed vigour following your outstanding review, we tabled a motion to the society to fully investigate these chocolate-covered beauties. Mindful of the great unrest of the 1998-9 season (during which some of us formed a breakaway faction to familiarise ourselves more fully with the properties of Hovis Crackers), our motion was, we felt, restrained in it's outlook. We asked merely that the group agree to a tasting of the aforementioned Choco Leibniz, with a view to tasting further Bahlsen products in the medium-to-long term. Nonetheless, certain members of the society were appalled and threatened substantial disquiet.
An extraordinary AGM was called. A full and frank discussion ensued over a box of Family Circle, during which the traditionalists (lead, perhaps unsurprisingly, by the wife's mother) argued vehemently for a renewal of our detailed investigations into the dunking properties of more traditional, british biscuits. The pro-Europeans amongst us, on the other hand, felt that the new age of integration with our european allies should extend into the world of tea drinking and biscuits. My own view was that this was merely a logical extension of last year's groundbreaking decision to allow coffee to be drunk openly during debates, which ended years of tea-only segregation.
After an 8-hour debate, the results of the vote were announced: the motion had been passed by the narrowest of margins. In the final analysis, the small number of abstentions proved critical. Traditionalist arguments that the voting papers had been difficult to understand, and that they had inadvertently thrown their weight behind the wrong biscuit, were quickly discarded by the committee. For a time it appeared that dangerous divisions within the group would take weeks to heal, but after our leader's now-legendary "unite or die" speech we were able to put aside our differences for the good of the society. We finally closed the meeting at around 3am after a late-night bourbon each.
I am pleased to report that peace now reigns again in our wizened and venerable society, and the Choco Leibniz tasting proved an enormous success. We are now discussing the possibility of further Bahlsen-themed tasting sessions later this year- specifically into the Hit biscuit (a long-time favourite of mine since a biscuit related backpacking tour of central europe in my youth- any chance of a review at some point?). Preliminary plans to investigate the recently-reviewed Bahlsen Afrika in early 2004 have unfortunately been put on hold, as they are proving extremely difficult to come by in this remote outpost.
In the meantime, I will continue to access your site on at least a bi-weekly basis and look forward to your biscuit wisdom reaching an ever-expanding audience.
Yours sincerely,
Geoff Cardigan
Acting Host-in-Chief (while the wife is pregnant)
Bristol Guild of Biscuits Appreciation Society (North West and Westbury-on-Trym Division)
Founded 1996 (at Dave's house)
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Nicey replies: Dear Mr Cardigan,
Thanks for that, and I'm pleased that all is well in Bristol once more. To give credit where it is due the Choco Liebniz review was a guest one by Mr Alan Bromley, who did a splendid job. Our official review is embarrassingly overdue and we are aiming to correct that in the very near future.
On the subject of Bahlsen; although not a biscuit but a small cake, I would urge you to give the Bahlsen range of Jaffas a go. They are built in a quite different way to the UK sorts, I'm reliably informed. Also they taste quite nice.
I hope its not another 18 months till we converse again. And I'm sure we can do a Hit review given the current level of interest on the subject. |
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