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 |
Chris |
Hi Nicey,
I saw the feature of you and your book on This Morning, this week; I was most interested, amused and thrilled...
As an avid fan of biscuits, I was hoping you might be able to help me...I have been trying to find out where I can buy a good old fashioned biscuit barrel (tin) - the ones with the beans in the lid, to keep the biscuits fresh...
My mother has one, I think it was a wedding gift...But it hasn't been the same biscuit enjoyment since I left home (a long time ago!)
If you don't know; what is your best storage advice, please!
Thanks.
Best Wishes,
Chris |
Nicey replies: Well now is the time of year, but mostly now you need to get it indirectly as a container of mixed crackers for cheese. This is where we obtained ours, and I'm sure I saw them in the shops last year. It was either M&S or Sainsbury's. After you have scoffed the crackers you'll have a nice biscuit tin. |
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Fred Pipes |
Hi Nicey
I must say I'm really enjoying reading your book (although it is smaller than it looks in the adverts!). Great for sampling bite-sized portions during a regular sit down and cup of tea.
I spotted this intriguing device in the latest Lakeland catalogue to fall out of my Saturday Indy -- what you're supposed to do with the rest of the packet is not made clear! Perhaps you could buy several of these and divide your packet into threes (great for those on a diet!).
fred
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Nicey replies: Fred,
Glad you like the book, its meant to be small and cuddly.
Those biscuit boxes look really handy. Some rectangular ones for Custard creams, Bourbons, Shortcakes and Garibaldis would be good as well. A brief case with a moulded foam insert that could hold say 24 of them would be nice. That way you could always travel tooled up with a full selection of biscuits which could be deployed at a moments notice.
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Paul Fowkes
 Fruit Shortcake Review |
Dear Nicey,
I though I would share my little problem with just you (and possibly hundreds of others) in case you have any ideas on how to help me. Like most parents, I have children - three of them to be exact - and, like most children, they like biscuits and cake. My problem, in a nutshell, is what do I buy to put in the biscuit tin? Before you suggest anything, bear in mind that I visit Tesco's once a week and I need the biscuits that I buy to be consumed in roughly one week, so that the biscuit tin is almost empty by day 7.
This is not a simple problem to solve. If I buy Jaffa Cakes, then they will all be gone within 30 minutes of putting them in the tin, sometimes even before I have unloaded the shoppping from the car. Likewise Custard Creams and Hob Nobs. However, if I buy Ginger Nuts, it is quite possible for only a few to be eaten during the week, meaning I have a biscuit-tin overflow situation when I come to replenish the tin with the latest buy. I have found Fruit Shortcakes to be an acceptable compromise between speed of consumption and biscuit-tin stock levels, but surely there must be another way? Perhaps once of those things people use for feeding cats and dogs, whereby a flap is released under the control of a timer?
Hope you can help,
Paul
PS Currently trying out Arrowroot |
Nicey replies: Paul,
This is a terrible responsibility to bear as young minds are very impressionable, and they will hold you to account over the decisions you make now in later life. Certainly if you have reached the stage of experimenting with Thin Arrowroots then things have gotten quite out of hand. I suggest you try a time honoured traditional system that utilises two tins. The best tin contains the biscuits that you don't give out lightly, and that are to be savoured. Produce the best tin on special occasions or when some great feat has been accomplished, such as a very long walk or joint effort washing the car. The biscuits in this tin will acquire a certain stature and respect.
Secondly you have your everyday tin in which you place shortcake, digestives, oaty biscuits and plain dunkers. I would have thought a fruit biscuit would be as glamourous as you wish to get here, and its important to draw a strict line in the sand. This is fairly much the course of action that you have adopted. Now it becomes a issue of biscuit management which is often aided by a very high shelf in the larder or cupboard, and supervised access to the tin.
The best tin should be smaller than the everyday tin. The two tin approach should instill a sense of values in your children who will then be able to help you choose biscuits to go in each tin, and through this learn true biscuit appreciation.
Its just an idea. |
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Diana Pleasants |
Dear Nicey
Where have all the nice biscuit barrels gone?
I am looking for a tin one with one of those special lids which keep the contents dry, with a handle.
All I can find are pottery jars like teddy bears which are hideous and chip, wooden ones which taint the biscuits with a woody flavour or the type of canister you can keep lentils in.
Where have all the nice tin ones gone? |
Nicey replies: Yes Biscuit-Enthusiast Mandy had one of those Teddy Bear ones for a wedding present and its still in its box after a year. It didn't help much that the box had pictures of pink wafers on it, possibly because they are colourful and easy to draw.
Our proper biscuit barrel originally had a cracker selection in it, from M&S I think, perhaps a trip to there might bare fruit.
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Alice Gorman |
Dear Nicey,
Thank you for your charming response. You've made me think that perhaps biscuits in space is a much-neglected research area that I should pursue. I'm attaching a picture of a 1959 Russian biscuit tin featuring Sputnik 1 for your enjoyment.

Regards,
Alice |
Nicey replies: Alice,
That is a fantastic biscuit tin, you must be very proud. I tend to think about biscuits in space about 3 or 4 times a week at the moment, which I think is healthy. In our book (out in November) I thought about which would be the best biscuit for zero-g or micro-gravity situation. This is surely going to be an issue for the in flight catering on any future sub-orbital space planes. Inevitably I think its the fig roll. |
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