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 |
Simon Dolega-Ossowski |
Both me and my collegue Mr Nadar have long lamented the disappearance of the celebrated Lemon Puff, which I think was a Peak Freans product. The broad perforated rectangular glazed puff sandwich with its delicious lemon cream filling - a corner-stone of 70s and 80s biscuit tins - was a perfect foil to its heavier based chocolate based counterparts such as the Bourbon.
The Lemon Puff has resurfaced recently, as an inferior roundel I fear, reintroduced by the supermarkets, and it's not the same: we may have been duped about the shrinking size of a Wagon Wheel, but Rich Tea doesn't seem to have diminished in size one bit, and we cannot be fooled for a moment about the shape, and more generous proportions of the old rectangular Lemon Puff.
I await its appearence on your otherwise excellent website.
PS - have you any info on Kunzle Cakes?
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Nicey replies: Indeed as far as I recall the Lemon Puff was a Peek Frean biscuit and so its custodian-ship moved to Jacobs in due course. As I have often said I respected the lemon puff of old, despite not really liking it.. We had a couple attempts at reviewing the modern and inferior round ones but they were too grim.
As for Kunzle Cakes, I never had one but they sound amazing, there is a very good blog devoted to them.
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Geraldine McCathy
 Garibaldi Review |
Hi there,
I found your site whilst looking for information on the Chiltonian Biscuit Factory in Hither Green, London. I worked there in the mid 1970's and I can assure (your correspondent) Kevin Sowerby, that I packed many, many garibaldi biscuits while I worked there.
They were just delicious and I have never tasted a garabaldi biscuit as good as them since those days...
We packed biscuits for Sainsburys, Peak Frean and many others at Chiltonian - there was also a broken biscuit shop where customers and staff could buy a huge bag of broken biscuits for 10p!...
I am sad to learn that the Chiltonian factory is to be converted into housing development.....
God bless all,
Geraldine |
Nicey replies: That's great to have the location of Sainsbury's wonderful 1970s Garibaldis tracked down. Presumably the much missed Chocolate version was made there too. I certainly remember a time when Garibaldis were a softer and the raisins a bit plumper, perhaps they were Chiltonian ones. Still it would be good to see if they could whack a bit of chocolate on a modern Gariabldi just to see what they came out like. |
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Jez Owen |
Dear Nicey,
Hope I got your e-mail address right, it's a bit of a mouthful!
In reply to Angela Stark's e-mail on the subject of gipsy creams, I can say that the McVitie's Gipsy Cream has emerged from the realm of myth and legend. It is alive and well and living on a small market stall in central London, though it is clearly an endangered species, to judge from its numbers. It appears to have been introduced from its native Scotland. A conservation programme needs to be set up if a thriving colony is to be established. My good lady and I are currently in possession of three packets, but sadly the numbers are dwindling fast. If you have a land mail address, I'd be happy to send you an empty wrapper as evidence that the legendary Gipsy Cream does indeed exist.
Best wishes,
Jez Owen
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Nicey replies: Jez,
This is the biscuit equivalent of catching a Ceolacanth, you must be very pleased. Of course we would like to publish photographic evidence of the existence of these biscuits, and to check their best before date. Better still would be the location of the market stall so we send one of our biscuit agents to investigate. |
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Angela Stark |
Does anyone remember gypsy creams, who made them and will they ever return
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Nicey replies: Of course, they now have a similar sort of existence to the Sasquatch or Yeti being almost mythical, but some people swear blind the've seen them although good hard photographic evidence is never produced to back up these claims. |
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Phil Parker |
Nicey
I wonder if you or your readers can help. Once upon a time I used to be able to buy one of the most delicious delicacies - the Traffic Light Cake. This close cousin to the Empire Biscuit was formed of two shortcake biscuits with some creamy middle. The top biscuit had three holes in and in each hole was a dollop of jam (OK, jam stuff, not the real thing, this isn't health food) in red, amber and green.
I haven't seen one of these for many years in the midlands and only found the specimen in the photo in a small bakery in Street. Sorry about the smear of jam, that's what you get for bulk buying and stuffing them all in the same bag.
What happened ? Why did this valuable aid to learning the highway code vanish ? Is any politician willing to make it an election issue ?
Phil Parker
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