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Marybeth Swiger Nabisco Nutter Butter Review	Whilst reading biccy reviews, I found the above-mentioned biscuit. I think you owe it to other biscuit lovers to let them know that this isn't the only Nutter Butter variety available. Nabisco (no matter how hard they try to convince me of the 'homemade goodness' of their biscuits, I know they're a huge conglomerate) also make Nutter Butter Creme (sic) Patties. Even better than the peanut shaped biscuit, this is a slightly sweet wafer, filled with a smooth peanutty filling. They come as three large slabs in a tray, marked off as pillows - rather like a strip of ravioli. The downside of eating them is the wafer - when very fresh, the wafer shatters easily, and one can become covered with crumbs quite fast. Also, wafers plus dampness equals a less than palatable bite, so these slabs need to be decanted to a tin for ideal storage (like so many North American biscuits, they come wrapped in thin cellophane). These biscuits aren't available here in Canada, but thank goodness for cross-border shopping to the States. A lovely treat, and entirely moreish. MB Swiger Vancouver, BC Canada (an equal opportunity biscuit eater - I've just had three Maryland choc chip and hazelnut rounds with my tea)
	Nicey replies: They sound very closely related to the stuff that finally saw off Elvis.
Christopher Harry KitKat Review	I'm pleased to hear from Stuart that foil kit kats are still available in Canada. The four finger foil wrap was a masterpiece. A subtle diagonal folding technique enabled it to be wrapped with less foil than seemed possible. It's true - if you unwrapped one and tried to re-wrap it "square-on" you could never cover it completely. Your own free conjuring trick with every one!  By this means the company saved a tiny portion of aluminium from every single kit kat. One suspects that this was for their financial benefit - but with the smelters running that little bit slower for all those years, the Maldives will get a few more days above sea level if the global warming doommongers are right about the CO2 and the melting ice caps and everything.
	Nicey replies: Yes it all went wrong for KitKat when they dropped the foil, when will they learn. Never mind your' white chocolate watermelon, gravy and pigeon' flavour, just put normal KitKats back into foil and stop all this uncalled for mucking about.
Steve Rapaport	Thanks to this site, I now have a place to tell my frightful French story. It was 1989 and I was a little nervous, being 24-ish and on a solo business trip to France, and then a bit rattled from the drive through the "Etoile Charles de Gaulle" on the way into the office in Paris. But I was still pretty confident in my competence, my professionalism, and my masculinity. Until someone offered me coffee.... I politely asked if they had any tea. In Canada where I hail from, this is a fairly usual question after coffee is offered. In France, it produced horror and shock, followed by a round of sneers and supercilious little laughs. After a suitably intimidating silence, my host replied "No, we don't have any, but perhaps you wish to ask one of the *women*. " This last word contained unspoken volumes regarding my evident lack of masculinity, naivete, and general unsuitability for the rigors of a serious business meeting in France between men. The women, it need hardly be said, were all clerical staff, in a separate room from the real men. Bloodied but unbowed, I actually did beg a teabag from a friendly female clerk before proceeding to the meeting, where nobody took me at all seriously thereafter and mostly they all spoke french over my head. From this humiliation I concluded that only women (and perhaps foreign poofters) drink tea in France. Or at least that this was the case in 1989. I think that this deserves further study, perhaps on this very Webzine...
Liz Loree	Dear Nicey. With the talk of North Americans and some of the horrible tea-making habits, I thought you might enjoy taking a look at the "new Steeped Tea" at Tim Hortons.  Tim's is not normally known for its tea - more the coffee and donuts. As for the "do they or do they not have kettles" question, I don't know many people who don't have a kettle here in Canada.  I do remember being shocked with I saw a friend (kettle-less) boiling water on the stove for coffee and tea.  Soon after, this friend got a coffeemaker of the drip variety, and instead of coffee, he'd put several teabags in the basket and let the water run through.  Strong enough to trot a mouse, as Robertson Davies said. Looking forward to the book, Liz Loree - Canuck with a kettle
Peter J. Hexter	Dear Nicey, A nice site, though distressingly bare of Peak Freens. I have only just returned to drinking tea after a 20 year hiatus (my parents were obsessed with tea and I was force fed from an early age), and I am now in search of a dunking biscuit. Growing up in Canada we had a brand called Peak Freens, who produced arguably, the three best and tastiest biscuits ever for dunking: the Shortcake, the Digestive and the ne plus ultra of dunkers - the Bourbon Cream. The latter being a thin layer of chocolate cream between two chocolate biscuit wafers and named for the House of Bourbon, rather than the rotgut whiskey. Since my youth I have travelled the world. I lived in England for many years, and am now settled in Australia (which despite claims to the contrary, is a biscuit wasteland). Alas, I have yet to find the equal of these fine friends. Now you may scoff and pre-suppose that Canadian biscuits would be of inferior quality but bear with me here. At the time, British Columbia had an enormous population of English ex-pats that demanded only the finest biscuits. Competition was fierce, much blood was shed (metaphorically of course) and PF emerged as the favoured brand. IMHO its success was based on three things: Most PF biscuits are made from hard winter wheat that is superior to any other for baking biscuits. Being a land of farmers we were awash with real butter and much of it found its way into PF biscuits. PF biscuits seem much lower in sugar than others allowing the true biscuit flavour to come through. So if any others of you have a thing for PF lets here from you. Peter J. Hexter
	Nicey replies: Peter, Peek Frean is of course an old British Brand dating back to 1857, which manufactured biscuits and christmas puddings in Bermondsey in South London. Peek Frean formed associated biscuits in 1921 with Huntley and Palmer, and were joined by Jacobs in 1960. In 1982 Nabisco took over Associated biscuits. I'm not sure on the history of the Peek Frean brand in Canada, but given what I know of their portfolio of products I'm fairly sure that Nabisco's involvement is key. Anyhow, none of this in any way diminishes, your praise for their biscuits. In the UK the name Peek Frean is vary rarely seen, it used to be trotted out by Jacobs for such things as selection tins, but I haven't seen that in over 20 years.
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