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 |
Colleen Howe |
Hi Nicey!
Please - we need your help asap. We are sitting in the office with lots of different fruit tea options... We went for camomile, honey and vanilla and that has put us slightly over the edge! What is your take on fruit teas - where should we go from here?!
Yours in anticipation
Colleen |
Nicey replies: Our advice is to stop mucking about and have a proper cup of tea. |
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Frommy |
Nicey & Wifey,
Having been an avid fan of your site for a few years now, imagine how pleased I was to discover that I was working for a group of likeminded tea-enthusiasts. So much so that we have formed a tea society. We are the Backline crew for George Michael's Band, so we set up the instruments and do a lot of swanning around and such. Our tour merchandise has just turned up and attached is a picture of us all wearing the pure new wool sweaters emblazoned with '25Live Tea Society' around a little teapot on the right arm, and on the breast our names, tea preference, and how we take it. I have Frommy, Earl Grey, White no Sugar.
As you can see from the photo we have a blue Delft tea service (second hand from a Plymouth charity shop) with hand knitted tea cosy (Ken's mum-in-law) and a macrameed sugar bowl cover (Ken's Auntie). We take afternoon tea daily after linecheck (this is when we check all the instruments work before the band come in to play).
We are the envy of the rest of the tour - so far no comment from George though.
Keep up the good work.
Frommy & Cyril, Kerry, Ken, Lance, Turbo & Dan (The 25Live Tea Society)
same only bigger
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Nicey replies: Well that's really opened our eyes to the glamorous backstage world of a major international recording artist. We never knew it could be so refined. Of course it has to be a distinct advantage having your tea preferences emblazoned on your chest. Should you perchance to doze off you can be gently awakened with the cup of tea of your choice by any passer by. Wifey reckons George would do well to get one of your nice woolies too.
Nice Fruitcake and Tiffin shot too.
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Jim Fussell |
Nicey,
What Nessa appears to have had is a tea and fruit infusion party.....however i'm not going to get started on that again!
I've always thought you can tell a lot from someone's tea drinking habits and I think we can read a lot in to Nessa through these photos.
- She has laid out 19 cups and therefore expects 18 friends or family to join her for her party, this tells me she is clearly popular.
- She expects to get around 5 cups of tea out of each pot. This tells me she is an ambitious person but not someone who would tackle the impossible.
- The spread of identical iced fingers, large cake and enormous variety of tea types tells me that she likes to avoid conflict.
- The tesco finest jam tells me that she enjoys a little luxury in life, however would not waste money on top end names such as M+S or Waitrose just to impress.
Am I somewhere near the mark in my tea psychiatry?
I'm sure you have the higher resolution pictures at HQ, so could you tell me what those 3 strange spherical objects are in the middle picture.
Cheers,
Jim. |
Nicey replies: Yes I thought I would let the infusion thing go which seemed fair as the three round things appear to be plums showing a genuine interest in fruit. |
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Sue Northcott |
Until now I've been a failure as a parent. Both our kids have avoided any tea or coffee intake, in fact the only hot drink they'll touch is hot chocolate. This is probably due to my tendency to consume huge mugs of industrial strength Assam, with very little milk and certainly no sugar. My own introduction to tea was by my grandfather who served me tiny little bone china cups full of very sweet milky glengettie, and let me drink it from the saucer or teaspoon if it was too hot. (I also shared the saucer with his collie dog, Bob, but that's another story).
Anyway, while on holiday our youngest (7) took part in a tasting at the Auray branch of the LeClerc supermarket chain (lack of French is no obstacle to a lad who can talk for Wales and doesn't care if anyone's listening). He was much taken with the Lipton Ice Tea Peche
Thankfully we can get a version of this at home, so he's very happy. My questions are:
1. Does this count, in any way, as tea drinking in the 'real' sense?
2. How can I encourage it to evolve into a proper tea habit without resorting to too much sugar?
Sue Northcott
(Much more cheerful this week, thanks!) |
Nicey replies: Hello Sue,
Glad you have bucked up a bit this week.
I remember my first visit to a LeClerc (indeed the first French Supermarket I went too), must have been about 15 years ago now. Despite only being a small one it still sold cement mixers along with the more obvious groceries. For added rustic charm a small flock of sparrows were coming in through a gap in the roof and making off with some goods placed at the top of the shelves. I'm guessing it was somewhere near Montreuil just south of Boulogne.
Anyhow sorry to bring you down in your hour of triumph but French peach flavoured Iced tea fails on at least three counts. Still the fact that the boy is showing willingness to try other beverages is a good thing in general. We work on the principle here that certain selected items such as special forms of cake (one's that we made a bit of a fuss about baking) can only be consumed with tea. This works some of the time but is in no way fool proof.
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Mike Armitage |
Hello Nicey ,Wifey and the rest of the team.
I've just come back from a cycling holiday in Oakham, Rutland. I visited the local market while I was there and found a specialist Tea stall. ( Must be because the Oakham School is quite posh!) There were 3 varieties of Earl Grey tea on this stall! I bought some loose tea, a tea caddy and a "Dauerfilter" for making loose tea directly in the cup. Its a permanent filter and is "Auch ideal zum Aufbruhen von kaffee"
I don't remember which variety of Earl grey tea I bought because the stall owner put it directly in my new caddy but it has a very strong scent of bergamot and it quite delicious.
I have been amazed by people far and wide who admit to having seen and enjoyed your site or have read your book.
Mike Armitage |
Nicey replies: We keep passing through Rutland, and Oakham on our way to and from other places. In fact we tried to find somewhere to camp up there two weeks ago but wound up in Derbyshire. If we had of made it to Rutland we would have been cycling round there too..
Just got back from a splendid bike ride this afternoon with both younger members of staff and Nanny Nicey. All off road in the hills between Saffron Walden and Royston. We took half a home made fruit cake and a flask of tea. We pop two teabags in the flask when we are ready to make the tea, and this works very well indeed. |
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