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 |
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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Chris Bis
 Fruit Shortcake Review |
Dearest Nicey and Wifey
I would be very keen indeed to find out what your thoughts are on the worlds most underated biscuit. A colleague of mine thinks its Lincolns. I am not keen on them personally but would eat them in an emergency I suppose. My opinion is that Rich Teas most likely fit the bill, my own lovely wife thinks their simplicity is sublime. Again they are not really my “cup of tea”…. being a raging ginger nut fanatic but I can appreciate their appeal for those people who rate dipability above all else.
What do you think? |
Nicey replies: I think its the Fruit Shortcake, it really gives way more than anybody ever asks of it. |
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Maureen Killip |
Although I love biscuits dearly of course, I am at heart a cake person, and have just returned from a cake & beer themed holiday in Europe. I was pleasantly surprised by the availability of both decent tea & sitdowns, although biscuits were thin on the ground. However, the stunning cakes banished all thoughts of biscuits from my mind, so I thought you might like to see a pic of the truely awe inspiring Russian Cream Torte (from a lovely cafe behind the palace in Budapest). The cream was delicately infused with lemon & the mousse type filling contained rum soaked dried fruit. The memory of this cake will stay with me always...
The beer was pretty good too (mmmm......Staropramen!)
Enjoy
Maureen Killip

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Nicey replies: That was good forward thinking to take the photo of the epic cake before eating it rather than the creamy smear on the plate after you had dispatched it. Wifey and I are big into cakes right now with lots of cake baking taking place at NCOTAASD HQ. Interestingly the last two fruit cakes have both had beer in them, an Ale cake followed by a Guinness cake. We too were minded towards a rum and fruit based job, and even bought a bottle for the purpose although Wifey has seen off quite a bit of it with coke.
In fact our on-going cake activity may well spill out onto the site in some form or another. |
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Brian Crowley |
Dear Nicey and Wifey,
What a lovely web site you have! Much more fun than working!
Anyway, to business. I read with interest your Tim Tam vs Penguin review - I must say that even as an ex-Brit, I lean towards the Tim Tam myself. And I have tried Penguins recently, and they are not what they used to be.
But seeing the special "Black Forest Fantasy" packet featured in the responses brought back into my mind the torrid controversy which occupied the staff tea room for a good fortnight a while back. "Black Forest" refers to the Black Forest cake, a cake with a strong theme of cherries (which feature prominently on the biscuit packet) as well as the inevitable chocolate. If we turn over the packet and read the ingredients, we find that these biscuits do indeed contain real cherries.
0.01% of them.
That's about 2 milligrams per biscuit!
I have seen the accusations of a reduction in chocolate content in order to create a market for "double coated" variety, and maybe this has caused some sensitivity about other ingredients diluting the dominance of chocolate, but surely it is taking it too far to reduce the cherry content to below the levels approved for many food additives!
What can be done? Well, perhaps you can help me raise public awareness of this shabby behaviour...
(Incidentally, have you tried the Chili flavoured Tim Tams? Quite nice, but not really enough chili, in my humble opinion. Probably about 0.01% I suspect...)
All the best,
"BC" |
Nicey replies: I think I'm more concerned about the Chilli flavour Tim Tams than the levels of Cherry in the Black Forest ones. |
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Chris Rayment
 Garibaldi Review |
Sorry to spoil the numbers Joanne, but I have added to the Garibaldi correspondence, and you may have counted me as male, when in fact I am female! On a Garibaldi type biscuit not, has anyone else noticed that those apple and cinnamon biscuits sold in packs of three biccies by McVities as part of their Go Ahead range are remarkably like Garibaldis in shape and texture? Three are just a nice number with a nice cup of tea when having a sit down.
Yours biscuitly (in a female sort of way)
Chris Rayment |
Nicey replies: Hoorah for you and your ladyness Chris (we worked it out ages ago..). Yes there are some good fruity biscuits to be had in the Go-Ahead range, which is recovering nicely from its initial Mr Motivator led campaign, some ten or so years ago. |
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