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 |
Stuart Harrison
 Morning Coffee Review |
Nicey,
Thoroughly enjoy the site. I have spent many an hour at work secretly reading through the pages and feel that my knowledge of the biscuit world has greatly increased.
What I can find very little discussion on, however, is the therapeutic qualities of the humble biscuit. Indeed in these days when hard drugs are available on almost every street corner (except for the one outside our local village post office), the far less dangerous and illegal qualities of small baked treats are often ignored. I myself find the sugary qualities of a custard cream (strangely the cheaper the brand the better) to be most uplifting in times of depression. When feeling unwell but struggling into work anyway (as only us men can do) I find the power of a penguin alongside my PG tips 'One Cup' helps the day speed along nicely. When tucked up in bed, snuffling with man-flu, nothing can beat the healing powers of a 'Nice' (except maybe a slice of marmite on toast brought up to you on a little plate and cut up into triangles). On the flip side when feeling 'over-happy' a single Rich Tea can bring you straight back down to earth.
What I would like to know is does anyone else have any 'little favourites' that they rely on in times of need ?
None of these little 'treatments' will lead to a stay in The Priory, nor will they give you a nose like Daniella Westbrook. Eastern cultures have their own mystical remedies and potions. What I say is do us Brits have to look any further than the snacks aisle of Asda to find our own home-grown equivalents.
Keep on munching !
Stuart.
P.S. My own version of wifey would like to know whats going on with 'Morning Coffees' these days. They are the closest thing to a treat that her latest fad diet will allow and none of our local supermarkets seem to stock them anymore ? Have they gone AWOL or is the a shortage hitting the Lancashire area ?
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Nicey replies: There are some people who imagine that Arrowroot biscuits are some kind of aid to wobbly tum, but I think you are probably referring to the ability of a biscuit or two and a cuppa to set you right. In which case we tend to go about that all the time.
Yes there does seem to be a nation wide Morning Coffee crisis, which I have been assuming is related to on going problems at the United Biscuits plant in Carlisle since the flooding at new year. |
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Aimee Jones |
Dear Nicey, Wifey and younger member of staff,
Loving the toast rack icon - bordering on the inspired! The Thermos flask is also a small triumph, but my strongest memories of flask based activities as a child do not include tea. The beaches here in Wales are indeed fantastic, but can be a little nippy even during the summer months. So Mam would often pack a thermos full of hot baked beans along with the sandwiches and whatnots when an outing to the seaside was in the offing - does this go against the Thermos ethos? Also, to return to the toast rack, will this be utilised for other toasted baked goods? I am thinking crumpets, tea cakes and slightly out of season Hot Cross Buns?
Sterling work as ever,
Aimee Jones |
Nicey replies: Firstly, yes I fully expect the new Toast icon to crop up whenever the broader issue of toasting raises its head. This is certainly in keeping with the general bandying around of icons such as the butter icon.
Secondly flasks of hot baked beans sounds utterly fantastic, I would be thinking of having a tee-shirt made that proclaims that you were raised in this way. Hoorah for your Mum and her bean flasks. I would of course still require a flask of tea to wash them down with.
Thirdly at Easter we were sat on a couple of Welsh beaches with our flask. The first attempt was a major disaster, having set out with the younger members of staff to dam up the stream that runs through Merthyr Mawr sand dunes. The stream had dried up, so we struck out for the coast, and anybody who knows the locale will know that this is quite a hike. No matter for I had provisions, or so I thought. On reaching the beach, we had forgotten the Fig Rolls, the Jaffa Cakes and the milk. I tried to console myself with a cup of black tea, which Wifey and Nanny Nicey declined. No, despite the claims of those who like it, black tea is fairly foul (they actually know this but insist that we should all drink it), especially when you really want a proper cup. I tried to amuse myself by attempting to construct a working cigarette lighter from the dozen or so I collected from the shore line, not that I smoke, I just thought it would be a useful survival trick in a sort of useless alternate Ray Mears way. |
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Jonathan Dawson
 Tunnocks Tea Cake Review |
Dear Nicey,
I have been intending to e mail for some time so my thoughts on a number of topics:
I agree with Madam Arnold that a nice cup (or mug) of tea, toast and a sit down all go together rather well and toast eating as previous stated on this site is a wonderful recreation either on its own or when coupled with a mug of tea. I feel it important to add that the best way of eating toast is with butter and not with any form of imitation as this only disappoints. White bread thickly sliced adds to the enjoyment but other breads are acceptable when the recreation has not been well planned in advanced.
Airline tea can be the most disgusting drink in the world and only UK based airlines should be trusted with making a cup of tea. My own favourite BMI know how to make a lovely cup of tea at 36,000 feet and when coming home from the US is one of the things I look forward to on the flight. An added bonus is it is served in china. I have to say that that well known coffee shop chain Starbucks is the only hope of a good drink of tea in America as you can make it yourself, but should be avoided at all costs in the UK and the visits in the US are only in an emergency when I start to pine for home comfort.
I have so enjoyed reading about Tunnocks Tea Cakes. I do believe that the only way to eat a TTC is with reverence, calm and a cup of tea.My mother always taught me not to play with my food so I still have not attempted to blow the inside out mainly as I hate the thought of wasting any of the inside mixture . I do remember from childhood a Snowball which is not a drink made with Advocat but the inside mixture of a Tunnocks Tea cake covered with coconut which to my delight is a Tunnocks product and still available having checked the Tunnocks web site so I am going to hunt a Snowball down now.
With all good wishes
Jonathan |
Nicey replies: An aeroplane icon we do have. |
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Madam Arnold |
Dear Mr Nicey
Please make an icon for dat toast wot me and Dr Toast and other people like to havetea with. When me mam was poor in the 60s, dat tea and dat toast would constitute an entire meal!
So innit about time you acknowledged this. And that.
Fanks.
PS I drew you an illustritive illustration of tea and toast as I realise that this may be an alien, nay, frightening concept for some tea users, but I wanted to bring it out into the open so as to further dat social intergration and let toasties know they've nothin to be ashamed of.
Kind regards,
Madam Arnold
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Nicey replies: OK, I shall give it serious thought. I need one more icon at the same time so that we go from 28 to 30 and it doesn't mess up my nice little rectangle. Suggestions welcome.. |
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Reshmi Ray
 Parle-G Review |
Dear Nicey,
What a lovely website. I have had so many fun times browsing through it while dunking away.
I was first introduced to dunking by my late grandmother in India. I still remember them as my most memorable moments. I went through dunking Marie biscuits (I think they might be the Indian equivalent of the Rich Tea), to Parle-G and orange creams (nasty, really nasty little things). As my grandmother started losing her teeth she started dunking most of her food into tea or milk. This then opened up a whole new world of Dunk to me. My favourite is probably milk bread in a steamy cup (white bread may pass as a weak substitute) or even chapatis and naan bread. Since moving to England (where the dunking culture is a bit different) and living with English housemates I have had to keep my habit of bread and naan dunking a secret and would like to come out. What reactions should I expect from my new near and dear loved ones? |
Nicey replies: Reshmi,
Well they probably won't be keen on it but don't let that stop you. We get plenty of emails from people who dunk their toast in all sorts of configurations, buttered, jammy etc into their tea, and that's not too dissimilar. Constantly pushing at the boundaries of dunking technology is a noble pastime, and more important than ever in the twenty first century, I expect. Also the fact that your granny used to do it lends it a certain seal of approval by the older generation, toothless or not. |
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