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 |
Chris and Rachael
 Tregroes Toffee Waffles Review |
Having enjoyed a recent walk around the market on a rainy sunday, what better way to end the day out with a toffee waffle toppped cup of tea! encouraged by your review we bought a packet and some tremendous tea in an all purpose tin, campbells variety for those that are interested. we liked them so much we visited the website (2 pages!) and placed an order for the multi pack 34 waffles for the bargain price of £10. We can't wait to try the milk chocolate variety in particular. Thanks for the tip! Note: don't leave too long on top of mug, can fall in and create all kinds of problems.
From Chris and Rachael. |
Nicey replies: Hoorah, for you both.
We took the younger members of staff on their promised field trip, and had a lovely picnic of ham sandwiches, bananas and Mini Jaffa Rolls whilst watching some people pull of conifer stumps with a tractor. Surprisingly we were the only people having a picnic in the drizzle. Then it was home for a big pot of tea. |
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Highland coo |
As a keen mountain climber and hill walker i always carry with me my trusty thermos of tea with a seperate bottle of milk as otherwise the milk tastes like that manky UHT stuff one finds in hotels. Naturally i cary some small snack to keep my energy up, normally some shortbread or "digger biscuits" (family recipe, 'nuff said tho when it's basiclaly oats and golden syrup). However, recently i was tihnking of taking a trip further afield with som friends, notably the Andes in South America or parhaps the Alps depending on funds, when to my horror i learnt something that should put every tea drinker from ever going to anywhere of notable altitude. A physics frined of mine told me that according to kinetic theory as altitude increases, pressure decreases so the temperature needed to boil water decreases. This doesn't sound too bad, until you realise that at the top of the Alps water boils at 80 degrees Centigrade or at the top of Everest it is a lukewarm 60 degrees. So no tea to stave hypothermia off and, unfortunately, no trip. It does make you wonder how Edmund Hillary got to the top of Everest tho. In the meantime, Explorers BEWARE, tea at altitude is lacking in taste and heat. |
Nicey replies: The highest I've made tea is about 1800M above sea level. It works well enough at that altitude providing one doesn't use the local tea bags. |
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Jim Lawrence |
Dear Nicey
Reading Ms. Stoddart's posting on the tea-drinking habits of Damon Albarn set me to thinking. In the light of the recent survey promulgating the disturbing fact that this nation of ours now harbours more coffee drinkers than tea drinkers (I forget the percentages involved but the former are now much in the ascendant), I have come up with this idea. How about soliciting interviews with celebrities and influential figures such as politicians, writers, etc. who are known for their love of tea. I believe that people such as the aforementioned Mr. Albarn are very popular amongst our younger citizenry, being seen as "hep" and "cool" and "gear". The persuasive powers of such individuals could turn the tide against this distressing trend which, in my considered opinion, constitutes nothing less than a threat to the very fabric of our society. If the body politic is to be saved from a rising tide of coffee swilling, inducing a confusion of social identity and postmodern value relativism, then all tea lovers must act soon! May I suggest beginning with an interview with Mr. Tony Benn, who famously takes a thermos full of piping hot cha with him wherever he goes? I feel sure that our older, more serious Britons would rediscover the joys of tea drinking once exposed to the views and tea experiences of such sober persons.
I am not anti-coffee, by the way. I occasionally indulge in a mugful when I need stimulation during the night and have even been known to patronise such establishments as Starbucks. But a Britain without tea is unthinkable!
On the vexed subject of milk in combination with tea, if you employ the convenience-method of teabag-in-mug, then you simply must introduce the tea before the milk and let it brew to taste, being careful to remove the bag before pouring the milk. If you use the traditional pot-method, either with bags or leaves, then it avoids the necessity of stirring the cupful of golden-brown ambrosia if you introduce the milk first. The experienced tea quaffer will pour the correct quantity by instinct, and the volume of tea, thanks to gravity and the teleological effects of fluid-mechanics, will automatically mix when it hits the small reservoir of milk.
Yours thirstily, Jim Lawrence, Southampton. |
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Ben Hale |
Nicey,
I fully understand your unease where the subject of 21st century, so-called innovative biscuit packaging is concerned, especially when it appears a manufacturer is attempting to swindle its customers out of several biscuits, in return for the dubious compensation of a plastic tray or a snazzy new logo.
However, there is one addition to the pantheon of biscuit wrappers that has been a positive boon for my partner Carol and I: the sturdy cardboard pipe used to house McVities Chocolate Digestives and Hobnobs.
In our later years with the kids gone and retirement not too far away, Carol
and I have joined a lively local walking group, and we often find ourselves
rambling along remote woodland tracks or up and down an isolated hillside path. Apart from the kagools and spare socks, essential kit for these daytrips is the trusty thermos and a supply of biccies, for when we come across an inviting spot to sit down. Unfortunately, Carol doesn't like taking the normal packets, as they get crushed too easily, and once opened, are liable to leave a crumbly residue at the bottom of her knapsack. I don't like using the Tupperware her sister gave us, because, to be honest, it smells a bit and is somewhat offputting. We do have a slim, cylindrical tin, but Carol says it makes her bag too heavy and the straps cut into her shoulders (although I believe this may be purely psychological).
Hurrah then, for the McVities tube. You only need buy one before reverting
back to the normal, big value packs, but we can top the tube up with as many biccies as we need for a couple of cups of tea and sit downs in the
countryside. Nearly all of our walking friends have adopted our method of
biscuit carriage.
Mr Hale |
Nicey replies: If it saves Carol's shoulders from strap cutting then I am prepared to register a point in favour of the HobNob tube, especially given your admirable stance on the recycling issue. |
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