Your Views

Keep your e-mails pouring in, it's good to know that there are lots of you out there with views and opinions.

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Your e-Mails

Nicky Bramley	Lemon juice is very good at removing tea stains from mugs, and leaves a slightly more pleasant aftertaste than bleach or washing powder. Although you may well disagree. Our household was overwhelmed with gifts of biscuit selection boxes this Christmas and New Year: we have several to get through before their expiry dates (which all seem to be in March). I may have to sacrifice my biscuits to a higher cause and bring them into work for my colleagues to polish off. If I do, should I admit they are leftovers do you think, or just bask in the fact that they'll think me extremely generous? Nicky Bramley
	Nicey replies: Nicky, I think you are in danger of projecting overly complex physiological states for the people who will ploughing through your free biscuits.
Katie Drummond	Tea-related jewellery. What next?
	Nicey replies: I'm guessing tea-related hair styles.
B Mabbs	Dear Nicey, Just by chance came across the letter on tea stains on mugs and, equally by chance a few years ago came across washing powder dissolved in hot water to dissolve the stains (carrying a cup of powder in a wet mug to my halls of residence laundry). Leave it to soak for a bit, it really works! Thorough rinsing required of course :o)
	Nicey replies: Hoorah! That should have counted towards your final degree. Also well done on finding the laundry.
Sam Mason	Nicey Being an avid tea drinker and biscuit eater (some may call me a connoisseur), I was most interested to find your web site whilst searching the web for a top 10 biscuits review following a poll in the office on this exact matter. I was particularly interested in your tea policy. You state quite clearly your policy on milk or water first, to which I agree, but clearly show a cup of tea with milk and teabag in contact. I cannot understand this and wonder if this was merely an oversight or a deliberate statement in your policy. I was brought up to appreciate the benefits of removing the bag prior to addition of milk, resulting in a cup of tea with maximum integrity. Your thoughts would be very much appreciated. Sam
	Nicey replies: Sam, As you can see the illustration in our tea policy is of some train tea, where you get what you are given, and that's what I was given. Whilst its not ideal it still performs a vital role in the pantheon of tea drinking, which is to provide the possibility of tea drinking on a train. Since the photo was taken the train operator has changed maybe one or more times with the result that a refreshment trolly is no longer provided. No prizes for guessing what I would prefer on the hour long journey, a slightly incorrect cup of tea with a three pack of Jaffa Cakes or no tea at all. This is also one of the reasons I picked that particular image as it is iconoclastic and shows that here at NCOTAASD we see tea as part of our everyday world and not just through the misty lens of nostaglia.
Mark Bussemeier	While I anticipate you poking your mate in the ribs and saying, “Listen to the note I got from some dumb American…” I will go ahead with my post… I’m sitting here enjoying a lovely cuppa PGTips and examining my favorite cup, the interior of which has long since ceased being white, but is now a deep brown. Before I have to explain to my wife what’s happening to our cups (now that I’m well addicted to my breakfast, morning, noontime, afternoon and evening tea), is there anything I can do to prevent the discoloration of our vessels from occurring. I thought I would turn directly to the experts. Your poor American cousin, Mark
	Nicey replies: Hello Mark, Firstly well done on the proper tea drinking. The build up of tea stains in your cup is usually related to the hardness of the water in your area. Hard water which has calcium and magnesium salts in reacts with the acidic compounds in tea to create salts of tannic acid (we think) and that is what builds up on your cup. Given all the chemistry I've just mentioned you would think that some of reverse chemistry would do the trick. Some people even turn to such things as bleach, but all that does is whiten the stain and leaves it otherwise intact ready to give a foothold for even more staining. We find the best thing is simply to use a nylon pan scrubber and a bit of hot soapy water, to remove the stain completely. For tricky recesses fold the scrubber over the end of a teaspoon and rub away the staining with that. Once it's all off a quick scrub once or twice a week with the scourer should keep things nice and shinny.
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