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Your e-Mails

Matthew Goodsall	Hello there Nicey, Your opinion piece of biscuit tins brought back a wave of emotive memories about the biscuit tins at my house during my formative years. My mum was very much of the belief that biscuits should be stowed in a robust airtight receptacle in a cool, dry cupboard above the kitchen work surface, a philosophy I believe she inherited from her mother, who incidentally was called Ingeborg which in itself is noteworthy. We always had 3 separate biscuit storage units, which were for clearly defined use: 1. Large, pliable semi-opaque colourless biscuit barrel with sealable lid, for storage of dry/semi-dry, conventional high-volume munching biscuits such as Rich Tea, Custard Creams and Finger Creams 2. Small biscuit barrel, construction as above, for high potency biscuits with the potential to distress the flavour of normal biscuits via the phenomenon of osmosis, such as ginger nuts 3. A medium sized metal tin for chocolate biscuits, typically Bourbons and chocolate digestives; on reflection I believe the science behind this is that the surface properties of plastic tins are unsuitable for chocolate biscuit storage at room temperature because there can often be 'chocolate creep', leaving an unsightly brown residue on the biscuit barrel, hence the use of polished alloy with low co-efficient of friction and high specific heat. This biscuit storage methodology was successfully implemented for fully 15 years at my house, although now my parents have moved to the country and they have a larder, which features lower ambient temperatures and is thus more conducive to keeping biscuits in their packets. Coupled with fewer children being around to eat lots of biscuits, sadly the barrels have now been consigned to the big cupboard under the stairs. I would be very interested to know if other people used such a strictly teutonic approach to biscuit warehousing or is it more normal to just chuck everything in one big tin and enjoy the inevitable flavour morphing? Kind regards.
Ley Halligan-Davis	Dear Nicey, As a recent convert to the nicecupofteaandasitdown.com I am just coming to grips with some of the stronger issues in the field. Today, after much thought I purchased for myself and my colleagues the above mentioned McVities Homebake, Chocolate Flapjacks. (Not cheap, but moderately edible). Due to the bourgeois nature of our eating establishment, (it's a bistro instead of a caf) the odd biscuit is generally quite odd and we have to make do with chocolate bars (OK in their place, preferably a lunch box belonging to a small, but discerning child, but no substitute for a biccie!). We are now concerned that we have moved into an area in which we have little experience and could easily be lead astray. Please help us by identifying the niche of the pre-packaged flap jack. Yours in excited anticipation.
	Nicey replies: Well, the flap jack is grouped in with cakes dispite its biscuit like ingredients. This is mainly due to the nature of its baking, as a large flattened mass, and its sheer size in comparison to biscuits. I hope this helps. I'm also interested to know exactly which home McVities baked these in. Presumably to produce industrial levels of flap jacks they would need a large number of homes, each equipped with a substantial oven.
Emma Tucker	Hello, Emma and Hattie here, having our very own nice cup of tea and a sit down...in front of a computer screen yes, but its all the same really. Hattie has a monkey round her neck integral to the feeling of today. as avid followers of your gorgeous website we were debating the need for warm winter nights and tea dunking with the biscuit of the week, the fox's butter crinkle crunch (what a long name for such a small thing). Emma has never personally experienced this, however she has experienced the joys of a half melted chocolate digestive dunked in tea, on a cold winters nite, wen ur all alone. this in Hatties opinion does not match the crinkle crunch in any degree. While on the topic of biscuits...my grandparents have many a biscuit canister, and it has become family tradition 2 buy them a new one almost every christmas or for birthday..they cld open a museum. We also have some aged metal ones, covered in flowers, taht are oh so stylish and go with our bright yellow kitsch kitchen cupboards :) also, i think that the subject of mug size shld be brought up (i mean its all about size isnt it..and in the long run..course it matters). I think that if ur having tea it has 2 be had in a LARGE mug...possibly with a..humurous message on it :) the nature of the message or design is not important but i have experienced tea in two mugs of equal size, one with a company slogan on it, another a plain white bucket sized mug. the ritual of the making and drinking of the tea was, although subtley, enhanced by the slogan, and it makes a lot more of a satisfying cup. we'd like 2 end this by saying that tea is 2 us, like heroin is 2 junkies... love and hugs may ur biscuits be forever dunked...in tea of course xxxx
	Nicey replies: I shld like 2 thank u for ur biscuit/biscuit tin/mug thoughts. My day time mug is a Giant Bee mug, which is particularly effective at enhancing the tea drinking moment. Prior to this I used a Pink Viz mug for many years. TheWife and I enjoy tea from a number of mugs, the least successful of these being a Jar-Jar Binks mug which has strange powers of staining.
Garreth (and Stebbs)	Dear Nicey As opposed to suffering the trauma of averaged flavour biscuits in one biscuit tin, I find its better to have as many biscuit barrels as will fit along your kitchen/biscuit room and separate them by type. You can even label them in the style of spice jars... In fact, its just occurred to me that I could build a biscuit rack like a spice rack, except about 7 times the size and hang that on the wall and see how long it takes for the house to fall down. Another thing that has just randomly popped into my head like a well-groomed guinea pig is the fact that I may be in an extreme minority because *sharp intake of breath* I don't actually like tea. In fact, I'm inclined to think that the combination of tea and biscuits can be a bad thing because you don't get the full flavour of the biscuit. I mean, some biscuits, like RICH TEA and other basic biscuits are clearly meant to be enjoyed with tea but I wonder whether the brains at McVities mean all biscuits to be eaten with tea. Like those new McV's, the ones with Raspberry and White Chocolate in them (which by the way are delicious). I mean, they're far too nice to be tainted with the flavour of tea. I was just discussing this with my dear friend Stebbs and she thinks that they should make biscuits with tea flavouring which would save the hassle of making a cup of tea every time you needed a caffeine fix. And also, it would be very easy to tell which people were tea likers and which weren't. That might lead to discrimination though... *moment of indecision* Hmm.... Oh well. This is a long enough email as it is. Thank you for your time good sir, Garreth (and Stebbs) xxx
	Nicey replies: Your biscuit tin rack is based on sound logic, and is therefore a good idea. Hoorah. As for not liking tea that is purely a personal matter and I see no reason why you cannot lead a normal life enjoying sit downs with some other beverage in much the same fashion as the rest of us. As to the degree of niceness achieved, I can not say, again this is a matter for yourself. And for tea flavoured biscuits I fear that current technology would be insufficient to produce such a thing, based on the fact that instant tea granules are (were? do they even make them anymore?) really vile.
Chris Hemmings	Mr. Nicey,   I would like to tell you a story, a true story at that, which deals with the magical properties of biscuit tins.  My biscuit tin is a clear glass one with a flowery white lid (not my own choice as i'm only 17 and haven't reached the stage where i could phesably buy a bisciut tin for my own enjoyment.  Obviously my own choice would have been more mettallic, but that it neither here nor there). I have recently completed my Gold duke of edinburgh expedition in the Brecon Beacons, and after completing the long walk, stopped at my campsite, and enjoyed a nice packet of biscuits (Fox's Crinkle Crunch), a cup of tea, and a lovely sit down.  However, due to lack of biscuits being avaliable on my walk (5 days), my stomach had actually shrunk to the extent that i couldn't finish the whole packet.  Thusly, not wishing to waste these lovely biscuits, i decided to put the remainder of the packet in my bag, and took them home.  I then found the biscuits again a few weeks later, sitting in their packet.  Much to my horror, i found that they'd gone soggy!  I couldn't bring myself to eat them. Despite this, i put the biscuits into the biscuit tin anyway, and left them for a day or two, having lost all hope of ever salvaging them.  I then went back to the tin, tried a biscuit, and low and behold, it was crunchy again!  and delicious too!  To this day i believe the biscuit tin to have truly magical biscuit healing properties.  I do hope that this advantage isn't overlooked in the ongoing 'biscuit tin Vs. fancy packaging' war. P.S.  i am also a great fan of fig rolls, they are a truly superb and greatly adaptable biscuit.  Suitable for almost any occasion.
	Nicey replies: Chris, Thank you for that tale of the paranormal properties of the biscuit tin. I shouldn't be surprised if that turned up in an episode of the X files as they are really scratching around for plot lines now. I'm sure that come your 18th birthday when you'll be able to drink in pubs and vote, you'll also be able to choose a biscuit tin of your own, should you wish. Five days with out biscuits does indeed deserve an award from the Duke of Edinburgh.
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