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Your e-Mails

David Blaxill Fruit Shortcake Review	Dear Nicey I was most alarmed to read your reply in the Wife's column on the subject of red telephone boxes; not because this is blatant control freakery (you did it when she was out, you fiend), but the admission that, after a nice walk, the two of you drank tea from a... flask! I have to ask the question - why? Even after being in a flask only a few moments, the divine beverage takes on a most unpleasant taste, and certainly loses at least ninety per cent of its niceness. You will probably say that any tea after a nice walk is better than no tea, and I think if you held a poll on this subject, the majority of people would agree. As a purist, however, I would reccommend a trip to a camping equipment store, where, for a reasonable expenditure, you can purchase a small gas stove and camping kettle. Very portable, and ideal for those nice country moments when only a fresh brew will hit the spot. I've got one of these in my allotment shed, it's great. I am sure there are those who will disagree with my loathing of flask tea (probably people who take lots of sugars). I was put off flasks as a child in the fifties, after watching my father brew up on a parrafin and meths primus when we went for nice picnics. He was a flask tea hater too. His tea making kit (tea bags were a thing of the future) took up half the car boot - he was a man of strong principles. I think we still had an empire in those days. Regards David PS I recently reacquainted myself with the fruit shortcake - McVities, to be precise, and jolly nice they were too. McVits didn't make a fruit shortcake in the late sixties when I worked for them, it was the preserve of UB stablemate Crawfords. I am sure they were twice the circumference of the ones you get now. But the small ones taste just as good, and calorie counters can polish off half a dozen with a clear conscience, safe in the knowledge they are only really eating three biscuits.
	Nicey replies: Remain calm David. We open the lid of our flask of piping-hot water, then pop in two tea bags. Wait a while, then use it just like a tea pot. Our milk is carried in a small glass Perrier bottle, liberated from the French this summer, which does the job very well.
Nancy Bea Miller	Dear Nicey and Wifey; Just found out myself that it is National Hot Tea Month here in the U.S., according to the American Food and Drink Holidays people (whoever they are.) Saw it announced on a very nice site called Morning Coffee and Afternoon Tea. Just thought you might like to know. Off to celebrate! Best, Nancy Bea (of Genre Cookshop)
	Nicey replies: Hello Nancy, Indeed it appears to be. Mind you January is also National Egg, Meat, Soup, Bread, Bread Machine Baking, Candy and Prune Breakfast month. This some what steals Hot Tea's thunder. It's also troubling that the word 'Hot' has to be included to distinguish it from the barbarous business of iced tea. The full calendar makes very funny and disturbing reading in equal measure. Obviously with Independence day July is a busy month and apart from National Scotch, Tequila, Grand Marnier, Daiquiri and Pina Colada day it also hosts National Fried Chicken, French Fries, Hot Dog, Ice Cream, Ice Cream Soda, Vanilla Ice day and for good measure National Junk Food day.
Trevor Taylor	Nicey Personally, I am glad that PG Tips are losing their train franchise. For some years now I have travelled regularly by train to York and have come to call PG Tips tea bigs "Molly Browns". That is, they are unsinkable. Its almost as if they've made the bags out of waterproof material, so that it can't possibly taste of tea until it is cold. Good luck Tetley and well done for dropping the cartoon dwarfs in your advertising. As a short person myself, I did find it somewhat disrespectful. Take note Lurpak and Homepride, your days of shortism too are numbered. T
Jon Barry Coldwell	Sirs My Grocers inform me that Bath Oliver Biscuits are 'out-of-production' and supplies have ceased. How can this be? Well I note that in recent years they were made by the Jacobs company a manufacturer that was taken over by the food giant Danone. Now, Danone is a French firm. You might say "say no more" and conclude that on the bicentenary of Lord Nelson's victory at Trafalgar they determined to strike a rearguard action against the epicurean heart of Old England. At sea and on the land they could not defeat the stalwart John Bull; resorting to underhand commercial practices they have sought to deprive their old enemy of a culinary masterpiece that has sustained and delighted discerning gentlefolk in this sceptred isle for some two hundred years. Is it time once again for this Nation to to awake from its slumbers and assert itself to curtail the excesses of these continental bullies? I caution against precipitate action. Let us first take up the pen and alert members of parliament and the barons of the media to this outrage with a demand that the shopkeepers of England be once again able to obtain supplies of sustenance made to Dr Oliver's singular recipe. We have a Royal Prince whose own endeavours have delighted the hours of many a biscuit lovers life; would it be a great presumption to humbly beg indulgences that the Duchy seize the day and take over production of the pale delight. Then William's genius could be reborn in even greater glory as the "Royal Bath Oliver Biscuits". Jon Barry Coldwell January 2006
	Nicey replies: Jacob's UK business was acquired by United Biscuits over a year ago. We recently purchased Bath Oliver's in Sainsbury's and Waitrose, I've also seen them in Budgens and some independent stores. If they have taken the step of ceasing production then this must have happened very recently indeed, and it would be a huge pity.
Ben Price	Hello Nicey et al. Although I come from Blighty I have been living for a year now in an awfully hot place called the Sahel, which is to the South West of the Sahara Desert that Michael Palin so memorably crossed on telly. There isn't much to do here, so rather understandably people have resorted to sitting down and drinking tea to pass the time. However, the tea-drinking customs here are so radically different to our own I thought people might appreciate an in-depth report of the process, so here goes... First, there are no chairs to sit on, so we sit on the floor usually with some cushions to make it a bit more comfy. Then a fire is lit in the charcoal brazier on which the tea will be made. For the tea itself (which in Arabic is called ataaya) we use a small metal teapot that could hold one mug full of water, however tea is drunk in small glasses, like you might drink shooters from on a wild night out in Tunbridge Wells. We put three glasses of water and one glass of tea (dark Chinese green tea) in the teapot and place it on the fire. Once it has boiled and stewed for a couple of minutes, the pot is removed from the fire, then a glass full of sugar is added along with a sprig of mint if you've got some. The tea is then poured into two glasses, then back into the pot several times to mix in the sugar, then back on the fire for a couple of minutes to stew the mint. You then take three glasses, fill one with tea, and then pour that tea into the second glass, then from the second glass to the third, and back and forth to produce foam in each glass. The tea is then reheated before serving up and drinking with satisfyingly loud slurping noises. Once everyone has drunk, the mint is removed from the pot, another glass full of sugar and another sprig of mint are placed in with three more glasses of water and the same tea leaves and the whole process is repeated. It is then repeated a third time, again with the same tea leaves, meaning the final glass is very weak and sweet. The whole process usually takes around an hour so that's plenty of sitting down. I've attached a small photo of some ataaya. We don't have biscuits with tea, but we sometimes enjoy a piece of freshly-baked bread which is almost as good. Biscuits are available here, although they're mostly iffy French-style imports. The most promising are called Biscrem, which are dry and hard and flavourless outside but fillied with a sort of chocolatey flavoured somethingortheother that melts in the desert heat. Chocolate on the outside of things is unfortunately a bad idea in these parts. None of the other foreigners here seem to understand why anyone would be interested in a website about sitting down and drinking tea and eating biscuits. Can you imagine? Might I suggest encouraging others from around the world to write and tell about their sitting down and drinking tea customs? Let it never be said that we Brits are not cosmopolitan. Toodle-pip, Ben
	Nicey replies: Ben, Thanks so much for that very useful account of Saharan tea drinking. I bought some of that Green Tea a month or two back just because I thought I should give it a go but found it utterly grim. Bunging in loads of sugar and mint couldn't hurt. Next time we fire up the BBQ maybe I'll try knocking up some desert style tea on it, I'm always looking for something useful to do with the BBQ after all the cooking has died down. Mind you I'll have to keep a look out for a nice second hand metal teapot now.
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