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 |
Simon Bartle |
Long live the fig roll I say. I am currently tucking into a 'bag' of these delicious treats by Barilla, under the brand 'Passioni Italiane - Fico' but translations aside, they are without doubt, fig rolls, and tastly too. Small I admit, but very 'figgy', with a soft texture.
Do you know of this brand?
One other point from your site. I would like stand firmly on the side of the pink wafer. I have fond memories as a child of these melt in the mouth biscuit wafers. I admit, each to his own, and me, occationally to my pink wafers.
Cheers.
Simon Bartle, UK, in Paris |
Nicey replies: Yes we have heard of Barrila via the Parvesi Ringo, but we have yet to sample their Fig Rolls. |
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Pete Nottage |
Hi Nicey (and/or Wifey),
Bit of a question for you. We're having a bit of a debate in the office today. Let me set the scene for you:
Four of us having tea, two with sugar so we use two different spoons so not to contaminate the non-sugar takers. I'm fine with this. It's a bit weird, because in my opinion surely everyone benefits from sugar in their tea. But I digress...
One of the newsreaders in the studio (we work in a radio station) says she prefers to have a strong cup of tea with quite a fair bit of milk in. I say this defeats the object of having a strong cup of tea. Surely having lots of milk dilutes the strength of the tea and ends up as have wasted a lot of time waiting for the tea to diffuse and ultimately makes the tea colder? As I like a strong cup of tea I hardly put any milk in the cup at all, so not as to receive a cup of mainly milk.
Just thought if you knew who wins this argument?
We like your book, by the way.
Pete Nottage
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Nicey replies: Pete,
This is a fruitless argument as nobody is doing anything utterly wrong here with their tea making. As we said only a mere twelve emails ago "everybody likes tea the way they like it", and we should respect that. Putting lots of milk in strong tea merely creates milky strong tea, which is not the same same as milky weak tea, neither of which I would go for but I can accept they are both different to strong tea with a dash of milk.
I suggest you stop picking arguments over the strength of each others tea, and move to more debatable subject such as which biscuits you should be eating. |
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Sidders
 HobNob Review |
Hi Nicey,
I'd just like all your readers to know that HobNobs are not only the king of biscuits, they're also an important part of the running of Britain's infrastructure.
I am a cop and I get to drink a lot of tea in old ladies houses. Needless to say, I'm often presented with an array of biscuits and consider myself an amateur connoisseur. I know many colleagues in similar positions and HobNobs are always the biscuit of choice. I was overjoyed when McVities produced the Chocolate HobNob, many years ago now, and a shift wouldn't pass without me and my colleagues sitting around dunking and munching Chocolate HobNobs.
Had it not been for a Chocolate HobNob, I wouldn't have caught a nasty burglar escaping an old dear's house. I genuinely believe that the extra calories in that very biscuit gave me the energy burst to catch the naughty villain.
Most weekends, especially on night shifts, I have to visit the local hospital to see road accident or assault victims. I usually manage to sneak a pot of tea with the pretty nurses and, I know this may come of no surprise to you now, they too favour HobNobs.
Many of my colleagues are ex-military, some from special forces. They all swear that the HobNob plays a very important part of military life and is the choice of most regiments. After all, the HobNob is the marine of biscuits!
Do you see where I'm going with this?? I could evidence my argument with more witnesses, however I chose to rest my case at this point. The HobNob is vital to the running of the country, so lets give it the respect it deserves.
Sidders |
Nicey replies: Sidders,
Thanks for that fascinating in glimpse in to the reality of law enforcement in this country. I'm sure you are absolutely right about the important role of the HobNob in keeping our Police, Nurses and even Armed forces going although I do think the forces actually have their own military strength biscuits called biscuits - brown and biscuits - fruit, as well as the oat block. I haven't tried any of these alas.
Presumably the lack of HobNobs in the US explains why their Police have to resort to carrying guns. |
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Jim Fussell |
Does anyone else out there have a good sniff of their tea bag before making each cup of tea....or is it just me. It just struck me that I may have a strange habit.
Jim. |
Nicey replies: Jim,
I was fretting only this morning that the nose icon hadn't had an outing for a while so I'm going to broaden its remit as of now, to 'smells' and not just people who allegedly smell of biscuits.
I sometimes make Pyramid bag more presentable by pulling all its little corners taught and putting in a few creases so it looks like a proper tetrahedron. I imagine the landed gentry have people to do this for them. |
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Mike Wade |
Hello Nicey & Wifey,
I've been enjoying your book greatly and it prompted me to look up your site, which is also spiffing.
However, I must take exception to your description of the latest McVitie's advertising campaign as being entirely about people flicking crumbs at each other.
As one of the chaps responsible for devising this modern masterpiece, and going all the way to New Zealand to shoot it, may I point out that crumbs in question are also poured, retrieved, shaken and hoovered up. Other unused scenes showed them being dunked and banged out of the crevices of a tin.
Shortly, you will even be able to see them being sucked up a straw, in an ad about a new Mcvitie's product so secret that I would be killed if I told you about it.
Anyway, to my point. I probably don't eat quite as wide a variety of biscuits as you expert consumers, but as part of my job I do get to go to lots of biscuit factories and see them at work. Whilst watching digestives splash through their chocolate bath, or observing a ginger nut rise and fall in the oven, or seeing how small the tiny squidge of batter is that becomes the basis of a Jaffa Cake is all jolly thrilling, by far the most impressive to watch in production is............................the Butter Puff.
What do you say to that, eh?
Mike |
Nicey replies: Thank you for running the gauntlet of certain death, to bring us that message, however, mostly we say, that we suspect that going all the way to New Zealand to shoot lots of interiors seems like a bit of an excuse for a jolly. We hadn't noticed any obvious parallels with the portrayal of biscuit crumb premises and the scenery in the Lord of The Rings Trilogy, although I'm sure we'll all look a bit harder next time it's on. Secondly I was really referring to the advert where the two blokes are just flicking crumbs at each other, rather than the adverts that came after that one which I hadn't seen because they were in the future.
Thirdly and getting to your point I'm not keen on butter puffs, although I have a good deal of respect for them and their whole 'puff' posse including the Lemon Puff. Presumably now that Jacobs is part of of United Biscuits there can be a public burying of the hatchet between the Cornish Wafer and the Butter Puff which surely is long overdue. |
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