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.

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!

Type some key words here to search the feedback section

Your e-Mails

Sunshine	Hello, Nicey and Wifey -- I thoroughly enjoy NCOTAASD.... It seems as though you are convinced that all Americans are backward and uncivilised -- and most of them are.  BUT...I own a Bodum kettle that lives on top of my filing cabinet at work, just big enough to boil two mugs of water (the water out of the coffee machine downstairs isn't hot enough to *bathe* in, much less brew a nice cup of tea for a sit down).  It has worked faithfully for nearly three years now.  With it, I produce lovely mugs of Twinings Assam tea (dark and malty, according to the box) and my beloved PG Tips that I purchase in massive boxes whilst in England on business.  I also have a tin of lovely (if poncey)  jasmine tea and (equally poncey) fragrant lotus tea sent to me by a good friend after their holiday to Asia.  (My home kettle is a large Sunbeam model -- the type with the stationary base, floating red ball, and automatic shutoff -- they DO sell proper kettles here, they're just hard to find.) My biscuit supply is usually crammed into my suitcase upon my return -- HobNobs (plain and plain chocolate), Jaffa Cakes (small boxes because an open packet is an empty packet) and Crunchie bars (yes, I know, they're candy, but I'm allowed, aren't I?) My local imported-foods emporium usually carries a small but well-formed assortment of biscuits, as well -- HobNobs, in all of their various varieties, digestives, and the occasional bonus packet of Penguins.  (my husband doesn't know of my expensive habit -- the price is typically 400% higher than Sainsbury's...)  I haven't managed to find any Jaffas, but I can usually find Pim's, which are not the same, but make an acceptable substitute. I hope you see this as some sort of hope.... Sunshine
	Nicey replies: Sunshine, Well that's very nice to hear that yet another of our American cousins has a big stash of PG tips and Hobnobs. If you really want to be a true Anglophile however you'll need to change your name to 'outbreaks of persistent drizzle'.
Paul Fowkes Fruit Shortcake Review	Dear Nicey, I though I would share my little problem with just you (and possibly hundreds of others) in case you have any ideas on how to help me. Like most parents, I have children - three of them to be exact - and, like most children, they like biscuits and cake. My problem, in a nutshell, is what do I buy to put in the biscuit tin? Before you suggest anything, bear in mind that I visit Tesco's once a week and I need the biscuits that I buy to be consumed in roughly one week, so that the biscuit tin is almost empty by day 7. This is not a simple problem to solve. If I buy Jaffa Cakes, then they will all be gone within 30 minutes of putting them in the tin, sometimes even before I have unloaded the shoppping from the car. Likewise Custard Creams and Hob Nobs. However, if I buy Ginger Nuts, it is quite possible for only a few to be eaten during the week, meaning I have a biscuit-tin overflow situation when I come to replenish the tin with the latest buy. I have found Fruit Shortcakes to be an acceptable compromise between speed of consumption and biscuit-tin stock levels, but surely there must be another way? Perhaps once of those things people use for feeding cats and dogs, whereby a flap is released under the control of a timer? Hope you can help, Paul   PS Currently trying out Arrowroot
	Nicey replies: Paul, This is a terrible responsibility to bear as young minds are very impressionable, and they will hold you to account over the decisions you make now in later life. Certainly if you have reached the stage of experimenting with Thin Arrowroots then things have gotten quite out of hand. I suggest you try a time honoured traditional system that utilises two tins. The best tin contains the biscuits that you don't give out lightly, and that are to be savoured. Produce the best tin on special occasions or when some great feat has been accomplished, such as a very long walk or joint effort washing the car. The biscuits in this tin will acquire a certain stature and respect. Secondly you have your everyday tin in which you place shortcake, digestives, oaty biscuits and plain dunkers. I would have thought a fruit biscuit would be as glamourous as you wish to get here, and its important to draw a strict line in the sand. This is fairly much the course of action that you have adopted. Now it becomes a issue of biscuit management which is often aided by a very high shelf in the larder or cupboard, and supervised access to the tin. The best tin should be smaller than the everyday tin. The two tin approach should instill a sense of values in your children who will then be able to help you choose biscuits to go in each tin, and through this learn true biscuit appreciation. Its just an idea.
Michelle Simkins	Dear  Nicey, Wifey,  and Junior members of staff,  I read your website and newsletter with great delight from my cubicle in the primitive reaches of the Northwestern United States, generally whilst enjoying my afternoon cup of tea (perhaps the sit down bit  is redundant, as my job is very sit-downy, but the tea is a welcome distraction, even more so if accompanied by biscuits).  (Please allow me to apologize in advance for my tendency to wax verbose.  I chalk it up to too much Dickens in college.) In any case, I nearly lost control of my sip of tea when I read Sam Bushnell's letter on the apparent correlation between a freshly brewed cup of tea and an exuberant exhibition of gymnastics by junior members of staff.  I, too, have noticed this phenomenon, but feel it necessary at this point to add that it is not exclusive to children.  A hot cup of tea also seems to inspire a fit of unwonted affection in housecats.  It never fails; the moment I settle comfortably into the sofa with a fresh cuppa, my lazy and otherwise apathetic Siamese cat is inevitably stricken with a wave of affection which he must immediately express by leaping on to my lap and rubbing his great whiskery face on my cup, and butting his nose against the hand holding said cup.  (It also appears that books, magazines, and newspapers all exude an odor of catnip; or at least, this is the only explanation I can imagine for my cat's propensity to spread his substantial girth over the pages of anything I'm trying to read, but this perhaps ought to be reserved for another e-mail to a website about the feline anti-human literacy campaign.)  In any case, I love the website, and keep searching for yummy English biscuits (thus far to no avail). Speaking of biscuits, I must say that in theory I agree whole heartedly with your estimation of the Oreo, but due to excessive exposure at a tender age, I still find myself salivating at the sight of the little buggers.  They should not, however, be allowed anywhere near a decent cup of tea.  Milk is the only proper  accompaniment, or possibly coffee.   (Yes, I drink coffee too . . . I AM American, and therefore can't help it.)  Finally, I must express my distress over the ubiquitousness of Lipton "tea".  It is, unfortunately, the only actual "tea" offered by my employer, although they provide a great variety of herbal pseudo-teas from a would-be respectable local "tea" distributor.  Needless to say, I pack in my own Twinings, hoarding the treasure in my desk and carrying individual bags with my mug in to the break room for hot water.  On optimistic days I can at least tell myself that even Lipton is superior to the dreaded beverage vending machine.  On dark days--for example, when I've run out of Twinings and am nearly desperate enough to actually partake of Lipton tea--I consider quitting. Anyway, three cheers for NCOTAASD!   Keep up the good work. Yours, Michelle Simkins Portland, Oregon, U.S.A.
	Nicey replies: Yes my old black cat Brian used to head straight for an open newspaper then somehow expand his whole body to cover all the bits you wanted to read. So I just stopped reading the papers. He never spilt my tea though.
Darryl Snow Abbey Crunch Review	During the dark ages (the few months, around this time last year, following McVities' misguided discontinuation of the abbey crunch), as the remaining abbey crunch stocks rapidly depleted accross the country, I scurried all over Manchester to purchase as many remaining packets as possible. Well it's been a thoroughly enjoyable albeit emotional year as I have been eating my little treasures. I now have 4 packets left and I am faced with the dilemma of how to store them in order to maximise their lifespan. I have so far kept them cellophane-wrapped, foil-wrapped, and bubblewrap-wrapped and in a cool, dark, dry place, protected by a tripple-bolt combination lock (so no one get any ideas!). My plan is to eat the remaining packets as my last meal, before I'm about to die... assuming you still get the munchies while you're dying. The thing is... I don't plan on dying anytime soon... so I need to keep my precious fresh for as long as possible. Someone told me the other day that my precautions may not be adequate. What would you suggest. Please help. Love the site, by the way. Daz.
	Nicey replies: Daz, I don't know, I'm down to my last packet. I had to open one in the summer for photography for the book and they were well past it, and only three months out of date. May cryogenics is the answer, for you not the biscuits. They could thaw you out if McVities resurrect the Abbey crunch and medical science work out a cure for for whatever took you out.
Marilyn Audsley	Dear Nicey, I would like to reassure Mark Pennington about drinking tea in the USA. I have quite a lot of male English friends out here who drink tea, and none of them are 'special chaps'. It seems that this is acceptable to the American public because they are British. In fact it seems to be assumed that all British people, regardless of their sex, will drink tea - In an "Oh, your British, so you'll be having tea right?" sort of way. No need to think your masculinity will be slighted by your tea drinking. At least not in Chicago.... Marilyn Audsley
	<< Previous | More >>