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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Please keep your mails coming in to nicey@nicecupofteaandasitdown.com

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Your e-Mails

Sue Girard	Hello Nicey, My Gram was born in Hastings in the 1880’s, moved to London as a young wife, then brought her two young daughters to California after losing her husband in WWI. We always had proper English tea at holiday dinners, but I didn’t much care for it. To entice me, Gram used to call to my attention the bubbles in my cup. “Ooooo-o-o-o—loook, you’re going to have lots of money coming your way….” I still didn’t like tea, much to Gram’s chagrin. But I do have Gram’s biscuit tin. I use it every Christmas when I load it up with homemade cookies—err, biscuits. Best Sue Girard
	Nicey replies: Hello Sue, We have a special icon for tea bubbles and their associated wealth, and one for biscuit tins too. I think it's lovely that your Gram's old biscuit tin gets an outing at Christmas time. As for Hastings I seem to remember from my trip there as a child that it has very tall wooden sheds covered in tar, which were something to do with fishing.
Greg Fradd Bourbon Review	Hi there Nicey, I love the site and I love the book, too. Biscuits remain a real constant in life. They say that “Nothing is certain but death and taxes”. I amended that to include the size of Bourbons. I took great reassurance that, the world over, bourbons are the same. People may come in different shapes, sizes, colours; but wherever one happens to find oneself, one can be assured that a Bourbon is a Bourbon. Believe me, I know these things: been a lot of places, ate a lot of biscuits. Not so, yesterday. I was in Lewes at a conference, and at tea-break eagerly made my way to the catering table, where I knew the biscuits would be waiting. I was very pleased to see bourbons and custard creams (the “Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder” of the biscuit world) side by side on the plate. These two are my perennial favourites, and with them I have toasted the good times; coasted through the mediocre times; and taken refuge during the bad. However, I was reduced to a quivering wreck when I immediately noticed something wrong with the bourbon. It was a maverick; a loose cannon. Not the regulation 10 hole, 61 x 30mm specification; this one had 8 holes and was a different size and shape. If I was forced to guess the size would say it was in the region of 45 x 40mm – in other words, shorter and fatter. A lightning-speed inspection of its colleagues confirmed that they were all like that I am not a “biscuit nazi”: on the contrary I consider myself to be a very tolerant, patient and inclusive individual (pink wafers aside). However some things are clearly necessary in order for reality as we know it to continue. The size and shape of bourbons is one of these things. Can you imagine the effect it had on me? I was left questioning the nature of the universe itself. This sent me into an existential crisis and a state of confusion and near panic. I took this up with the catering staff, and asked them how this abomination could be allowed. They – and my colleagues – all advised me to “get out more”. Clearly their priorities are different to mine. How, and why, could I get out more? How do I know the sky isn’t going to fall down? Gravity might stop. The world might explode. Who knows? Change the shape of the Bourbon and change the world. I took some comfort in knowing that Lewes now has its own currency. Maybe these people want to have their own type of bourbon too. I also took some comfort in your website, and in particular David Harman’s appraisal of the situation in the feedback on your bourbon review. It is good to know that there are like-minded individuals out there. Maybe we could form some sort of silent minority? Best wishes Greg Fradd
	Nicey replies: Greg, Sorry to hear of your run in with the dud non-standard Bourbons. My last run-in with said dodgy biscuits was at a theatrical event entitled 'three men and a bourbon', which Wifey and I travelled down to London to see. The cast passed round a packet of Happy Shopper Bourbons hurriedly purchased some thirty minutes earlier, prior to their performance. This of course created an awkward and uncomfortable atmosphere amongst the modest audience, (well I thought so) and personally lasted till at least Letchworth Garden City on the train home.
T. Maryam Wagon Wheel Review	Hello, I am writing to ask if you could please make wagon wheels suitable for vegetarians and with no gelatine as i love it and am unable to purchase them now because they contain gelatine. So could you please make them suitable for vegetarians. Yours Sincerely T. Maryam. P.s I look forward to your reply.
	Nicey replies: Hello T. Maryam, I'm flattered that you think that I, a mere bloke with a website, could hold sway over the contents of the legendary Wagon Wheel. I share your enthusiasm for it too, however, it is not within my limited powers to grant you your wish, nor I suspect Burton's who actually make them. The gelatine based mallow of the Wagon Wheel which has already in recent years undergone significant revisions to both its biscuits and coating is the last bastion of retro biscuit engineering left in the product. To fiddle with this bit because of your dietary choices would be the straw that broke the camels back. So I'm afraid you will have forgo them along with, strawberry jelly, trifles, fruit fools, marshmallows, chocolate teacakes and pigs trotters.
Gill Casey	Does anyone else out there suspect that the credit crunch is due to too much coffee drinking? If the banks were to outlaw coffee machines and make everyone sit down with a nice pot of Darjeeling, which has to be brewed for 3-4 minutes under a charmingly knitted cosy, preferably with pom-poms, then surely the World of Commerce would be a little less jumpy. Kind regards Gill Casey
	Nicey replies: Your subject matter may be topical but more importantly it lets me use the tea-cozy icon.
David Schwartz	My Dear Mr. Nicey, In response to NickQ’s complaint about tea/biscuit choices in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, let me make a few suggestions: You can always get a cup of tea with piping hot water at McDonalds. The tea is their house-brand which tastes like Lipton yellow label and they’ll give you artificial creamer in a little tub, but it will be really really hot. (You can buy a carton of milk if you really need it). McDonalds uses superheated water for their coffee which was the subject of a lawsuit: a woman suffered severe burns when she spilled her cup on herself while driving. (The interaction between eating, automotive travel, and litigation is very American). As for the biscuit (a.k.a cookie), any supermarket will have several kinds of Italian cookies by a company called Stella D’Oro (originally located in the Bronx, New York, but they’re now owned by Nabisco so there’s national distribution) – the best are the Lady Stella assortment. Buy a box and you’ll agree with Harold Macmillian – you never had it so good. They also have a chocolate center cookie which used to be made with non-dairy chocolate so that orthodox Jews could eat it as a dessert after eating meat. (The rules of kashrut forbid mixing dairy and meat products within a set interval). They’re as good or better than anything on offer in the U.K. except for McVities’ Milk Chocolate digestives (hallowed by thy name). --David Schwartz Washington, D.C.
	Nicey replies: Thanks David, The genuine hot water from McDonalds is a very good tip indeed.
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