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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Your e-Mails

Racheal Oliveck McVitie's Milk Chocolate and Orange Digestive Review	Dear Nicey, A dull trip to somerfield was enlivened no end with the discovery of mint chocolate digestives! I didn't know such a thing existed, and the hubby and I had no trouble seeing off an entire packet in the lull between getting home and having dinner. They were reminiscent of Viscounts, which I am very fond of but can't eat without hearing my mother's disapproving tone. I haven't tried the orange digestives but didn't like the caramel ones at all. Mint ones, however, rock! Are they limited edition or likely to stick around a while? Regards as ever, Rachael
	Nicey replies: Hello Rachael, Yes I mentioned them at the end of the last newsletter, they were announced back in April but have only just hit the shops. Something about the Mint ones makes them seem much more fully realised to me than the Orange ones. They have that certain indefinable air of maturity which I felt was lacking from the Orange digestives, which seemed experimental by comparison. The Mint ones seem to have a much more substantial texture to their digestive and as you say the mint flavour is excellently executed. I must check back with the Orange ones again to see if their digestive has changed from the very early versions I tried. The good news is that Mint Chocolate Digestives look to be a permanent addition to the range.
Mandy Box McVitie's Milk Chocolate and Orange Digestive Review	I'm sure there there is more to this missing biscuits. As I stood in the Tesco's aisle with another lady both of us looking for biscuits a few weeks ago, I was disgusted to see yet again their feeble attempt to hide the fact they had very few varieties of biscuits on offer by having several rows of the same sort. I duly complained, I've decided that without repeated complaints by as many people as possible they have no reason to do anythinng about the situation. Whilst stocking up on our return form holiday I counted about 8 non-digestive varieties of biscuits. Now I like a digestive aswell as the next mortal but their were in fact almost as many different varieties of digestive as there were types of other biscuits. What with the plain, low fat, milk and plain chocolate Mcvities then the Tesco own ones of the same, Oh and some new fangled looking jobs with orange in. Well these took up two shelves all by themselves, I duly complained.
	Nicey replies: Yes its a strange thing isn't. McVities recent refocus on its core biscuit offerings rather than the more frilly dalliances with little bags bite size McV nonsense has seen them identify the Digestive as their No1 big brand. So the last 12 months McVities have brought us a flurry of new Digestives trying to get some extra spin of the giants that are the McVities Digestive and the McVities Milk Chocolate Digestive. Both Tesco and McVities move huge volumes of biscuits very well. The figure of 80 million pounds worth of McVities biscuits moving through Tesco each year was mentioned to me a couple of years back. I try to sum up our book by looking at some of these sorts of issues. Essentially its a bit of a closed loop where a huge retailer takes product from a huge supplier and thus creates a situation where mono-cultures of biscuits can develop. All both want to do really is sell you things you want to buy, and ultimately it is sales figures which determine everything. So vote with your basket. The only drawback in all of this is when you don't have many alternatives with which to vote. I'm sure it will go full circle again soon enough and we'll be getting emails about what happened to 'such and such' sort of Digestive, the weak one at the back of the herd, picked off by the wolves of lower demand. We will see in another 12 months which ones are left standing.