Your Views

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Your e-Mails

Dean Anderson Animal Biscuits Multireview Review	Hi Nicey, A friend just returned from the US and, knowing my love of biscuits, brought me back a box of childhood favourites, Barnum’s Animal Crackers. I’ll be honest, they are a bit strange. Not a great biscuit at all, but horribly addictive. Unlike our own animal biscuits, they’re not covered in chocolate either, which doesn’t help. Obviously, through the name Barnum, there’s a circus theme. They come in a cardboard box, which I think is meant to be a circus truck transporting animals. It has a little string handle on it so small Americans can carry them to school. When you open them up, however, there are all sorts of animal shapes, such as koalas and giraffes and other things you wouldn’t normally see in the big tent. Boasting ‘a rich source of calcium’ they kind of have a malted milk essence to them, but as if someone had tried to merge a malted milk with a rich tea and with an overwhelming taste of the cardboard box. I’ve been unable to determine whether this is because they have been transported or whether they always taste like this. I really wouldn’t recommend them, however, in a US based biscuit emergency, they might just pip the Oreo.
	Nicey replies: Ours tasted like that too, so it's probably another biscuit which you have to be raised on to really like.
Kristin Susser Animal Biscuits Multireview Review	Seeing your review of animal-shaped biscuits brought back fond memories of the Barnum animal ‘crackers’ of my youth in the good ol’ US of A. I 'm sure the animals inside were secondary to the play value of the box, and I even remember giving a box with my own homemade cardboard animals inside as a birthday gift one year! I have no memory of anticipating the scoffing of the crackers, or at least not until they had been thoroughly mangled and softened in my sweaty little hands and there was nothing better to be done with them. I’m sure they taste vile, as do most of the manufactured biscuits in the US that I have eaten when I visit friends and rellies over there; it's always disappointing to find the foods that you loved as a child are actually quite horrible. With the sterling exception of Fig Newtons of course! Regards, Kristin
Karen Sermon Animal Biscuits Multireview Review	Good morning, Have just logged in to my pc and given that my homepage is set to nicecupoftea and that I have two children under 5yrs old, I was immediately distracted by your Animal Biscuits review. I must say that I totally agree with you about the Cadbury's ones. I remember a far grander version of this biscuit from my own childhood and, having all too easily succumbed to the refrain "can we get some of those Mum?", have been disappointed by the incarnation that's around today. They don't seem to be nearly so big, well defined in their animalness or as chocolatey as I remember. Still, the children like them though even they can't recognise some of the animals and I don't think that's anything to do with their development stage! As for the Barnum's Animals Crackers, I haven't yet come across these but after your review don't feel that the children, or myself for that matter, are missing out. Anyway, I digress, what I really wanted to mention was a friend recently brought them a packet of animal biscuits from M&S which are lovely and which they have devoured with relish. They look to me, very much like the Bahlsen ones in your review, great shape and taste and are definitely very moreish, I know 'cause I snaffled a few myself! Can you confirm whether they are from the same manufacturer? Yours curiously, Karen Sermon. Ps. I recently contacted you about Fox's Gingers. I took your advice and bought a pack of M&S ones - they were spot on! Soon after that I found a packet of the Fox's ones; they have changed the packet, it is now green (British Racing?) and the biscuit is largely the same, or should I say small-ly as it has certainly decreased in diameter!
	Nicey replies: Yes its a shame about those Animal Crackers, I really did want to like them especially given the success of the Graham Crackers with us. To be fair to them and through no fault of their own they were a couple of weeks past their best by date, which is not good for any biscuit let alone a shortcake style one. I would be prepared to give them another crack in the future. What I did find interesting was how similar the designs were between the Bahlsen and Nabisco biscuits were in terms of how the animals were facing and their postures. I would need to investigate a pack of the M&S biscuits to make a judgement. The clincher in these situations apart from the appearance, taste and packaging is often the ingredients list. This runs in descending proportions from greatest to least, and acts a bit like a biscuit fingerprint. If this is the same and has some fairly exotic ingredients such 'sweetened whey powder' as in the Bahlsen ones then its fairly conclusive evidence. It's also much more fun than simply asking them which is cheating really