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Isabel Stainsby
McVities Milk Chocolate Digestive Review |
Hi Nicey,
One theory which you have omitted to mention is that the mice running the biscuit machines have taken their annual holiday, or maybe gone on strike (after all no one else is satsified with a below-inflation pay rise, so why should they be?) The biscuit machine in Bagpuss was run by mice, and I won't have anyone telling me that iconic TV programmes from my childhood aren't true. Admittedly this machine made chocolate biscuits rather than fig rolls, but I'm sure the original design could be tweaked to produce whatever biscuit you wanted. Or the mice wanted, which could be a different thing entirely.
Isabel |
| Nicey replies: Good reasoned thinking, however, the mice in Bagpuss were a dodgy bunch and were not really making Chocolate Biscuits out of Butter Beans. They kept producing the same chocolate biscuit from round the back over and over again. They probably pinched this too. (I go into this in some depth in our book)
BTW Bagpuss has just won a poll or something You can see the mice in the picture. They look a bit shifty, I think its the eyes. |
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Chris Greenshaw
McVities Milk Chocolate Digestive Review |
Hello,
At tea this morning one of my colleagues picked up a McVities plain chocolate digestive which had the chocolate on the wrong side. How often does this happen? Are there any collectors of such biscuits? Do biscuit manufacturers keep statistics about these occurences?
All the best,
Chris |
| Nicey replies: Chris,
Judging by the glaring omission of a supporting photograph we can only assume that the poor little chap was quickly and humanely dispatched. Unfortunately I don't have the statistics for such things to hand. I suspect they are impressively low as this is I think the first time it has been reported to us, and that the mighty McVities wouldn't tell us even if they knew. |
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Neil Simmons
McVities Milk Chocolate Digestive Review |
Hi
Any idea what McVitie's have done to the Chocolate Homewheat? It seems to have metmorphed into the inferior Chocolate Digestive. People have referred to them as digestives for years, but that was only the copy brands. The Homewheat was a great biscuit, particularly in plain chocolate. These digestives are too "refined".
Cheers
Neil |
| Nicey replies: Neil,
You are basically compounding the recent history of the McVities Chocolate Digestive into one issue. The Homewheat branding was dropped a bit over two years ago as McVities sought to refocus on the McVities name after the nasty dabbling with MacDonaldsesque 'McV' of 2002. So this was really an exercise in re-branding and fitted in well with the planned diversification of the Digestive. Indeed just the other week we bought some new McVities Yog Fruit digestives, topped with a sort of white substance and bearing little clumps of squashed fruit matter. This would have been un-thinkable five years ago, but now seems somewhat inevitable.
The biscuit too has changed a good deal in that time loosing lots of its salt content and its payload of hydrogenated fat. With the best will in the world it can't be said that the biscuits of yore are at all like today's, such is the price of progress.
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Matt Youson
McVities Milk Chocolate Digestive Review |
Dear Nicey
Can you help solve a dispute that is bitterly dividing my office?
In an episode of the classic 1974 children's TV series Bagpuss, the mice in the mouse organ claim to be making chocolate biscuits "from butterbeans and breadcrumbs." Half the office distinctly remember the biscuits in question being chocolate digestives, the other half are convinced they were Jaffa Cakes. Having studied footage on YouTube, the digestive argument has been pretty much shot out of the water, the new debate is whether the biscuits used are Jaffa Cakes, Viscounts or some as yet unknown 1970s alternative.
Rather than work in an atmosphere of sectarian distrust and recrimination, we've decided it would be best if we referred the matter to arbitration.
Can you help?
Unfortunately we're working at the Spanish Grand Prix this week and it's too hot to gather our own empirical evidence as it would melt.
Many Thanks
Matt |
| Nicey replies: Yes these things have a habit of cropping up on a Sunday morning at the Spanish Grand Prix. I actually wrote about this very incident in our book in the chapter about Chocolate digestives, as it left a lasting emotional scar of the 'killing of Bambi's mother' variety when I found out that Chocolate Biscuits weren't made from butter beans and breadcrumbs.
Any how with the benefit of archived Bagpuss on YouTube and just my memory to go on I recalled that they were 'Chocolate Biscuits' and therefore chocolate digestives.
The short clip you referred to does have a biscuit with the distinctive pattern in the chocolate as produce by the McVities enrobing process, although in that shot I think the lighting is making it appear a bit domed. I stick with my original memory and the fact that back in 1974 I would have known exactly what sort of biscuit it was, with un-erring accuracy. |
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Rew Reynolds
McVities Milk Chocolate Digestive Review |
Dear Nicey and Wifey,
I am new to your website, but i'm glad i was directed to it by my obvioulsly in the know brother.
I have what i consider a problem. My job often becomes boring and to break the day up, i do enjoy a nice cup of tea, as i spend all day sitting down i cannot experience that part of the process, but i have taken to standing to drink my cups of splosh (i am aware you will find this unacceptable and i shall punish myself accordingly).
Anyway my problem:
I seem to be consuming large amounts of tea (in mug form) and am becoming concerned as to the effects this will have upon me. It's just the tea making process is worked on a rota type basis each person taking their 'turn' to make for the rest of us etc, but some peoples tea skills seem to be poor at best. One lady must leave or squeeze the bag (not PG) until it can take no more as when it arrives to quench my thirst it seems to be orange almost glowing in a David Dickinson kind of fashion. This i find unacceptable and undrinkable i have attempted to drink this stew and the result of it was me needing to rehydrate my self with 2 pints of water. Is this harming me. Should i try and get this lady the sack just to stop her inflicting pain on us. Whats more as if this wasn't enough i'm the only one to buy biscuits (choc digestives) oh yeah they all like eating them. I feel my good nature is being taken for granted and these halflings with impaired taste should be removed from my day to day life. So i guess the question is are these people harming me, do i have a case?
Hope you can help
Many Thanks
Mr Rew |
| Nicey replies: Mr Rew,
These are common problems faced by most office workers. The problem is the basic conflict between peoples individual preferences in tea and the need some people seem to have for their tea to be made for them. Personally I've always found large tea rotas to be a pain. As you point out the tea is often made by people with odd and unpalatable personal tea habits. Sometimes there is a tendency for too many cups of tea to made if the rota is large as people just like the excuse to slope off for a while on the pretence of performing the altruistic task of tea making.
I've always suspected that those who most vocally insist that everybody makes cups of tea for everybody else are in-fact missing the attention of their parents who probably waited on them hand and foot for years.
I've always preferred making my own tea, rather than having some teabag squeezer or too-much-milk type forcing some dreadful brew upon me. A small select micro-rota of no more than three people with those who I actually like and have trained to make tea correctly to my specifications is about as for it goes for me.
As for the biscuits this too is sadly inevitable. You'll need to tell everyone in no uncertain terms that they either take turns buying the biscuits or they can take a hike. They should respect your position on this one, and you'll have set the stage for you to dish out withering remarks about pinching biscuits to the transgressors, which should cheer you up. |
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