Your Views

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Your e-Mails

Gemma Rollason Iced Gems Review	I couldn't help but notice some negative feedback on your site re Iced Gems, with particular complaint about their supposed 'undunkability'. I feel I must share my technique for eating Ied Gems, which I admit to having a fondness for. The dunker must hold the Iced Gem by the icing and then lower small rich tea type bit into their tea (granted, the mug or cup must be quite full for this to be done, but considering the limited soaking capacity of the rich tea part of an Iced Gem, this should not be a problem). You can then eat the tea-soaked biscuit part of the Gem, leaving yourself with a tasty icing morsel to enjoy - indeed, the inevitable soaking that some of the icing gets from its proximity to the hot liquid when using this method seems to result in more flavour being released from the icing - particularly so in the pink, purple and white variants. A word of warning - timing (as with most dunking methods) is of the essence here). Dunk the biscuit part of Iced Gem for too long and the icing part will dissolve and separate from the biscuit, which will end up sunk to the bottom of the mug, growing mushier by the minute. Gemma
	Nicey replies: Thank you Gemma, You have enriched all our lives with your insights. Perhaps one could spear the little blighters on a sturdy paper clip and go for complete immersion (entirely conjecture on my part).
Terry Iced Gems Review	You may or not be aware, that because of the associations with Huntley & Palmer Reading football club were known as the "Biscuitmen" for many years. Until that is a smart alec ad man rebranded the club's nickname to the "Royals" in order to trade on a more sophisticated? and appropriate nickname. Some of us, including the club's unofficial fanzine website "Hob Nob Anyone" remain loyal to the "Biscuits or Biscuitmen" Your site gives us lots of pleasure, as there are many parallels between football and biscuits, foreign players worldwide biscuit brands and so forth. A link would be good, please keep up the good work. Cheers Terry
	Nicey replies: Yes I see that you have a HobNob your URL icon on the site. Of course if I were to don my biscuit anorak I would say that the HobNob has only been linked to Reading for the last 3 years since United Biscuits (McVities) acquired Jacob's UK based business and so inherited the Huntley and Palmers brands that had previously passed to them, there by traces back to Reading. I don't suppose you fancy informally being called the Iced Gems, which would be more accurately portray the clubs local heritage?
Robin Iced Gems Review	Dear Nicey I've been a long and avid fan of the site (good work my friends!) however, for the very first time I've been compelled to write. I've just come across the 'Superstions' section and am somewhat bemused by the history surrounding bubbles in tea. There seems to be lots of stories related to a possible income of cash when bubbles appear in tea. Not here in Oxford, I'm afraid. My Mum, and Nans (on both sides) all announced when making a fine cup of tea, should a bubble appear it was a 'kiss'. I have carried on this tradition and on my regular tea runs at work if a bubble or a two appears I always place it in front of the recipient and announce 'Your tea has kisses, as it was made with love'. I like to think of this as a less greedy and more caring suggestion to the bubbles mythology. In addition the lady I sit next to at work causes an abomination every day by loudly 'crunching' her packets of Iced Gems. It hurts my very soul to even type their name, surely they are the ultimate so-called biscuit of evil. keep up the tremendous work kind regards and dunkages of joy Robin
	Nicey replies: I wonder if the size of the bubbles has any bearing on the amount of money or the degree to which you are going to get kissed. Occasionally you get a really big one with lots of tiny ones round the edge you see.
Steve Pettifer Iced Gems Review	Sir In a day of remarkable co-incidences, I note with dismay that Iced Gems were placed as the 6th yuckiest biscuit behind the very-deserving-of-revulsion pink wafers and fig rolls. Only this lunchtime did I discover that the people who stock our mangy vending machines here at work had, in an all-too-rare moment of inspired brilliance placed a bag of iced gems in one of the machines. Having not had them for years I immediately purchased what has to be one of the all time classic biscuits and sated my desire of sugary lumps of icing and biscuit bases. This led to me idly wondering why water biscuits are called water biscuits (slow day at the office) and a quick Google later I happened upon your site by way of a review of Jamaican water biscuits. After a contented browse and some sage noddings regarding your conclusions on Jaffa Cakes, I was horrified to see the Iced Gem, that marvellous staple of kids’ birthday party food, being universally rejected by the biscuit loving public. To rub salt in the wounds, I also note that the singularly disgusting Fig Rolls somehow also figured highly in both the regular and favourite charts and that the magnificent and criminally underrated Bourbon cream being beaten by Fig Rolls in the favourites section! This unthinkable heresy says only one thing: the biscuit eating public have been led astray. I think you should start a campaign immediately to promote these shining examples of the biscuit maker’s art and help them regain what is rightfully theirs – the number one and two slots in the regular and favourite charts and to leave the yukky chart immediately. This should be done because they are an important part of our heritage, and not at all because I am a random wackjob with too much time on their hands and who happens to like these biscuits. Not at all. Oh no. Yours disgustedly Steve “Bourbon King” Pettifer
Mike McGarry Iced Gems Review	Dear Nicey and Wifey, I stumbled across your website the other week while searching for a piccie of an iced gem. This search was in order to try to prove to a twenty something colleague of mine that such an object did indeed exist and I wasn't making it up (we'd previously had a similar episode with non belief in the existence of Noggin the Nog, but that's another matter). Quite how somebody can reach their mid-twenties without ever having been exposed to an iced gem is something I find quite strange, but clearly some people have had very deprived childhoods. I found your website to be a welcome relief from the horrors of a day providing computer support to the sort of people you shouldn't even trust with a pair of round nosed scissors, and I am now a regular visitor. I was also prompted to buy the cuddly paperback version of your book. I'm very glad I made the book purchase because it helped sustain me on a recent trip to Barcelona, where there was nothing resembling a nice cup of tea or a reasonable biscuit to be had. Even the coffee left a lot to be desired, and I always thought the continentals were supposed to know how to make that! Anyhoo, the combination of website and book has prompted me to abandon my workplace reliance on coffee and switch to drinking a lot more tea. I've also bought some biscuits, nice ones mind you, and am currently working my way through a Crawford's Teatime Varieties selection pack. It's quite a nice selection, one that I feel can be forgiven the presence of a slightly inferior digestive due to the complete absence of the abhorrent pink wafer as a filler. So as I sat here at my desk having a nice cup of tea and a well dunked custard cream, I felt moved to write to you and offer my thanks for re-introducing me to the simple pleasure to be had from taking the time to enjoy a nice cup of tea and a sit down with a quality biscuit or three. Kind regards and thanks, Mike Mc
	Nicey replies: Mike, Glad to hear you are back on the tea, and have survived a run in with Spanish biscuits. That puts me in mind of those programs is on telly about people who have moved to Spain and are trying to repurpose a pile of rubble on a hillside into a luxury villa. They always end up building internal walls out strange square plant pot things, and nobody ever says what are those things? If I was the interviewer I'd say yes we know you owe £50,000 and you've done irreparable damage to your marriage and you haven't slept for a week, but what are those things you are building that wall out of, and who told you to use them? Plus lets face it most Spanish biscuits would make a perfectly good building material. Due to age I just missed out on Noggin the Nog first time round, so am more of a Poggle's Wood man really.
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