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June 22, 2004, 6:10 pm
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No, I wasn't looking for you
Lionel Richtea and his mates, Simon le-Bourbon, Abraham Lincoln, Vanilla Iced Gem and Sid Viscount
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We have seen rather too much of Lionel Richtea over the last fortnight, site regulars, friends, family, people I've never heard of and our literary agent all sent him to us with their best wishes. His creator FiST got in touch to say sorry and to let us know that Lionel is not alone. So before you reach for that forward icon in your email package, its OK we've seen them.
Part of Lionel stared life as a biscuit image on our site, FiST used it to make himself an amusing avatar for the www.no-future.com message board from where he quickly escaped and started doing the rounds via email. Cyberspace is a very odd place where a bunch of pixels that you made several years ago can suddenly turn up in your mail box in your own personal spam deluge. A very similar thing happend in the Star Trek the movie when Voyager turned up as giant robot the size of a planet after falling out of a black hole. Well I can see the similarities. Mind you they never said how they got rid of V-ger after they calmed it down, "Alright you've touched the hand of the creator, now shove off".
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Biscuit of the WeekLidl's Choco Softies |  |
In the second of our Lidl's inspired reviews we couldn't come away with out my picking up a pack of Lidl's own brand version of a German classic the Super Dickmann. A little while back we had a guest review submitted of the mini Dickmann, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to review this item from the farthest reaches of the know biscuit universe. As guest reviewer Jacqui Sayer noted it has a wafer base so we'll consider it a biscuit so that we can marvel at its comedy name, and all round jolliness.
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Your FeedbackEmma Forsdick |
Nicey,
Warmed by the impending British summer treats of Wimbledon tennis and hose pipe bans, my sister and I decided to take our first Picnic of the year over to Kew Gardens yesterday. No sooner had we sat down on our Iceland carrier bags and started on the sarnies than we felt the portentous first spots of rain. Being British and therefore prepared for this eventuality – our picnic was packed up within 30 seconds and we made our way to one of the greenhouses to take shelter just before torrents of Biblical proportions began.
I soon become astounded by the brilliance of the average Sunday picnicker. Everybody grabbed a spot to sit down and out came Sunday papers, cushions, and an array of Tupperware clad food stuffs. Being similarly equipped ourselves; I took out my Funday Times and our packet of Crunch Creams. We were passing a pleasant few minutes when our neighbour interrupted us to ask if he might swap some tea from his thermos for a few of our crunch creams. Of course we obliged – and I had one of my most enjoyable cups of tea ever experienced, as I sat in the tropical heat of the greenhouse, listening to the torrents of rain on the glass, drinking a well brewed cuppa, whilst discussing the joys of rambling with an elderly couple from Surbiton.
Long may British Summertime reign – and with it Generous Thermos glad ramblers! |
| Nicey replies: We had a nice cup of tea and a sit down in the Cambridge Botanic gardens about two weeks ago, again on a rainy day. We were driven out of the glasshouses due to the younger members of staff deciding to be scared of the carnivorous plants. |
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Huntley & Palmers resurrected
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After an absence of more than ten years the Huntley & Palmer brand is once again to found on our shelves. Huntley & Palmers of course dates back to the early part of the nineteenth century and is one of the pillars of the British biscuit industry, with a whole museum devoted to their past in Reading their birthplace. The brand had passed on to Jacobs, who had effectively wound it down although continuing to make many H&P originated products such as Iced Gems.
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 Nice new logo
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Huntley & Palmers' products became famous in 137 countries and, even today, their reputation for baking unique, top-quality products, such as Milk & Honey, Breakfast Biscuits and Chocolate Olivers is fondly remembered. The brand's packaging also achieved unsurpassed standards of excellence with its presentation tins and promotional posters. Many of these can still be seen today at the Reading Museum.
The new MD of H&P Nigel McCrea acquired the Huntley & Palmers name whilst working as a director at Jacobs, and is relaunching the new H&P as a luxury brand. The company is exclusively targetting the speciality and fine-food sector, including delicatessens, major food and department stores, airport duty-free, food-service, hotels, mail-order, hampers and internet sales.
Initial products include "When Taste Matters", an assortment of bite-sized sweet biscuits.
"Not Just For Cheese", an assortment of biscuits and wafer-thins. "Chequers", a box of mint crisp chocolates, wrapped in two different colour foils, with a board designed into the pack, so you can enjoy an after-dinner chocolate whilst playing a light-hearted game of draughts and "Brandy & Walnut Christmas Pudding", described simply as the richest traditional pudding you can buy.
Of course we put in a plea to Nigel on behalf of all those NiceCupOfTeaAndASitDown readers who long to see the Milk & Honey, and maybe the Chocolate Bath Oliver resurrected too.
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NCOTAASD wins a proper award
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Well it was off the glamourous east end of London for the Wife and I last night to the first eMap Fanzine awards. eMap are the people behind tons of different magazines, like 'The Face', 'FHM', 'Heat', 'Empire' and 'Steam Railway'. We had a nice cup of tea on the 17:45 to Kings Cross and a HobNob flapjack, so we hit the event all guns blazing. We were thrilled to come top in the Webzine category, and also thrilled to find out that we are a 'Webzine', something which we were largely ignorant of till now.
At one point we were offered a lovely bottle of Champagne to celebrate with, and I think we were meant to open it up in a triumphant Formula 1 sort of way. However, I said that we would take it home with us and probably have it Friday evening whilst watching telly.
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 That's not any of your old GIF files, its a proper thing that can go on our shelves
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Classy Orange Innovation
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Well here at NiceCupOfTeaAndASitDown we have just got our hands on the new Orange flavour Choco Leibniz, which should start appearing in stores in the second week in December. Bahlsen has chosen the UK to launch this product. Presumably this is such a radical make over on a well an established biscuit that the home market of Germany would be stunned. However, I'm sure the British public will rise to this little challenge, and the launch of Orange flavour After Eight chocolates this Christmas will help raise the profile of Orange flavoured things even further, we expect.
To find out what we thought of them take a look at Biscuit of the Week.
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 Look closely for the little orange segment on the pack
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