05-06-2008, 07:37 AM
From today's Mirror online...
Don't let America take the (Oreo) biscuit
Brian Reade 6/05/2008
Lock a Brit in an over-crowded Third World prison and there are certain things they will miss even more desperately than a chastity belt.
Chip-shop chips as they melt the butter on a thick-sliced butty. The head on a freshly-pulled pint frothing over the side of a glass in a warm pub.
And a digestive biscuit being lifted from a cup of strong, steaming tea and melting on to the tongue.
When you're stuck miles from home you pine so much for these sensations that your brain hallucinates. They hit at the very essence of what we are and where we come from.
And none more so than the great British biccy.
But now our proud armies of Rich Tea, bourbons, chocolate digestives and custard creams are facing the massed ranks of a chocolatey invader - the American Oreo, the world's best-selling biscuit ever
The cookie has already colonised China. And now bosses at makers Kraft are planning a full-scale British invasion, backed by a £4.5million advertising blitz. Already on sale in some stores over here, Oreos are about to go on sale nationwide.
But I say, enough is enough. It's time to make a stand on behalf of the great British biscuit.
Bourbons, ginger nuts, custard creams, digestives, HobNobs, malted milk, fig rolls... They all trip off the tongue as easily as children's nursery rhymes because that's how far we go back with them. As a baby, I had tea, not milk in my bottle. And with it, a biscuit. We weren't rich, but we always had a packet of Rich Tea.
It comes as no surprise that the Yanks would try to snatch the biscuits from our mouths and replace them with a tackier piece of inferior confectionery.
Let's face it, they've colonised every other aspect of our lives so successfully that we no longer go to shops but malls. Those gaudy, neon-flashing cathedrals to Satan, filled with Gaps, Wal-Marts, Hollywood Bowls, Starbucks and a thousand junk-food "drive-thrus".
We have to take a stand. We can't allow Kraft to do what they've already done in China and monopolise the market with their best-selling cookie.
We must scoff at their campaign to brainwash us into dipping their black-and-white, cocoa-tasting monstrosities into our cups of tea. We have to let them know that the British biscuit is not just a collection of sugared crumbs.
It is a treasured link all the way back to childhood and a noble accompaniment to our second greatest gift to the world after football - the cuppa.
Over the centuries, the "let's have a nice cuppa tea and a digestive" spirit has seen us through wars, divorces, deaths, Cup Final defeats and the loss of an empire.
So let us invoke the spirit of Churchill (no, make that Garibaldi) and draw a line in the pantry.
When the cookie invasion hits our shores, we must stand strong and deliver the following message to the Yanks: "You say billfold, we say wallet. You say sidewalk, we say pavement.
"You say twist, lick, and dunk your Oreo, we say go screw yourselves, buddies."
THE EXPERT
STUART PAYNE from nicecupofteaandasitdown.com
Stuart says: "The Oreo is an imperial juggernaut of a biscuit, backed by one of the world's biggest food companies.
"Its successful formula of two ornate cinder black cocoa biscuits with a white vanilla filling has inspired imitations around the globe.
"Americans associate Oreos with the 'twist, lick and dunk' slogan and their children all know to twist the biscuit apart, lick the cream, then dunk it into a glass of milk.
"Today the Oreo commands US supermarket shelves. And while we start with the basic model, the Americans have all sorts of advanced configurations.
"There are 'double stuffed' Oreos with twice the amount of middle filling. They come in various flavours - mint, chocolate, fudge covered, white fudge covered. There are even partially organic Oreos - plus Oreo cereal, ice-cream cones and ready-made pie case.
"Oreos are also crumbled into milkshakes, ice creams and deep-fried in batter at fairs.
"But can an American cookie really cut it as a British biccy? Our sandwich biscuits bourbon and custard cream have been around for a long time.
"A cuppa and a few of our favourite biccies and we can face whatever life throws at us - a tall order for a biscuit designed to be eaten by a kid with milk."
FACTS TO DIP INTO
419 billion - the number of Oreos sold ever, making them the best-selling biscuit.
£1.56billion - how much we spend on biscuits in Britain every year.
£3,525 - the price paid at Sotheby's in 2001 for a biscuit taken from the Titanic before she set sail in 1912.
100,000 - Tonnes a year of chocolate digestives churned out by McVities in Harlesden, North London, home of the biggest factory in Europe.
1.5 tonnes - the weight of biscuits and cakes consumed by the average Brit in a lifetime.
Link
Never really got into Oreo's myself...I find them over-sweet and a bit sickly. I much prefer a good old Hob-Nob or a Nice biscuit!
Debs x
Don't let America take the (Oreo) biscuit
Brian Reade 6/05/2008
Lock a Brit in an over-crowded Third World prison and there are certain things they will miss even more desperately than a chastity belt.
Chip-shop chips as they melt the butter on a thick-sliced butty. The head on a freshly-pulled pint frothing over the side of a glass in a warm pub.
And a digestive biscuit being lifted from a cup of strong, steaming tea and melting on to the tongue.
When you're stuck miles from home you pine so much for these sensations that your brain hallucinates. They hit at the very essence of what we are and where we come from.
And none more so than the great British biccy.
But now our proud armies of Rich Tea, bourbons, chocolate digestives and custard creams are facing the massed ranks of a chocolatey invader - the American Oreo, the world's best-selling biscuit ever
The cookie has already colonised China. And now bosses at makers Kraft are planning a full-scale British invasion, backed by a £4.5million advertising blitz. Already on sale in some stores over here, Oreos are about to go on sale nationwide.
But I say, enough is enough. It's time to make a stand on behalf of the great British biscuit.
Bourbons, ginger nuts, custard creams, digestives, HobNobs, malted milk, fig rolls... They all trip off the tongue as easily as children's nursery rhymes because that's how far we go back with them. As a baby, I had tea, not milk in my bottle. And with it, a biscuit. We weren't rich, but we always had a packet of Rich Tea.
It comes as no surprise that the Yanks would try to snatch the biscuits from our mouths and replace them with a tackier piece of inferior confectionery.
Let's face it, they've colonised every other aspect of our lives so successfully that we no longer go to shops but malls. Those gaudy, neon-flashing cathedrals to Satan, filled with Gaps, Wal-Marts, Hollywood Bowls, Starbucks and a thousand junk-food "drive-thrus".
We have to take a stand. We can't allow Kraft to do what they've already done in China and monopolise the market with their best-selling cookie.
We must scoff at their campaign to brainwash us into dipping their black-and-white, cocoa-tasting monstrosities into our cups of tea. We have to let them know that the British biscuit is not just a collection of sugared crumbs.
It is a treasured link all the way back to childhood and a noble accompaniment to our second greatest gift to the world after football - the cuppa.
Over the centuries, the "let's have a nice cuppa tea and a digestive" spirit has seen us through wars, divorces, deaths, Cup Final defeats and the loss of an empire.
So let us invoke the spirit of Churchill (no, make that Garibaldi) and draw a line in the pantry.
When the cookie invasion hits our shores, we must stand strong and deliver the following message to the Yanks: "You say billfold, we say wallet. You say sidewalk, we say pavement.
"You say twist, lick, and dunk your Oreo, we say go screw yourselves, buddies."
THE EXPERT
STUART PAYNE from nicecupofteaandasitdown.com
Stuart says: "The Oreo is an imperial juggernaut of a biscuit, backed by one of the world's biggest food companies.
"Its successful formula of two ornate cinder black cocoa biscuits with a white vanilla filling has inspired imitations around the globe.
"Americans associate Oreos with the 'twist, lick and dunk' slogan and their children all know to twist the biscuit apart, lick the cream, then dunk it into a glass of milk.
"Today the Oreo commands US supermarket shelves. And while we start with the basic model, the Americans have all sorts of advanced configurations.
"There are 'double stuffed' Oreos with twice the amount of middle filling. They come in various flavours - mint, chocolate, fudge covered, white fudge covered. There are even partially organic Oreos - plus Oreo cereal, ice-cream cones and ready-made pie case.
"Oreos are also crumbled into milkshakes, ice creams and deep-fried in batter at fairs.
"But can an American cookie really cut it as a British biccy? Our sandwich biscuits bourbon and custard cream have been around for a long time.
"A cuppa and a few of our favourite biccies and we can face whatever life throws at us - a tall order for a biscuit designed to be eaten by a kid with milk."
FACTS TO DIP INTO
419 billion - the number of Oreos sold ever, making them the best-selling biscuit.
£1.56billion - how much we spend on biscuits in Britain every year.
£3,525 - the price paid at Sotheby's in 2001 for a biscuit taken from the Titanic before she set sail in 1912.
100,000 - Tonnes a year of chocolate digestives churned out by McVities in Harlesden, North London, home of the biggest factory in Europe.
1.5 tonnes - the weight of biscuits and cakes consumed by the average Brit in a lifetime.
Link
Never really got into Oreo's myself...I find them over-sweet and a bit sickly. I much prefer a good old Hob-Nob or a Nice biscuit!
Debs x