Interesting Facts

KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) has just unveiled the UK’s first edible coffee cup. (It is made from biscuit, wrapped in sugar paper and lined with a layer of white chocolate. The cup doesn't go soggy, and it allegedly keeps the coffee hot. They are calling it the Scoff-ee cup (groan).)

On safely reaching the summit of Mount Everest Sherpa Tenzing Norgay buried some sweets and biscuits in the snow as a Buddhist offering to the gods. (I wonder if there were any gummy bears in the offering.)

According to a survey conducted by sweetener manufacturer Splenda, chocolate, cheese and crisps are the treats that are most likely to tempt people away from a diet. (Half the respondents said chocolate was their downfall, for a third it was crisps, and a quarter said cheese was their biggest temptation. Other foods mentioned were bread, cakes, biscuits, sweets and Chinese meals. The fourth biggest craving mentioned was a glass of chilled white wine on a night out. What! No beer?)

According to research carried out by Holiday Inn in the UK, over 80% of business people say that the biscuit selection at a meeting could influence the outcome. (Their survey found the most popular choices were chocolate digestives, shortbread and Hobnobs. I feel quite proud of myself, because when I was teaching in the "real world" I always offered digestives and HobNobs and the occasional homemade shortbread to my students. No wonder my classes were popular.)

According to a survey of business people in the UK, 2 biscuits is the polite quantity to eat. (Any more could be considered greedy.  Oh dear, it sounds like a calorie counter worked on this one. Update: A recent Times report placed this biscuit etiquette (or biscuiquette) at 2 and a half biscuits, but IMHO leaving half a biscuit would be rude and wasteful.  Maybe if there are 5 biscuits and 2 people, then maybe you can cut the spare bikky in half.)

Eating too many biscuits can put you in a coma. (This became clear when food writer,  Kevin Shalin, tried  to beat a restaurant’s customer record of scoffing hundreds of butter-rich biscuits failed - and he slipped into a coma. He told friends he feltdizzy after he had eaten 412, but he continued with the 413th and fell on the ground convulsing. Doctors believe the butter from the biscuits blocked signals coming from his brain. Yesterday hospital officials said they had already drained approximately two gallons of butter!  Luckily they expect him to make a full recovery. I remember I made myself sick eating peanuts, but I was about 9 at the time.) Source

An internal audit into spending at the US Justice Department found that they had spent $4,200 on muffins and cookies at a conference in August 2009. (That's not the real scandal though. The real scandal is that the $4,200, which let's face it is more than some families spend on food for a year, only bought 250 muffins! According to the audit the muffins in question cost $16 (£10) each, and they bought cookies (biscuits or maybe they really were cookies) for $10 each!   Now, I don't begrudge anyone a biscuit, or a muffin, but someone, somewhere was having a joke.  Thank goodness I don't pay tax in the US, otherwise I'd be very, very, angry.  I'm just going to go and do some baking now, it's obviously a very lucrative business.)

The 71 million packets of biscuits sold annually by United Biscuits, owner of McVitie's, generate 127.8 tonnes of crumbs. (Half of them seem to end up in my bed!)