You may remember a couple of weeks ago that we were having a spot of bother with some psychadelic daleks (let's face it, we've all been there.) Well, we promised that we'd keep you posted on how things turned out, so here's the update.
We left IT Sam in our phone box, fighting for his life (ish). This is what IT Sam fighting for his life (ish) looked like:
Lots of you posted suggestions on our knitter natter blog suggesting how we could combat these tiny terrors. Some were so clever we couldn't understand them. Others were genius in their simplicity.
No sooner had the ideas come in, we gathered the materials you guys said we'd need (took us ages to find a sonic screwdriver) and headed to the phone box to Save Our Sam.
However, by the time we got there, both Sam and the daleks had disappeared. Where once advanced a marauding mass of psychadelic daleks, now lay a piece of paper.
It was a note from the daleks.
As this photo clearly shows, the daleks have escaped (in fairness the queue for the sonic screwdriver in Argos was huge so we were a little delayed in getting back). And no sign of our Sam either.
However, we're pretty sure they've snuck into the last batch of hats that were sent out to Sainsbury's stores this week - meaning they're out there, somewhere, now.
So, your quest is simple. Track down the bottles that have these dalek hats on them, take a picture to prove that you've found one, and send it in to hello@innocentdrinks.co.uk to win yourself a case of smoothies. There are fourteen dalek hats in total, waiting to be found.
If you do find one in your local Sainsbury's, please approach it with caution. They may look cute, but they're a force to be reckoned with.
And if you find IT Sam on your travels, perhaps sat a-top a smoothie bottle pretending to be a hat, please tell him to stop messing about and get back to Fruit Towers, my laptop's bust.
The development team from The Fat Duck came in the other day to see us. They're the people who invent all of the groundbreaking new dishes that eventually make it onto the menu of what is arguably the world's finest restaurant. Our Lucy (Head of Products/Chief Smoothie Inventor) recently spent 3 months working at The Fat Duck, learning lots of foodie tricks and techniques, so she thought she'd invite her new friends over to ours for a day.
"Mmm, dog food"
The highlight of the day was the sensory challenge. Blindfolds were donned (blue for The Fat Duck, pink for us) and a range of weird smelling things were passed around, with points being scored for guessing what the 'thing' was.
"But is it Pal or Winalot Prime?"
"I'm more of a Whiskas girl myself"
We can confirm that dog food, garden herbs and some other tricky items were on the menu, but modesty forbids us from revealing which team won the challenge. That information will remain strictly between us and losers.
Whilst kissing levels in the Movember group have seen a sharp decline since the start of November, tweezer productivity, beard trimming and grooming-time-spent-infront-of the mirror have increased dramatically.
In other news, Atha has decided to call his moustache The El Rancho (thanks, Becky).
The best caption for this latest Movember lineup will win a case of smoothies.
So make sure you post your entries below by Friday 28th November.
I'm dreading tomorrow morning. It's my birthday you see and even though I'm the height of the average 13 year old I'm going to be twice that age (and a good deal more). I've started obsessing about wrinkles and even had a dream about getting (bad) botox the other night.
The only thing that puts my mind at rest is that I'm doing everything I can slow down the ageing process, fingers crossed. The answer to this doesn't lie in a magic jar of face cream but in your fridge and kitchen cupboards. There's a few nutrition essentials for your skin and I didn't learn this from studying nutrition but from my peachy skinned Mum (thanks Mum).
My top 5 foods for skin health -
1. Blueberries and oranges - vitamin C is really important for your skin as it plays a central role in collagen production, the protein found in skin. Vitamin C is also an anti-oxidant so it mops up the free radicals which cause cell damage.
2. A handful of almonds - if you suffer from dry skin like me the vitamin E in almonds will help with the natural moisturisation of the skin.
4. Flaxseed oil - omega-3 oils are great for skin (especially in the winter months with the heating on at full blast) and this oil is a brilliant source.
5. Avocado - the niacin (vitamin B3) in avocado can act as an anti-inflammatory and can soothe irritated skin. I spent a whole year picking and eating them on a farm in my 20s and I'm rather glad I did.
So I'm off to make myself a blueberry, carrot, almond and avocado salad with flaxseed oil dressing. On the otherhand I might just grab a smoothie and be rest assured that I'll wake up tomorrow looking 29 (and a bit) again.
Feeling left out of all the Movember malarky? Or perhaps your chin and upper lip are feeling a little bit drafty. Well a young lady in the States called Erin could be your saviour. She loves making beards and you can check out her blog to get some crafty inspiration. And in case any of our innocent Movember boys are struggling, check out the picture below. I reckon no one would ever be any the wiser.
Vice Admiral T. R. Cardboard-Box, Sir Reginald Bubblewrap, Lady Margaret Cell'Ophane - oh yes, the great and good of the packaging world were all out in force last week for the annual UK Packaging Awards.
The glitzy ceremony was held in the Grosvenor Hotel in London and we picked up the rather heavy, slightly sharp edged yet nonetheless coveted award for 'Brand Client of the Year'.
Beating off strong competition from Apple, Proctor & Gamble and Coca-Cola, we won in recognition of our 100% recycled bottle, our quest for sustainability, our all round packaging design and for being the brand most people would like to work with.
Which is always a nice reason to win.
John Inverdale presented our Jaqueline and Simon with the award, confessing in hushed tones he had 'literally millions' of our drinks at home.
Jeroen is one of our Dutch colleagues and as you can see, he's quite a catch.
Unfortunately, no one has caught him just yet but we think this is all set to change very soon.
Thanks to his rugged good looks, Jeroen has made into this week's edition of the well known Dutch magazine Yes as their 'Bachelor of the Week'.
This week's special is all about knowing your man by knowing his taste in clothes
For those of you itching to know exactly what Jeroen's tastes are, he likes girls who dress smartly, wear a little makeup (not too much) and most importantly, enjoy wearing heels.
Now, of course, being the souls of discretion, we would never give out Jeroen's contact details directly.
But if you happened to stumble across our people page, well, that'd be another matter.
Does anyone remember Summer when leaning against a tree and smiling inanely wasn't considered weird? I don't know about you but waking up in the freezing cold and going home in the dark is making me pretty cranky. But there are a few ways you can eat yourself happy (and I'm not just talking about chocolate here).
So there's a happy hormone called serotonin. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter (these are natural chemicals found in the brain) and it has lots of different functions in the body. It's involved in the control of appetite, sleep, memory and learning, mood, behaviour and depression.
Serotonin is manufactured in the brain using the essential amino acid tryptophan which is found in foods like bananas, pineapple, plums, turkey and milk. If you're feeling a bit blue exercise is the best way to increase your serotonin levels quickly. However levels can also be managed by eating the right types of foods. A diet that's deficient in omega-3 fatty acids can impact negatively on mood. Also complex carbohydrates can raise tryptophan levels and vitamin C is needed for the conversion of tryptophan into serotonin. Our smoothies and orange juice are a source of vitamin C and our smoothies contain banana too so you can help to drink yourself happy without alcohol.
Oh and the chocolate thing is true. It helps with the release of serotonin and a special chemical released when you're in love. This is why I eat 2 squares of the darkest chocolate I can find each and everyday. And if it's a very bad day I may just scoff the lot......
Drop me a line by leaving a comment on this blog post if you have any questions on food and mood,
Back in January this year we asked our drinkers if they could think of anything funny to put on the hidden messages bit of the bottom of our bottles. And you did, 1,594 times to be exact. So we choose our favourite seven messages and sent them to our friends at the bottle factory to go on our new 100% recycled bottles.
I kind of forgot about this story until Charlie told us via our facebook page that he'd come across the 'trapped in bottle factory, send help' one on the train which made him smile. So I've had a root through the fridge and found a real life one which made me smile on reading it again. You can see all the other six messages here.
Look out for them in the shops*.
*If you're rooting through a shops shelves to find the funny ones please leave it nice and tidy afterwards, we don't want to get in trouble with our shop keeper. And if someone asks you what on earth you're doing tell them about our hidden message story, people seem to like it once they know. It's like a secret club.
A few weeks ago, Meera and I went to visit Age Concern in Camden to have a chat about the big knit over some tea and knitting. You can read the blog post we made here. We've also made a little film about it. The sound quality is a little iffy, so you might want to turn the volume up on your computer, but it's worth a watch - especially if you've always wanted to see what a willy warmer looks like.
We feel quite popular today as 10,000 people have decided to become friends with us on our facebook page. That feels like quite a lot of people to us. More than you you can fit into fruit towers in one go anyway. We can't tell you who our 10,000th friend was as we weren't watching at that point unfortuanetly. You are all as special as each other to us though.
Here's to 12,250. I don't know why that many, it just seems quite a monumental number as well. We'll let you know when we get there. If you fancy helping us along our way, and we're not hooked up already, you can link us up here.
This weekend's baking treatcomes from Eleanor's mum, Diane. Diane also wrote us a recipe for a lemon curd and fromage frais smoothie which features on p.176 of our recipe book.
According to Eleanor, there is always a copy of the book on Diane's coffee table at home, casually left open on p.176.
Diane’s apple and cinnamon buns Makes 12 large buns
Ingredients
2 medium cooking apples
225g self raising wholemeal flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
175g butter
50g brown sugar
1 large beaten free range egg
What you need to do
1. Preheat oven to Gas Mark 5(375F/190C).
2. Peel, core and dice the apples then put to one side.
3. Sift the flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a bowl.
4. Rub the butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles breadcrumbs.
5. Add the apple, sugar and beaten egg to the bowl and mix combine well with a fork (if the mixture seems a bit dry, you can add a few drops on milk)
6. Place heaped spoonfuls of the mixture onto a greased/non-stick baking tray.
We had a little competition via our twitter feed - we challenged our twitter friends to see who could post the first photo of our hats out in the wild. Tom won, spotting them in Cardiff, and he wins a big prize, which may or may not feature some sort of wool/fruit combo.
Here are some of the first big knit hats of the half a million to come over the next month or so. As spotted in Holborn Sainsbury's this afternoon by our Emma.
Let us know if you spot any in your local Sainsbury's if you're doing your big shop tonight.
I've just returned from a trip in India where I was lucky enough to celebrate Diwali and a proper Indian wedding. It goes without saying that I ate my body weight in curry, rice, rotis and naans as well as devouring far too many indian sweets (the diet starts today by the way). As well as gorging on the not so healthy I was also re-united with an old but healthy flame of mine - the pomegranate.
In the northern hemisphere the pomegranate season runs from October to February. In India pomegranates are available throughout the whole year. The edible pomegranate seeds are known as arils. The juice from these seeds has been a popular drink in the middle east for many many moons. Due to the sweet yet tangy flavour it has been used in indian chutneys and dishes for centuries. My family's favourite way of eating pomegranate is fresh with masala and black salt (warning, I wouldn't try this unless you're a proper spice fiend).
As well as looking gorgeous these ruby jewels are filled with goodness. Pomegranates contain vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid), potassium and antioxidant polyphenols and anthocyanins. Polyphenols are a group substances found in plants and research has shown that they may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer. Anthocyanins are water soluble pigments that can be red, purple or blue and research has also shown that these may help protect against disease.
Our pomegranate, blueberry and acai smoothie contains lots of antioxidants (3650 umols per 250 ml to be precise). Antioxidants are the good guys that mop up things called free radicals that can damage the bodies cells.
Anyway now I'm back I'm going try and keep my old passion for pomegranate going. Not sure that eating it with masala will ever take off in the office but stranger things have happened in fruit towers......
If you've got any questions about this wonderful fruit, drop me a line.
4 days into November and it's full stubble ahead at Fruit Towers.
Several of our boys have banished their razors, shaving foam and clean cut images for the next month in order to grow some facial furniture in support of Movember.
We asked you to send us your moustache designs for our boys to attempt to grow and have had some corkers back.
Tim R is going for the Poseidon look
Tim R
The Posiedon
Charlie is going to attempt the Aviator
And hopefully someone is going to grow The Twist and Wax (a.k.a The Ginger Rat Bars)
Special mention goes to Isabel who sent us the snazzy Zebra design on the back of her geography homework.
If you'd like to sponsor the boys' facial hair challenge in support of testicular cancer, just click here, type in Inno Mo and select Ben Hills.
In the meantime, we'll keep you updated on all moustachioed movements, right here.
It's been a bit busy in veg pot land recently. To be honest, they're selling better than we could have imagined, so most of our time is taken up with making more. But we just wanted to quickly let you know what's happening in a few areas, and reply to all of the comments (mainly in response to this post) in one fell swoop.
Where you can buy them:
- We're in about two thirds of all Waitrose stores. They decide which stores (not us), so if they're not in your local store or they've sold out, please ask a Waitrose person to order you some.
- We're also in a lot of Sainsbury's main stores now (as of 3 weeks ago) and will be in many Sainsbury's Local stores from November.
- We'll be in Tesco from the end of December, and we're working on other places as we speak.
- In Northern Ireland we're currently only in a few stores – Sainsbury's in Forestside, Holywood Exchange, Sprucefield, Newry and Dungannon. We're working on the rest.
Vegan/Vegetarian:
We've had lots of vegans asking us to make a vegan recipe. If you eat honey then you can eat the Moroccan recipe. Otherwise, none of them are suitable for vegans. The good news is we are working on a solution. The bad news is that it may take us a couple of months to get it made and into the shops, but should be out early next year.
Vegetarians - three of the recipes are suitable for vegetarians. The Thai one isn't because it has fish sauce in.
We tried loads of ingredients instead of the fish sauce, because we'd rather everyone could eat it, but it made such a difference to the taste that we stayed with the traditional ingredient.
Some people hadn't seen this on the packaging so we've changed the packaging to make it clear on the top that it contains fish sauce. And we take your point about the 'not suitable for strict vegetarians' comment, that was rubbish, we've changed that too. It should take a month for new packaging to be in the shops.
Dairy-free/Wheat-free:
A couple of you asked for dairy-free versions. The Thai and the Moroccan are dairy-free.
The Thai and the Pea & Rice recipes are wheat-free.
Price:
We're funding a lower launch price to start with because it's a bit cheeky to ask people to pay full price for a product they haven't tried yet. This is also why we put up some sampling stands, which you may have seen in Sainsbury's or Waitrose/John Lewis stores, so people can try before they buy. After this time, the veg pots do go back up to the full price of £3.49. The price is driven by the amount and quality of the ingredients and we don't want to make them worse to make them cheaper. We're going to stick with these products for now, but we'll try to have them on regular offers so you can get some cheaper ones or try new flavours.
Recipe suggestions:
Thank you for all the recipe comments. It seems that people like the four launch recipes on the whole, but we're definitely listening to what you say and we're making some tweaks. We'd better get on with it.
Of course, if there's anything else you need to know about our veg pots, then just post a comment and we'll try to answer.
Olympic rowing champion, Steve Williams, popped in this afternoon for a cup of tea and a chat with our Sally.
As well as coordinating his outfit with Think Pink day, he also brought his gold medals along with him.
On closer inspection, my tip for the London 2012 Olympics would be to make the ribbons out of proper hardy stuff as the ribbons get frayed really quickly, what with all the people wanting to hold them and pretend they've just won gold at the Olympics.
Steve keeps his medals in a sunglasses bag in his pocket, rather than constantly round his neck, and when they're not on his person, they tend to be on the windowsill or in the glovebox of his car.
2. Place apples, blackberries and granulated sugar in a saucepan with little water and cook gently till apples are soft.
3. Spoon mixture into pie dish or a 9-10inch shallow gratin dish.
4. Place flour, butter and oats in a mixing bowl and rub together till crumbly. Then add the brown sugar and mix a bit more.
5. Sprinkle crumble mixture over the fruit and use a fork to even it out (Pat likes to press down with the fork and then sprinkle a little amount of granulated sugar on top as this makes it all crunchy when cooked.)
6. Place in oven and cook for 30-40 minutes until golden brown.
Best enjoyed after a long, brisk walk, with lashings of custard, sat in front of The Antiques Roadshow.
We have a bit of a situation here at fruit towers. Almut Sprigade sent us in an army of psychadelic dalek hats. As we're prone to do with the hats we particularly admire, we put them up on display on one of our picnic benches, so that people wandering past could revel in their technicoloured brilliance.
But there was something crafty about these daleks. Were they really just hats? Or were they actual daleks? Could it be that their multicoloured exterior was simply there to fool us, deflecting attention away from their plans for global domination? First Sainsbury's, then the world. Mwah hah hah. We weren't sure. So we set up a secret camera to record them.
Here we can see them on day one, looking calm - meek even - but eerily still.
Two days later and the little blighters seemed to have moved closer to the camera.
By the time day three popped round, it was undeniable - the daleks were on the move.
Led by the purple one and what looks to be Elmo from Sesame Street, they moved quickly, destroying everything in their wake. We found our hidden camera yesterday amidst a pile of smashed smoothie bottles, its outer casing cracked, flash not working, a tear in its shattered lens.
And then nothing for days. No sign of the army of psychadelic daleks.
Until this afternoon. When a secondary camera caught this ominous scene. IT Sam trapped in the phone box with nowhere to run, the daleks bearing down on him. He doesn't stand a chance.
How can we compete against such reckless aggression? What will happen when the daleks reach the phone box? Will IT Sam live to tell the tale?
We'll keep you posted. In the mean time, if you have any suggestions as to how we can deal with this miniature, multicoloured, but very real threat, please let us know. The fate of fruit towers depends on you...
A while ago a young lady called Lizzie came up with the amazing idea of frudoku and entered it into our kids design competition. She won the 12-14 year olds category and her design is now printed on the back of millions of our pomegranates, blueberries & blackcurrants kids drinks.
Another young lady called Katie had a bit of time to spare after her lunch so has helped solve the frudoku, and has just added a pic to our pinboard. The power of young minds eh?
Fran on caption competition
Mike de Silva on caption competition
dufus on caption competition
Nick on caption competition
jo on caption competition
tom on caption competition
charlotte on caption competition
Duncan Toms on fruit portions
James on rate and review the stuff we make...