make-a-maraca

This is Jake and Heidi.

 

Just like Amy, they decided to have a go at the activity on the back of one of our kids' smoothies and made some smart maracas out of their empty wedges. 

Very generously, they then took their maracas along to a wedding where Designer Kat was bridesmaid and presented her with them to shake on the way down the aisle.

If you've made any of the ideas off our kids' smoothies or have any ideas what our bottles, pots and cartons can be used for once you've finished with them, then please email your suggestions/pictures to  hello@innocentdrinks.co.uk

If they end up on pack, then we'll send you a case of smoothies to say thanks.

fruit trolley fundraisers

Pete from Marlow sent us this photo of the new trolley ladies in his office, Amy and Rosie.

 
They spent a day at their dad's office on last week, pushing round their healthy food and drinks trolley to raise money for their school's charity project, Volunteer Uganda.

In total, they raised £230 and everyone at Softcat went home for the weekend, full of fruit and slightly emptier of pocket.

Talk about a fruitful Friday.

freaky faces

Having got the idea off the back of one of our kids' wedges, Amy very kindly sent us these photos of some sandwiches she made at her after school healthy eating club.

 
Unfortunately, she didn't give us the names of her creations, so we've had a go at naming them ourselves (NB headtiliting, squinting and daring to dream/imagine/squinting a lot more are required for these names to work)

 

First up is the wise old gnome king, resplendent with tomato beard, a fetching lettuce mohawk and lambchops to match.

 

Next is the somewhat cheeky but nevertheless charming Cucumber Specs, sporting a foppish basil barnet.

 

This one looks like a dragon. If you tilt your head to the left and squint a bit.

 

Jury is out on this one. A tomato cyclops? A self portrait of the artist, inspired by Picasso's tomato and basil period perhaps? Most definitely freaky.

 

And finally, a bread ghost with a vapour trail of camembert and little lettuce wings.

Incidentally, a recent joke just in:

How do you get a bear to eat cheese?

Camembert

Right.

Back to sandwich faces. 
 

monday madness

Crazy times in Worcester today.
C.r.a.z.y
Thanks to Jack for sending us this photo.

you asked, we listened

Back in April when we launched our first ever banana free recipe - kiwis, apples and limes - we got in touch with everyone who'd ever written, emailed or called to ask us to make a smoothie without bananas and sent them a free voucher to have a bottle on us.

After we'd sent the vouchers out, lots of people then started sending us lovely thank you notes and emails.

'Just a quickie to say thanks for my voucher. I went straight out and bought the banana free smoothie and thinks it's great. So have now sent my hubby out to buy three more cartons...Thanks for listening, Linda x'

'Bin those bananas for good! Even my kid will drink it. We call it 'Kermit-in-a-blender'. Lovely. Thanks, Tracey'

'I am just amazed that mine (and obviously others) emails actually made a difference. Thank you. I can't wait to try it. Kind regards (from a very happy 'Banana Free' customer'), Lizzie W'

'At last - I have been waiting for years, since I asked you to do this and now you've granted me your wish, Many thanks, Sophie R'

'We wanted to say how impressed we were that some real human took the trouble to hand write the card that came with the token. In this world of machinery...it is really refreshing to find somewhere that still values the personal touch. The Cook Family'

We love to hear what you think. After all, one way conversations are pretty rubbish.

So if you ever have something that you want to tell us about the stuff we make or have suggestions on how we can make it better, you can always let us know on our rate and review system.

As my grandma used to say, shy bairns get nowt.

tattoo'll do nicely

Ink. Skin. Needle. It's a pretty big (not to mention painful) commitment.

Maybe you've thought in the past about getting 'Mother' tattooed on your bicep. Or Wendy perhaps. No? Not even a little bit? Don't you just envy those rock stars with their gloriously ink laden bodies?

Well, one rockstar up in Scotland (by name of Martin) has gone and got his very own innocent tattoo.

Here he is on tour with his standard rider.

Now that's what I call rock'n' roll.

(Thanks to Helen for sending us this pic in)

(Posted by Jay)

cake by post

 

Di came along to our AGM the other week and after seeing how partial we all are to a bit of cake, she very kindly sent us some of her Suffolk rusks in the post.

They taste lovely warmed up with some butter and some jam (according to Kat H).

Thanks, Di

sans orange

This dog is not really a big fan of orange, health and safety always comes first though.

Today is the second day of March which means two things, spring and the announcement of February's rate and review winner. Ceri's pipped me to the post with the first spring blog post of 2009 (I'm normally down the park with a camera quicker than a March hare in, umm, March).

So onto our rate and review winner. This month it goes to Fredi from Winchester who pointed out on our mangoes & passion fruits page that not everyone can drink orange juice. 

We've been messing about with orange free smoothies in the kitchen for sometime but can now say that it won't be very long at all until Fredi can try her very first innocent smoothie. Thanks for giving us the extra impetus Fredi. We'll be in contact to arrange getting a box of orange free innocent shaped things to you very shortly.

Sans means 'without', you learn something new everyday. Unless you already knew this, in which case I'm wearing green and blue striped socks today. So now you all know at least one new thing.

WLTM

It's Valentine's Day on Saturday. Last year, we made a photo love story on a shoestring budget to celebrate. But this year, we thought we'd get you to share the love instead.

All you have to do is add your WLTM ad as a comment below, and the best one will end up on one of our labels.

What's more, we'll send you and the person you fancy a heart shaped case of each.

Here's an example of something we came up with earlier:

Gorgeous brunette on 8:38am to Colchester

You were wearing a red coat, drinking one of these smoothies. I was the shy, blond chap with the eyepatch. You smiled at me when you got off. Wish I’d asked for your number. Would love to take you for a coffee. Or maybe another 2 portions of fruit? You might think I’m odd, writing on smoothie bottles. But I thought this would be the best way to find you. And I’m just a hopeless romantic, taking a chance on love. With an eyepatch. If you read this, get in touch BOX 541.

Your word limit is approximately 90 words - that's what we can fit on the side of a bottle.

And to help get those loving thoughts flowing, here are a few more (slightly short) examples from the good people right here at Fruit Towers:

Remember, your ad needs to be no more than 90 words long.

And for those of you who tend to waffle on a bit here's a quick guide to LHA (lonely hearts acronyms):

WLTM - Would like to meet

GSOH - Good sense of humour

OHAC - Own house and car

OHAT - Own hair and teeth

Closing date is Monday 16th February. Happy love spreading.

the hard sell

We weren't aware that we'd begun selling our stuff in Africa, so we were pretty surprised to receive this picture from one of our drinkers, Eva Hunt. "I went to Tanzania over the Christmas holidays and saw this Innocent Shop in Moshi at the foothills of Kilimanjaro," she wrote, "check it our for yourselves".

It's a shop, and it's got innocent written on it. So it's an innocent shop. But it probably doesn't sell our stuff. So it's not really an innocent shop. But it is. Because the sign definitely says innocent shop. I don't know. It's beyond me. I haven't been this confused since I last watched Donnie Darko.

We might be able to get some answers soon though, because our JT just so happens to be heading out to Kenya on Monday to help out with the work done by Excellent Development, an NGO supported by the innocent foundation.

JT is a bit of an IT whizz (think pasty British legs, a thick brummie accent and a complete inability to ice skate) so he's going to be spending two weeks providing IT assistance to the project and seeing how things are going. He'll be keeping us posted with a few blogs of his own whilst he's out there, so keep your eyes peeled for those.

He's going to be in Kenya for most of the trip but the brave soul, like many IT workers before him, has decided to trek up Mt. Kilimanjaro on his way back. We did tell him he could probably find a way round the mountain, but they make 'em pretty stubborn in Codsall.

Armed with his innocent T-shirt, JT's going to see if he can't buy a drink from the innocent shop in Moshi (perhaps even a smoothies?) before he begins his ascent. We'll be sure to stick it up on our blog if he manages it.

Thanks again for sending us that picture Eva. Should any of you happen to see any more these mysterious innocent shops out there on your travels, do send us snap, we'd love to see them.