Go Gutless with Freedom Brewery

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Not all beers are created equal.

If you have made the choice to live a vegan life, you would have made some changes to how you eat. You will also be exploring personal care products that are animal free and household cleaning products not tested on animals.

But have you considered how your beer choice can be more compassionate?

Freedom Brewery has been brewing vegan-friendly beers since 1995 and is now enjoying fantastic success as more and more consumers realise they can enjoying a drink without harming fish!

Yep, all Freedom beers are certified vegan.

How do they do this you may ask?

Well, believe it or not, a lot of beers are filtered through isinglass, which is made from ‘fish guts’. At Freedom they don’t do this, instead using a mechanical process which employs a natural filtration process to ensure they still achieve ‘bright’ beer.

This is particularly important for the brewery as they do not pasteurise, but rather naturally carbonate, during the brewing process (they let their beer mature for longer – up to 6 weeks vs. 10 days for some other brewers). Not using isinglass (taken from fish bladders) to filter their beer is just the tip of the iceberg!

Freedom Brewery is very close to my heart and I’m grateful for them being one of the most visible vegan-friendly beer brands of the past decade.

Did you know that Freedom gifted us with cases of beer to enjoy at the first ever London Vegan Potluck? Or you must have been one of the countless people to order a pint of Freedom at tibits restaurant over the years, especially when it was the home of London Vegan Drinks.

Photo credit: Jade Nina Sarkhel

2019 finds Freedom Brewery doing all it can throughout January to inspire people to #GoGutless with their beer enjoyment.

They currently have a Veganuary 20% off promotion live across the full range. Yes, 20% off vegan beer! To claim, customers need to enter the code: VEGANUARY when they reach the checkout.

Click here to browse the entire range and buy vegan beer at a discount.

Competition time

Freedom Brewery has kindly made five gift packs available and you might just win one of them!

Each gift pack comes with three beers and a branded Freedom Brewery pint glass. If you win, the brewery will ship it directly to you.

How do you enter

Freedom is all about going gutless and saving our fish friends, so you can enter the FGV/Freedom giveaway by posting your favourite fish joke on Twitter.

That’s correct. We want fish-friendly jokes. Example joke: What do you call a fish that needs helps with its vocals? AutoTuna.

Rules (they are very loose)

  • There is no limit to how many fish jokes you can enter (one joke per tweet)
  • Each entry tweet must include the hashtags #GoGutless and #FreedomBrewery
  • Jokes referring to fishing or fish being harmed/eaten are instantly disqualified
  • You have until midnight UK time on January 31, 2019 to enter
  • Five winners will be picked and winners must be prepared to supply their contact details to Freedom in order to receive their prize
  • The decision is final and there will be no drama or arguing that your joke was better… it’s just a bit of fun!
  • It goes without saying but I suppose I should say it for legal reasons… you can only enter this competition if you are of legal drinking age in the UK
  • Prizes can only be delivered to mainland UK addresses
  • Jokes combining beer AND fish are extremely encouraged

Freedom beers are available at the following:

You can follow Freedom on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Be sure to tag them with #GoGutless and #FreedomBrewery when you are drinking their beers. The brewery staff love to share your photos!

Extra note: this is a sponsored post. 10% of the fee paid to FGV is donated to Mexico City water security initiative Isla Urbana.

Full vegan range in Iceland

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If you are anything like me, you are actually struggling to keep up with all the vegan changes taking place so rapidly around the UK.

I hadn’t even seen the full vegan frozen range from supermarket chain Iceland so thankfully my buddy Mirel sent me through photos from her recent shopping expedition.

Check it all out below!

The UK sure has undergone a MASSIVE vegan change over the past two years and the most noticeable signpost is radical supermarket changes such as this.

Luxury vegan Easter eggs

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Moo Free Chocolates has launched a brand new premium assortment of chocolates aptly titled ‘marvellously moreish’, and has revealed the first two products in the line up – Sea Salt & Caramel and Dark 65 Easter eggs.

Carefully crafted with their infamous multi-award winning ‘milk’ chocolate and a brand new organic 65% dark chocolate, these two organic Easter eggs epitomise the marvellously moreish range with their velvety richness, luxurious inclusions and ethically-sourced ingredients.

“These two premium Easter eggs – the first of the marvellously moreish range – are like nothing else on the market right now”, says director and co-founder Mike Jessop.

“Easter eggs were our first product at Moo Free, so it’s fitting that this new assortment of ethically-sourced luxurious chocolates should begin with Easter eggs too”.

Follow Moo Free on Instagram and visit their website to see the entire range.

Super cute vegan patisserie in Paris

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Following on from my jaunt around Europe thanks to Vegan Travel’s NYE cruise on the Rhine, I’m slowly catching up with reporting on some of the food places I visited.

After the cruise, Gil and I got a chance to spend a few days in Paris.

One of my food highlights from the city of lights was VG Pâtisserie, a super cute vegan patisserie located just a few steps away from the Voltaire Metro station in the 11th arrondissement.

The handcrafted patisserie items at VG Pâtisserie were exquisite and we had a difficult time trying to pick a selection. The cafe was absolutely bustling and seemed to be the most popular business on its block.

Check out the photos below to see what we ended up with and be sure to follow VG Pâtisserie on Instagram to stay updated with their gorgeous offerings.

Vegan burger and shake restaurant in Amsterdam

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I recently had 12 hours to hang out in Amsterdam and I made damn sure that I made time to dine with Deer Mama.

Deer Mama is a relatively new burger and shake bar located just south of the central canals of Amsterdam. It’s close enough to walk from the centre, or you can whizz down there via a tram in minutes.

I had been reading about the restaurant for a few weeks before my visit, meaning my anticipation was high and my excitement levels for decadent burgers, boozy shakes, and vegan soft serve were at fever pitch.

Sometimes being THAT excited about a new vegan place can kinda set you up for disappointment, but I’m happy to say that I walked out of Deer Mama one extremely satisfied customer.

The burgers were some of the nicest I’ve tasted in recent years and the baked-on-premises cookies, cakes, and cinnamon scrolls added an extra layer of delicious temptation.

Check out my photos below and be sure to drop in next time you are in Amsterdam.

The exact location of Deer Mama can be seen thanks to Google Maps and you can follow the vegan restaurant on Instagram.

Vegan press in Mexico

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I am thrilled to share news of my collaboration with Time Out Mexico.

The magazine asked me to help with their January vegan issue and I’m pleased to say we were able to promote many independent vegan businesses in the Mexican capital.

The January issue features:

  • the top ten vegan places to eat in Mexico City
  • the top ten places to shop for vegan groceries in Mexico City
  • five reasons why a person should go vegan

If you are not in Mexico City and unable to get your hands on the magazine, you can download a PDF version online here.

I am quite emotional that I have been able to share the vegan message via such a huge platform, especially as it is directly supporting independent vegan business.

Yay for vegan Mexico!

Penguins exploited by London business

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We’ve seen plans for cat cafés and owls in bars, now we have Queens Skate Dine and Bowl in West London promoting an ice skating event featuring live penguins.

I believe most fair-minded and compassionate people understand that live animals are not ours to use for entertainment and penguins do not belong inside a skating rink that doubles as a bar/restaurant in Central London.

The venue describes the event as follows:

To celebrate Penguin Awareness Day 2019, QUEENS will be making a donation to birdlife.org and we need your help! We feel that the best way to understand how wonderful these flightless birds are is, to get to meet them & their loving handlers – so we’ve invited a raft of penguins to join us on on SATURDAY 19TH JANUARY from 4pm till 8pm.

Penguins are amazingly adapatable creatures, some are at home on beaches of South-Africa and others rule over the Antarctic ice. We are excited to see them make QUEENS ice rink their home for the afternoon!

All profits going to birdlife.org – look at what amazing job they are doing.

Enough is enough of this bullshit.

Live animals do not belong inside entertainment venues, they do not belong in a London skating rink, and they deserve to not be used by a for-profit business as a form of greenwashing in order to get publicity.

How will be the penguins be displayed? The venue website states:

  • The area the penguins will be situated, will a purpose made 20 metre x 4 metre insulated platfrom sitting atop of the ice.
  • barriers will be around the the penguin at all time
  • These animals are endangered in their natural habitat. The birds who will visit your educational encounter have a special CITES exemption that allows them to be exhibited.
  • Being a highly intelligent animal, the penguin responds very positively to regular training. This provides good behaviour enrichment and reduces stress.
  • There have been no recorded instances of stress in this company’s keeping of penguins.
  • These birds are regularly inspected by specialist zoo vets.
  • It is this company’s belief that exhibiting these fantastic animals in this way draws attention to their plight in the wild. They are the ambassadors for their wild cousins.

To suggest that the penguins will be guaranteed to not feel any sense of distress or upset as people skate around them is simply disingenuous. There is no way the organisers can know this.

To add insult to this flimsy attempt to claim these animals are being cared for in the name of entertainment, the on site restaurant at Queens features a menu filled with numerous animals including chickens, cows, and pigs.

The idea that the lanes are claiming penguin welfare as a priority while turning a profit from the death of other animals is hypocritical and completely diminishes their so-called concerns for looking after penguins.

Promotional images used by the venue

Circuses and shows featuring live animals are rightfully becoming a thing of the past all over the planet as humans become more aware of the trauma associated with putting animals on display for entertainment.

Queens need to be dragged into 2019 by being reminded that raising money for penguins is not a good enough excuse to exploit them. Live animals are not entertainment, not even when it is in the name of fundraising.

You can ask Queens to reconsider hosting this event via their Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook accounts. You can see their page about the penguin event online here.

Update:

The venue has now cancelled this event as a result of public pressure. See their tweets below.

Vegan pick n mix sweet company launches in UK

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The Vegan Candy Company believes that yummy sweets should be enjoyed by everyone.

Founded by Joanna and Lorraine, The Vegan Candy Company has created their own vegan sweet supply store. They believe vegan products shouldn’t have to come with a premium price tag and they’ve worked hard to bring their customers affordable vegan pick n mix at a sweet price.

Joanna and Lorraine are building their business in order to give back to animal rescue charities and to make plant-based confectionery the norm. As they grow, they intend to choose a selection of charities to which they will donate a portion of their profits.

The Vegan Candy Company currently offers its vegan pick n mix range with over 40 varieties of sweets that can be delivered straight to your door.

You can learn more about the company and order your own vegan pick n mix by visiting The Vegan Candy Company online here.

The pick n mix can be purchased in a 500g box, a 1kg box, and a 1kg monthly subscription box.

You can follow them on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Frozen food brand goes meat free for January and maybe forever

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January means Veganuary for a lot of people, so premium frozen food brand Thyme is taking part in the celebrations by supporting its UK customers by going entirely meat-free for the month of January including the launch of their first Thyme To Try Vegan meal box.

Thyme told me their mission is simple: to make it easier, to eat better.

A lack of time, recipe inspiration and know-how are often cited as reasons why it can be difficult to successfully navigate and maintain a purely meat-free regime.

Thyme aims to make real, honest, slow-food a lot easier, much quicker and far more convenient simply by using the freezer. They are taking out the roadblocks for people who feel eating vegan is too difficult or complicated.

Thyme creates deliciously fresh food under its own label as well as supporting upcoming independent brands through its online market place. Food is delivered frozen, directly to their customer’s door.

Satisfying the hunger of Britain’s fastest growing food phenomenon (yes, I’m talking about plant-based eating!) the Thyme to Try Vegan Box provides 3 meals and 3 sides including wholesome Blackbean & Sweet Potato Chilli, Butternut Squash & Chickpea Curry, Roasted Root Vegetables and Crispy Chilli Potato Bakes all for just the special offer price of £10.

The Thyme To Try Vegan box is available for £10 throughout January when using promotional code ‘try for 10’. Usual price £20.

Thyme has announced they will become a meat-free brand forever if the January meat-free trial is successful.

“It’s time for change,” said Thyme Managing Director Heidi Thompson. “Will Thyme be meat-free? Our fate is in our customers’ hands and we’re very excited to see where they take us.”

What do you think? Are you going to order some Thyme cuisine? Click here to order and don’t forget to use ‘try for 10’ to get the special price.

You can follow Thyme on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Extra note: Thyme paid a fee in order for fatgayvegan.com to share this news. 10% of this fee is being donated to Isla Urbana, a water security initiative in Mexico City.

Fab vegan café in Paris

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Here is a quick and cute post to let you know about a wonderful vegan café and bakery in Paris called Cloud Cakes.

Cloud Cakes is nestled away just a few blocks to the north of the world-famous Louvre museum.

The café features a case packed full of gorgeous patisserie and fresh croissants.

I headed along for a recent Sunday brunch and was blown away by the quality of the cuisine. The scramble was perfect and I’ve never been as happy as I was when I was devouring the warm croissants with a glass of orange juice.

Check out my photos below but before you do, take a moment to follow Cloud Cakes on Instagram. See the exact location of the café thanks to Google Maps.