There are two things I love to do with this blog more than anything.
I enjoy sharing breaking vegan news and I adore helping you get a cheeky discount.
London vegan food emporium Greenbay Supermarket has decided that a bricks and mortar shop front in West London isn’t enough for them. The plant-based supermarket has now launched an online store, making it easier to get your favourite vegan groceries delivered to your home or office.
The online store contains more than 1,000 vegan products, offers free shipping for orders over £55 and delivers to any location in the UK (the world to follow soon).
And here is the even better news.
To celebrate the launch of their online shopping experience, Greenbay has given me a special discount code for my readers to get a whopping 15% off orders placed before May 30, 2017.
Get over to the online shop now by clicking here and use code: FGV to get your 15% discount.
You’ll find pantry items, snacks, sweets, household products, bathroom supplies and so much more. They even have tinned jackfruit!
Doesn’t it make you feel like a happier person when you get a chance to help an independent vegan business?
Well, today you are going to be twice as delighted because two vegan businesses need your assistance.
First up:
Vegan brewhouse and all-round legendary company Brass Castle needs our help to buy a crowler.
What the fuck is a crowler? A crowler is a canning machine that allows beer to be canned fresh out of the tap.
Having a crowler will allow Brass Castle to sell takeout beer to customers at their taphouse, as well as package and send beer to customers around the UK.
At time of posting this story, the Brass Castle crowler campaign was 65% funded with 16 days remaining. Click on the photo above or here to pledge if you can afford it. They have vegan beer rewards!
Next:
The Spotless Leopard is a much-loved vegan food truck in Bristol and it needs our help to stay on the road.
Running a food business is tough work. Mentally, physically and financially. Profit margins are narrow, leaving not a lot of money spare for when emergencies crop up.
The Spotless Leopard has a batch of repairs that need seeing to if they want to stay viable and trading.
You can click on the photo above or here if you are able to push some money their way. They have great thank you rewards available if you are in the Bristol area. A small donation if you are nowhere near the city would of course be greatly appreciated, I’m sure.
There you have it.
Two opportunities to lend a helping hand to independent business.
I was doing my usual sniff around the vegan Internet earlier today when I came across a vegetarian café in the Fitzrovia neighbourhood of central London.
KIN is open every day of the week except Sunday, with an early 7:30am weekday door time for customers looking for a little sustenance before the working day commences.
Of course it’s a huge shame that KIN isn’t a completely vegan establishment, but if you are in that part of town looking for a vegan meal you really could do a lot worse. Their stuff looks pretty spectacular.
Check out some of the vegan posts KIN has been sharing on Instagram.
This might not be news to you, but I’ve never seen this vegan burger at Tesco before.
As far as frozen burgers go, I’ve got to say this one is rather unique for the mainstream UK market.
Roasted peanuts, peanut butter and brown rice make up the main part of this burger, while their are chunks of avocado, red pepper and edamame beans also featured.
Makes quite a departure from textured soy protein!
The product also features the ‘vegan’ graphic on the front of the box for which Tesco is becoming noticed in plant-based circles.
Have you tried this new burger? Or is it not new and I’m just a bit behind the times? How does it taste?
If you are interested in nutrition values and ingredient breakdown, see the product listing on the Tesco website by clicking here.
Have you noticed the complete domination of vegan cheese across the planet recently?
From the UK to Australia and from the USA to Greece, processed vegan cheese blocks and slices are available seemingly everywhere.
But have you ever wondered where all these cheeses are being made?
One surprising source of this vegan cheese onslaught is a Greek dairy company called Viotros.
Viotros started making vegan cheese a number of years ago to fill a gap in the Orthodox Christian market.
If you didn’t know, a lot of followers of the Orthodox Christian church fast on a regular occurrence which can include the removal of dairy products on certain days. You can read more about the fasting here.
Viotros discovered that vegans were just as excited about dairy-free cheese as Orthodox Christians, so they started packaging the fasting-suitable cheese for the plant-eaters and a revolution commenced.
Violife took Europe by storm and it didn’t take too long before other vegan brands started partnering with Viotros in order to get their own branded version.
Take a look at some of the brands making vegan cheese in conjunction with Viotros.
The above isn’t the full range of brands that have been tasking Viotros to make cheese for them, so please list anymore you know of in the comments below.
What does a vegan road trip through parts of California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah look like?
I’m heading into my final day of a two-week journey travelling between Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Flagstaff and Monument Valley, so I wanted to share some of my food journey with you.
A reader tip just reached FGV headquarters and of course I’m delighted to send the information straight on to you people.
A new gourmet grilled cheese sandwich shop has opened in East London. 90° Melt is a vegetarian outlet with a HUGE amount of vegan options.
Take a look at what reader Gideon ate during a recent visit.
Well of course you can see that superstar vegan grilled cheese sandwich taking centre stage, but the photo also includes buffalo cauliflower wings hiding away in the background. Looks fab!
The menu at 98° Melt is stuffed solid with delights such as fried cheese balls, onion rings, gourmet cheese sandwich melts, soup and more. Pretty much everything being served can be veganised and you might be interested in the decadent brunch options.
This all sounds delicious, however…
As we all know, dairy is a horrendously cruel industry in which cows are repeatedly exploited until they die so I’m hoping this grilled cheese shop makes the switch to 100% vegan one day soon.
If you want to see what is on offer at 90° Melt, visit their website. You can like their Facebook page, too.
The exact location of the shop can be seen on Google Maps.
I previously posted about TheCruelty Free Shop, an Australian grocery store chain with outlets in Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne as well as online shopping. You can see that post here.
The big development today is that the Melbourne store has relocated to a site which the owner claims makes it the largest vegan grocery store on the planet.
TheCruelty Free Shop website says of the launch:
We’re pleased to announce that we are opening the biggest vegan shop in the world in Melbourne on Wednesday 12 April 2017.
Our new store will have more than 3500 different vegan products with all sorts of foods including 50+ vegan cheeses, as well as fashion, cosmetics, coffee, cake, hot pies, fruit & veg, and more.
From humble beginnings, the Cruelty Free Shop started as an online store based out of Jessica Bailey’s spare room in Sydney. We now have five stores across Australia and the widest range of vegan products in the country.
Our Melbourne store has also grown over the years and it’s now bursting at the steams at its current location so we are moving it around the corner to 124 Johnston Street, Fitzroy (just a five minute walk or two minute drive from the current location).
Be sure to visit our new store to check out the 1000+ amazing new items we’ll have in stock, grab a coffee, view the Edgar’s Mission photo gallery and stock up on all the very best vegan products from local, Australian and international businesses. Every Saturday we also have free food tastings of delicious new products and old favourites.
Thank you to all our wonderful customers who have made this possible and supported us over the past 15 years.
Wow.
More than 3,500 products certainly puts this up their as the largest vegan store of which I know.
You should follow Cruelty Free Shop on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter no matter where you live in the world and take the time to wish them continued success.
If you are in Australia and would like to know the exact location of the new giant shop, click here to get the info via Google Maps.
This blog post is all about the photos. Lots and lots of photos.
Ahimsa the Vegan Café recently opened in Pinner, Middlesex (that’s part of Greater London, people) and the reports coming out of the location are nothing short of rave reviews.
The friendly team behind Ahimsa have grand plans for expanding into a chain of cafés once they are established in this West London location and judging by the glorious food photos, that expansion shouldn’t be too far away.
The 100% vegan café is all about promoting plant-based eating and the reasons they give for wanting to promote these choices are listed on their Facebook page. They want to save animals, protect the environment, work towards global food security and help people stay healthful.
Ahimsa is the first vegan café in Pinner and locals are apparently loving the menu.
I said I had a lot of photos and I wasn’t joking around.
All of these gorgeous photographs were taken by the wonderful Jade of Jade Thomas Photography. You can see samples of Jade’s work on her website.
Thanks to Jade for allowing me to use these shots. I am extremely grateful.
Not a whole lot goes on in this part of London for vegans, so I’m thrilled to see all of this incredible food being served up by the Ahimsa team.
