Support vegan business attacked by trolls

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You have probably seen the videos and headlines doing the rounds about the ‘protesters’ showing up outside vegan events and restaurants to eat raw meat.

They most infamously targeted VegfestUK Brighton by trying to distress attendees at the entrance. Their whole routine is to chew on dead animals in order to upset vegans. Their actions are grotesque but weirdly counterproductive as many non-vegans are equally repulsed and therefore engaged in thinking about animal cruelty.

Essential Vegan Cafe in Shoreditch, London was recently targeted by these anti-vegan trolls so I’ve created a Facebook event in order to unite the vegan community in an act of support for the business.

PLEDGE TO VISIT Essential Vegan Café AT LEAST ONCE BEFORE AUGUST 31, 2019

These trolls have been attempting to disrupt vegan businesses by chewing on raw animal carcasses and saying provocative statements about vegans being unhealthy and mentally ill.

During April 2019, these antagonists entered the Essential Vegan Café in Shoreditch. Some of them were carrying and chewing on animal bodies. If you wish to see the full video filmed and shared by the anti-vegan trolls, you can visit YouTube. It is graphic.

Following on from the invasion of the café, the trolls and their supporters waged a campaign of intimidation and slander against the café including leaving fake negative reviews online and prank calling the premises.

This is our chance to fight back against these absurd and harmful attacks. We are pledging to come together as a community of kind people in order to help Essential Vegan Café thrive and prosper in the aftermath of this attack on their business.

By RSVPing to this Facebook event, you are promising to visit and eat with Essential Vegan Café at least once before the end of August 2019.

By working together as a collective, we are ensuring the financial security of this unique and special vegan business. We will redress any damage done by these trolls. We will make the café an even stronger and beloved space than it already is.

RSVP now to pledge to visit Essential Vegan. Use the ‘invite’ function to tell all your friends to join the fight. Share the Facebook event far and wide. If you don’t use Facebook, share this blog post and visit the café anyway.

And be sure to post all your gorgeous food photos in the Facebook event when you do visit!

You can follow Essential Vegan online at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

New vegan ribs by Oumph!

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As I reported a little while back, superstar vegan meat company Oumph! is set to launch a new vegan burger.

Now in even more exciting news, they are also launching vegan ribs and vegan mince!

Yes. Vegan ribs!

The burger is set for launch in Sweden, the Nordics, the UK, and Ireland this spring and summer (exact dates and retailer details to be made official soon!).

However, the sticky ribs and mince are launching only in Sweden… for now.

Oumph! told me other countries will follow for these two incredible products, however no more details are available at this time.

This Swedish company really is leading the pack when it comes to gorgeous and delicious vegan meat alternatives.

You can follow Oumph! on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

See my post on the Oumph! pizza now available.

Vegan friendly candle company in the UK

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Megan and Abhay are making vegan candles and they want you to know about it!

They first learned the craft of candle making from a good friend, and if it was not for him, Megan and Abhay say there would be no Ahimsa Soy Candles today. For the past few years they have been perfecting their products before launching their brand of candles to the public.

Their goal is to provide an ethical product with an ethical outcome. That’s why they try their very best to source everything ethically, from packaging, containers, tape, wicks, and even the labels they use on their product. Their candles are thoughtful and non-toxic!

Ahimsa candles are made from soy wax which is biodegradable and free from toxins and carcinogens. Soy burns cooler than paraffin wax which means a candle made from soy will generally last longer, and it will not produce harmful petrol-carbon soot otherwise found in petroleum-based candles. Scented soy wax releases the fragrance in a more natural, clean way.

Megan and Abhay told me that ‘Ahimsa’ is a fundamental principle of Eastern philosophy that translates from Sanskrit to mean non-violence. They say they chose the word ‘ahimsa’ to name their candles because they believe it is important to cause as little harm to others as possible.

The candles are made with 100% natural and biodegradable soy wax, cotton wicks, and premium fragrance oils which are free from parabens. Nothing in their candles is tested on animals, nor do they include animal products or derivatives.

The current fragrances made by Ahimsa include:

  • Spiced Orange: decorated with fragmented dried oranges and orange rind, it carries warm top notes of orange and cinnamon blend, with base notes of buttercream and vanilla. Sweet, warm and comforting
  • Rose Buds: decorated with dried rose petals and a delicate pink rose bud. Roses are given as gifts to communicate messages of love and romance. This candle carries the sweet, rich notes of plump red roses
  • Lavender and Chamomile: decorated with home-grown dried Lavender buds and organic dried Chamomile flowers. Infused with Lavender essential oil, this fragrance lingers amongst the senses with fresh, floral and herbaceous notes. Sweet, clean, soothing quieting and introspective
  • Blessed Be: portion of the profits donated to The Mental Health Foundation. Adorned with Marigold, Sage & Chamomile. Sweet and soft, carrying notes of sweet Pink Lady Apple, Vanilla and Chamomile

You can order online now from the Ahimsa website and be sure to follow them on Instagram.

New vegan recipe box

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Have you ever thought how much you would love for someone to put a recipe in front of you with exactly everything you needed to create the meal?

Leafy Chef is a brand new vegan business in the UK that does exactly that!

Leafy Box recipe boxes are available for either two people or four people. Once you work out how many people you want to feed, you then choose two, three, or four recipes.

There is no delivery cost, which really makes Leafy Chef an attractive thing to try out no matter where you are in the UK.

The recipes included in the boxes sound absolutely mouthwatering and include:

  • lentil loaf roast with green peppercorn sauce
  • bbq pulled jackfruit gyros
  • black bean tacos
  • chanterelle mushroom carbonara with king oyster mushroom bacon
  • mapo tofu
  • leek, ricotta and chard lasagne
  • tofish and chips

You can view all the box details and order on the Leafy Chef website and be sure to follow them on Instagram and Facebook.

Extra special news: Leafy Chef will be trading in the FGV section of Walthamstow Sunday Social this Sunday April 28, 2019. Get along between 10am and 4pm to meet the founders and discuss all their amazing recipe ideas with them!

Now. Let’s look at some food.

Dining event in a London garden

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The Gallery Café of Bethnal Green invites you to a special Dinner in the Garden.

On Wednesday May 22, 2019 you can enjoy a buffet of delicious vegan food and a chance to relax for an evening in their beautiful garden, which is usually only open on the weekend.

I can speak to the gorgeousness of their private garden. It was the location of the first ever London Vegan Beer Fest and is the perfect blend of tranquil, green, and relaxing.

Following on from their Vegan Celebration in January, the 100% vegan café received so many enquiries as to when they would be hosting another food event. They decided there isn’t any better way to celebrate spring than a gorgeous meal outdoors!

The Gallery Café chefs are already busy preparing a delectable set of bites not seen on their regular daily menu. As well as access to the buffet, each ticket holder will receive a free drink and automatic entry into their raffle to win a St. Margaret’s House hamper.

Click here to order your tickets now for just £18. I expect this is going to be a wildly popular event so act quickly.

You can follow The Gallery Café on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

See the exact location of The Gallery Café thanks to Google Maps.

Veganism is not a weight loss tool

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Veganism is not a weight loss tool

Living as a vegan means you have chosen to reduce your dependence on animal-derived products as much as possible.

Simple, right? Veganism, first and foremost, is about reducing harm to non-human animals. There is no getting around this basic fact!

However, there appears to be a bit of confusion surrounding the meaning of the v word.

A quick glance at mainstream press, plant-based food advertising, and celebrity gossip sites might leave you thinking that veganism is all about getting thin and losing weight.

I’ve lost count of the sensationalised stories attempting to champion veganism as a sure fire way to get skinny and even some of our best-selling plant-based brands use body image as a marketing tool to get consumers eating vegan.

You might be thinking, “Hey, FGV. Whatever gets people interested in veganism is a good thing.”

Well, I would like to delve a little deeper for a moment by opening up a discussion about oppression and body shaming.

Eating plant-based food is not the key to losing weight and promoting images of what people should look like only contributes to our communities in negative ways. Imagery and messages about having a ‘better’ body only add to the stress of living in the modern world.

There is not one ideal body type and to suggest you will achieve this mythical physique by eating vegan is simply unethical marketing trickery.

Every single day of our lives we are inundated with the idea that we are not quite good enough. Advertising works to make us feel incomplete, unfinished or not thin enough all in the name of trying to convince us to buy things.

Making people feel inadequate in order to try to convince them to live as a vegan is the opposite of compassion. Actually, it’s a form of oppression.

The daily onslaught of imagery we are bombarded with about weight loss, body perfection, and getting thin doesn’t just make people feel bad, it contributes to depression and negatively impacts our mental wellbeing.

It is a mammoth struggle to convince big name companies and animal charities to not use body shaming tactics to sell veganism. Sometimes it feels like an insurmountable challenge.

But we can make a difference by starting to challenge body shaming imagery and language in our own real life and online circles.

First of all, remind yourself that another person’s body is none of your business unless that person has directly asked your for guidance or advice.

Body shape is about as personal and complicated a topic as you can get. However, it is a topic on which everyone from your cousin you see once a year all the way up to complete strangers has an opinion.

You don’t need to tell any adult on the planet why you think they are overweight. If you feel the desire to make a comment about someone’s body shape or size, take a moment to talk yourself through the situation.

Why do you want to comment on their body? Do you understand that it will hurt their feelings? Can you imagine what it does to a person’s self esteem to hear constant negative messages about their body every single day?

If a non-vegan asks you if they will lose weight by adopting a vegan diet, be honest with them and say you don’t know. There is no way you could know what will happen to their body but you can reassure them there are countless resources online about eating nutritiously as a vegan if that is a concern for them.

Remind them that veganism is about helping animals, not anything else. Kindly let them know that every person is on their own journey of self-care and that veganism can be a small part of their personal wellness, but eating to suit their body and lifestyle is not a fundamental component of veganism.

Looking after our own bodies is a tough business that is only made more trying by people telling us we are doing it all wrong. If you are a vegan activist concerned with getting people to go and stay vegan, don’t use weight loss as a selling point.

We need to stop connecting a lifestyle concerned with helping animals with strategies for losing weight. Treat others with kindness, compassion and respect.

Celebrate people for their contributions to animal protection and be sure to challenge friends, family, businesses and charities who try and tell people that veganism will lead to weight loss.

Extra note: this post was originally published in the January 2018 edition of Vegan Life Magazine. If you are interested in reading my regular monthly column, you can subscribe to Vegan Life online here.

London has a vegan chocolate shop

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Copperhouse Chocolate has launched as a vegan chocolate shop and cafe this April!

For the past decade, hot-chocolatier and founder Juliet has hand crafted award-winning chocolate drinks and treats to excite chocolate lovers from all over the world.

As a vegan of 20 years, Juliet has tried to make sure these have generally been plant-based.

With the changes in the London vegan scene in the last couple of years and greater understanding of plant-based diets, the time has come to stop compromising by offering drinks with dairy – the new brand is entirely vegan!

The chocolate shop and cafe is centred around a unique collection of hot chocolates. Single-origin hot chocolates from Colombia, Madagascar and Ecuador have their own distinct tastes. For the range of flavoured hot chocolates, fruits and spices are combined to create flavours including Chilli con choccy, Raspberry Dream, Mintchievous. The award-winning recipes are made with only the finest ingredients, which have been carefully selected for their optimum quality, unique sweetness, and traceability to support social consciousness.

The hot chocolates and nut cups are all made onsite, with a window to the production kitchen offering an exclusive glimpse of the vast pools of melting chocolate being prepared. These are also sold in independent coffee shops around the UK – café owners and retail curators rely on us to ensure that their chocolate tastes as good as the coffee served in their shops.

To accompany the drinks, cakes are all made in house. All with a chocolate twist, banana bread with cocoa nibs can also be upgraded with yoghurt, fruit and chocolate sauce for brunch. Chocolate coconut tart is made with a raw almond base and filled with ganache while chunky cookies are free on Friday afternoons during chocolate happy hour.

The chocolate-inspired brunch menu includes savoury cornbread waffles topped with Mexican- style black bean chilli in mole sauce, healthy chocolate avocado smoothie bowls and indulgent orange-zest Jaffa pancakes drizzled with marmalade-maple syrup and chocolate sauce. Waffles can be customised with choice of toppings – choose to make it a dessert with ice cream and caramel sauce, or breakfast topped with fruit and nuts, all with added chocolate sauce.

Alongisde the retail packets of hot chocolate and chocolates made onsite, the shop area features a carefully curated lineup of bean-to-bar products by expert chocolate makers including Marou, Duffy’s and vegan white chocolate bars from Solkiki.

Located just moments away from Angel tube station, Copperhouse Chocolate promises a welcoming cosy space to relax with a comforting cup of proper hot chocolate, and offers a home for community groups, meetups, and gatherings to connect in London.

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

See the exact location of Copperhouse Chocolate thanks to Google Maps.

Vegan Beer Fest UK says goodbye

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London Vegan Beer Fest was created back in 2013 because the UK capital didn’t have a lot of large scale socialising events targeted just at vegans. Actually, outside of events such as VegfestUK and the Animal Aid Fayre, there weren’t many ways I can recall to celebrate with a vegan beer in your hand.

Following on from a visit to the original Los Angeles Vegan Beer Festival (created and run by Nic Adler and Quarrygirl), I was inspired to create something similar for London that was completely plant-based and focussed around beer.

It started as a small garden party in Bethnal Green for 200 people and over the next six years grew into one of London’s biggest annual vegan parties, welcoming thousands of revellers.

In addition, Vegan Beer Fest UK events were launched in Manchester, Glasgow, Sheffield, and Coventry.

But here we are in 2019 and the vegan landscape has changed drastically. No longer is a moderately-sized vegan event with curated food, beer, and wine offerings such a unique occurrence.

Just as Hackney Downs Vegan Market found itself unwanted due to the mainstreaming of veganism, Vegan Beer Fest UK events started to feel a bit superfluous in the current climate.

People can buy vegan beer in every single shop, supermarket, and pub in the country while High Street restaurants have made veganism more than normal and common. Large scale music festivals are even showcasing entire vegan food and drink sections.

Josh and I are extremely proud of the events we put together and hosted over the past six years and are sad to be wrapping them up, but it is important to be realistic about how the climate for these types of events has changed.

Vegan Beer Fest UK events are not planned for 2019. Who knows? Maybe you will see them return in a different format in the future.

Josh and I would like to personally thank a number of people who helped make these events fun and valuable community happenings over the past half decade.

Much love to the businesses, breweries, and food traders who traded with our events around the UK. Some of you travelled great distances to be a part of these special days and all of you worked tirelessly to prove that veganism does not mean something substandard.

We have eternal gratitude to our host venues. Thank you for taking a chance on us and giving our little vegan beer events safe and special homes over the years.

I can’t express how important the people are who helped us stage and run the events. Some of you were paid and some of you helped simply out of the goodness of your hearts. All of you understood the value these events added to our community. Thank you.

Follow Your Heart has been associated with our events for several years and this California company specialising in vegan cheeses and salad dressings (including the legendary Vegenaise) made our events possible financially. If you saw some of the margins we were running on most years, you wouldn’t underestimate the importance of Follow Your Heart‘s support. We send all of our love and gratitude to them. They are a big company that truly cares.

I send personal and heartfelt thanks to my dear friend Ricardo who has worked on the event design and posters for several years. He is an extremely talented designer and helped us forge a unique personality for Vegan Beer Fest UK events. His ideas will live on in the hundreds of t-shirts and tote bags bought by attendees during the last few years.

These events would have been impossible without all of the wonderful people who attended each year. Thank you for supporting us and for partying alongside us. You drank beer, you devoured street food, and you helped us raise approximately £1,000 for our featured charity Isla Urbana (securing clean and safe water for people in Mexico) through our Charioke rooms at the beer events. We couldn’t drag people away from those amazing charity karaoke sessions!

Lastly, I want to state just how grateful I am to Josh for the support he showed my initial idea of launching a beer festival. In addition, he needs to be thanked for the ridiculous amount of work he put into making these events happen each year. There were early mornings, long days, car journeys from one end of the UK to the other to meet deadlines, karaoke hosting duties, clean ups, stall building tasks, door and ticket collecting duties, and probably about two dozen more jobs that I can’t recall.

Honestly, running these events on our own was emotionally and physically challenging like few experiences I’ve had.

Josh did them all alongside me because he believed, as I did, that we were making special places for people to feel celebrated in their vegan lifestyle.

Vegan Beer Fest UK events were our way of helping to improve outcomes for non-human animals by making people feel good about their compassionate choices.

I look to the future with memories of these events firmly and fondly in my heart.

Free vegan ice cream in London

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Dappa is a vegan soft serve ice cream company currently taking London by storm.

Not only have they announced a fabulous Summer residency in the capital, but they are giving away 100 free ice creams on Saturday April 20, 2019 t0 celebrate.

The residency kicks off this weekend inside Sourced Market, which is located inside St Pancras Station. They start serving from midday and will be there each week until the end of Summer from Tuesday through Sunday.

To celebrate their opening, they are giving their Instagram followers a chance to nab a free ice cream.

All of the details on how to claim your ice cream are contained in this Instagram post.

Get on over there to register but remember to be early on the day.

If the whole free ice cream extravaganza is too much for you but you wanna stay updated with Dappa, follow them on Instagram.

Glasgow vegan eatery now opening nights

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Picnic in Glasgow to commence evening service!

Picnic was opened in late 2016 by Michelle Morrow, as a healthy and ethical alternative to the many other food outlets in the Merchant City area. With a 100% vegan menu – yet appealing to vegans and non-vegans alike – Picnic quickly established itself as an extremely popular place for breakfast, lunch or just a simple snack and a cup of coffee.

Picnic is currently the top rated vegan eatery on Happy Cow for Glasgow and is ranked 53rd globally by the same website.

Up until now, those seeking a vegan evening meal in Glasgow have had severely limited options when it comes to bistro style dining in a pleasant environment. Whilst Glasgow enjoys a relative abundance of vegan food outlets, the new Picnic evening menu will offer something fresh and new to the burgeoning scene.

From Saturday, April 20th, Picnic will be opening its doors from 6:30pm for its first evening service. There will be a brand new a la carte bistro menu with a carefully chosen selection of wine and beer – all 100% vegan.

Although working from a kitchen you could conservatively describe as compact, Michelle has devised a range of delectable and healthy starters, mains and desserts. You can view the menu by following this link.

You can follow Picnic on Facebook and Instagram.

I’m sure if these Saturday nights prove popular (and I’m certain they will), Picnic will start exploring expanding the night time openings.

You can phone 0141 552 8788 to reserve a table.