Unlike my team at work, who seem to function solely on the stuff, I'm not a coffee fiend. However I do like a tipple every now and then and recently my attention has been peaked by discovering a carton of vegan iced coffee in the chiller section of Morrisons. I don't venture into Morrisons that much (especially the Newquay one which is said to be busiest one in the country during the summer holiday season) and wasn't even looking for this sort of thing but it caught my attention. It was called Cafe Soy and was in the chilled 'Free From' section. My mum was due for a visit and, as well as wanting to try it myself, I thought it would be a nice treat for her so I grabbed a carton. Needless to say, we both loved it and have run the gauntlet of Morrisons Newquay since to get more. I apologise to any local vegans as I actually cleared them out of the last remaining 4 cartons yesterday so I had enough to take to my mum on an upcoming visit!
Then I was looking in the Free From chiller section at Sainsburys (grabbing some Gary along the way) when I noticed two more vegan iced coffee offerings. The first one was Jimmy's Iced Coffee Dairy Free and the other next to it was Califia Farms Black and White Cold Brewed Coffee. Being that the former Jimmy's one was a family owned made in Britain product rather than imported all the way from California, I chose Jimmy's. It was also made wih oats and that was another environmental plus. Lovely it was too. I may try the other Californian one at some point but would rather stick closer to home with things, especially if they taste as good as they do. Thing is, I now seem to be a bit of an iced coffee fiend! It might be a seasonal thing but, yep, I love the stuff.
Being that, at least to me, iced coffee is a relatively new thing, I had a bit of an investigate on this subject and confirm that yes, I was definitely behind the times. There are many many alternatives out there but many of these are still just in the USA. Of course, let's state the obvious here too, you could make your own. It's pretty easy after all; make coffee and chill it! However, there were some pretty obvious things that I hadn't thought of before in the whole iced coffee making thing. For instance, how about freezing in ice cubes any left over coffee and then using that to add to plant milk to make iced coffee? A no brainer right? I hadn't thought about that and there are plenty of times when the coffee maker at work has a little bit left in the bottom that has gone cold. The idea of sneaking in an ice tube tray was suddenly a very good one.
However, my point of this blog post isn't just to bring these products to the attention of those that may not know about them (at this point I imagine any up country vegan folks are saying "wow you guys are so behind the times"!). I think it is amazing that a product that hasn't really been around that long in non vegan terms, is actually out there very readily on the shelfs for us vegans already. How things have changed eh?
Being that, at least to me, iced coffee is a relatively new thing, I had a bit of an investigate on this subject and confirm that yes, I was definitely behind the times. There are many many alternatives out there but many of these are still just in the USA. Of course, let's state the obvious here too, you could make your own. It's pretty easy after all; make coffee and chill it! However, there were some pretty obvious things that I hadn't thought of before in the whole iced coffee making thing. For instance, how about freezing in ice cubes any left over coffee and then using that to add to plant milk to make iced coffee? A no brainer right? I hadn't thought about that and there are plenty of times when the coffee maker at work has a little bit left in the bottom that has gone cold. The idea of sneaking in an ice tube tray was suddenly a very good one.
However, my point of this blog post isn't just to bring these products to the attention of those that may not know about them (at this point I imagine any up country vegan folks are saying "wow you guys are so behind the times"!). I think it is amazing that a product that hasn't really been around that long in non vegan terms, is actually out there very readily on the shelfs for us vegans already. How things have changed eh?
No comments:
Post a Comment