Beer is the most widely consumed alcoholic beverage in the world, with countries across the globe finding their own unique twists on that malty, refreshing taste. Because it’s so popular, however, beer has also become big business, which has resulted in some companies providing unfair pay and dangerous working conditions for those involved in the production of beer overseas.

Fortunately, you can make a difference to the industry while enjoying your favourite beverage by choosing one of the many fair trade beers on the market. So, let’s make Benjamin Franklin’s famous quote, “Beer is proof that God loves us and want us to be happy”, true once again. (Although drink too much, and you may not believe Mr Franklin the next morning!)

The Weaver's Shed- Yorkshire

Looking for the perfect ethical eatery for your hot Valentine’s Day date? George Walker reveals our favourite local, organic and ethical restaurants within the UK. Get those taste buds tickled and make a reservation with our pop-out gallery.

Eating local, ethical and organic produce  has become a popular lifestyle choice for those wanting guilt free gastronomy. And yet there’s a lot that restaurateurs must keep in mind if they want to be a truly ethical eatery. From food miles, to dwindling fishing reserves; from GM crops, to the unfair treatment of livestock- sourcing produce for a restaurant can become a bit of a minefield. 

Luckily you don’t have to worry about searching for that perfect ethical eatery because we’ve done the work for you!

VIEW THE POP OUT GALLERY BELOW!

Celebrating flavour, versatility and innovation in the world of meat-free foods the magazine’s team undertook the rather appetising task of tasting a great number of products coming from the smallest producers to the biggest supermarkets. The result was a winner in each one of the ten unique categories selected with five other top-performing products or services each being awarded a Highly Commended accolade.
The winners include Fairtrade favourites Traidcraft and its Milk Chocolate Beanies which the veggie team awarded as the Best Veggie Sweet praising the original taste and Fairtrade status.

Nairn’s Oatcakes were also the winners for the Best Veggie Snack, a product which is stocked in all major supermarkets and health stores making it easily accessible to veggies all over the country.

Other winners include vegetarian and vegan approved Swedish Glace Ice Creams in the Best Dairy-Free category, the Granose Falafel Mix as the Best Vegan Product and the Weightwatchers Mushroom Stroganoff as the Best Veggie Ready Meal.
Editor Rachel Callen commented on the awards: “We were thrilled to see how many quality vegetarian products there are on the market – making a mockery of the perception that a diet without meat or fish needs to be boring or restrictive. It’s fantastic that this way of eating is no longer niche, and that companies of all sizes are creating genuinely enjoyable foods that enhance the diets of veggies and non-veggies alike. There’s no more ‘making do’ for people who want to eat meat-free!”
Cook Vegetarian! is the UK’s only monthly vegetarian cookery magazine, available nationwide in supermarkets, WHSmith stores and independents.

Cupcake Emporium

The Cupcake Emporium headquarters are hidden away in the heart of London and are home to cupcakes in 15 different flavours. Ranging from exotic coconut and lemon dream to the ever popular red velvet and marvellous mocha, Memo Christodoulou, Cupcake Emporium’s owner, professes that since the shop’s opening 8 months ago he has been using his grandmother’s recipes to keep the cakes light, fluffy and very very tasty. Every ingredient in the sponge organic, but what makes these cupcakes truly stand out is the fact that they contain no more than 130 calories.

The double chocolate sin cupcake is to die for, and as the only cupcake from the batch that has 175 calories, it is no surprise. A brownie like sponge is a welcome texture given the standard airyness of most cupcakes. A praline flavour invades the sponge and icing making this a delicious and fragrant cake.

Cupcake Emporium cater for all sorts of events and have most recently baked cakes for Children in Need with Terry Wogan.

Cupcake Emporium

Louise writes:

What is it?

I first tested BabyDam when my daughter, Evie was eight-months-old.  It comes with full instructions and is really simple to use. Basically, the BabyDam fits across the bath width ways to create a smaller bathing area for your child, eliminating the need for a separate baby bath.

How do you do it?

It fits most regular sized, straight-sided baths and all you need to do is wet the suction pads, flex the BabyDam and place it where you want it in the bath.  It’s easy to fit and really doesn’t leak at all!  There is a maximum fill line and also a plug which you take out if you’re bathing a newborn – this is for safety purposes so that you don’t overfill.  It’s such a simple, yet ingenious idea and I’m a complete convert! Three months on and it’s become an automatic part of Evie’s bath time routine.

How is it green?

It’s saved numerous litres of water – energy and money – and will continue to do so over a lifetime of use – approximately until your child is two years old.  And it saves a vast amount of time and water when only filling half the bath.  It actually saves 45 litres of water each time (that’s 16525 litres a year!) and less energy is wasted heating all that extra water. A Godsend and absolute must-have bathroom accessory!

Where can you get it?

It’s £29.99 – £35 from Jojomamanbebe.com, BabyDam.com, Mothercare.com and Bumpto3.com.

See more Tried & Tested

Family Special: everything from children’s clothing to Father’s Day covered

After a long day at work and an even longer train journey (it feels like it) the last thing I want to be doing is scrubbing pots and pans after my dinner. Anything that will help me get the washing up done in under one minute is a welcome idea, so when I was told about Dishmatic – with images of an extra few minutes in the evening to get on with the stuff I enjoy in my mind – I grabbed my chance.

So what is it? Dishmatic is basically a dishwasher that doesn’t involve electricity, because you do it with your hands. OK, maybe not the best description but the folk at Dishmatic like to think of it as a kind of dishwashing system. It’s a sponge scourer, handle and washing up liquid all in one. You use refills to replace the sponge heads once they are worn out (which takes a long time) and you fill the handle with washing up liquid, so a little bit comes out while you scrub.

How is it eco though? The handle is 50% recycled material and the refills are 61% recycled materials, and it is all manufactured here in the UK. The handle is designed to last forever, so you only need to replace the sponge head – and even then you won’t have to very often. Also, because only a tiny bit of washing up liquid is released, you will be saving money as well as the environment, as you won’t be tempted to squirt loads out at the sight of crusty dinners past.

Did it work? I hate getting my hands dirty, so I loved the long handle. I didn’t put much Ecover washing up liquid into the handle and it lasted a couple of weeks before I had to refill. I have been using the same sponge head for around a month, and I can’t imagine I will be changing it for a long while. While the scrubber isn’t as bristly and effective as the silver scouring pads, it is still pretty tough on last week’s pasta sauce and I don’t need to use brute strength to get my plates clean. I’m pretty impressed that after eating each night, washing the dishes only takes a minute, so I have extra time to surf the internet looking for Daily Style Steals.

Where’s it from? £1.19 for the handle and one refill and £1.49 for pack of three refills from Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and Waitrose.

Tried & Tested: E-cloths

Tried & Tested: Eco Balls

Dining alfresco style – picnic accessories

Get a slick home in a box

Sustainable community gardens

Is it really possible to wipe shiny surfaces sparkling clean with just a spritz of water instead of chemical cleaners? Apparently you can with this very hi-tech sounding E-cloth. Clare Saxon tests the cheap and green super cleaning rag.

Clare writes: I may leave piles of unworn clothes in specially positioned heaps around my cluttered room and rarely make my bed before I leave the house in the morning, but one thing I can’t stand is dirt and dust. My days of living in a pig-sty (read: University) are well in the past; being untidy is one thing but being unclean is an entirely different story.

So when I heard about the E-cloth my inner Monica picked one up pronto. Not only are these futuristic sounding cloths super efficient at removing dirt, grease and dust from all shiny surfaces with just a spray of water, they are also great for your green karma too. This is because you won’t be needing any nasty chemicals to scrub with, as the E-cloth does all the hard bits for you.

In fact this innocent looking piece of blue cloth reduces the need for household chemical cleaners by up to 90% which also means a very recession friendly saving of £100 a year. Another eco friendly factor is the comforting guarantee that the cloth will last at least 300 washes, so you won’t have to fork out for loads throughout the year. At £4.88 it may sound a tiny bit much for one cloth but it really will last a lot longer and save you cash in the long run.

Here’s the science stuff:

There’s a few E-cloths in the range to try out, but I go for the E-cloth Glass & Polishing cloth for shiny surfaces and the E-cloth General Purpose cloth for hard surfaces in and out of the home.

The main thing about the E-cloth is the fact you only need a spray of water to get the dirt off surfaces that would usually need chemical liquid cleaners.

The secret to the E-cloth’s power is the millions of tiny fibres in each cloth that turn out to be 1000 times finer than cotton. They clean surfaces by breaking up, trapping and absorbing grease, dirt and bacteria into the material as you wipe away. In essence this means that the dirtier your cloth looks, the cleaner your surface.

E-cloths can also hold up to seven times their weight in water and will ensure surfaces stay cleaner for longer so you’re onto an efficient all-rounder.

Did it work?

My oven had built up a bit of a greasy smile over the last few weeks so I started with that. The smudged finger prints on the door were wiped away smoothly with a spritz of water on the E-cloth Glass & Polishing cloths and no rainbow coloured stripes were left afterwards, as is the case with a lot of chemical cleaners. Rainbows may be pretty but it does make you wonder about the toxic oils we use daily.

I had a go with the E-cloth General Purpose cloth on the back of my kitchen cupboards. There was some suspicious dark stains around the back of the cupboard, and although the E-cloth didn’t remove everything, I am not sure a super toxic industrial strength cleaner could either. It did manage to lift off lots of brown marks effortlessly from the cupboard floor and it was great to only need a sprinkling of water to make that difference.

Cleaning with the E-cloth generally seems to be a lot faster and easier than with the standard J cloth and cleaning chemicals and I feel like I am doing my health a bit of good too.

A real bonus for me is the fact that cleaning time is reduced, so I can spend longer tidying up those piles of clothes in my room. Or at least deciding which pile they should go in.

You can get the E-cloth online or from John Lewis, Homebase, B&Q, Robert Dyas, Lakeland, Tesco and Waitrose.

More like this:

Tried & Tested: Eco balls

Is the eco kettle worth buying?

The Ultimate High Street Eco Style Guide: John Lewis

Top 10: Spring fresh interiors

Interview Kim Jacob – Founder of Angelique skincare

1. It pays to invest in a sharp looking dinner set, and this monochrome example is perfect for adding a glossy touch to your kitchen. The pearl, black and ocean grey colours are fairly toned down which means the plates will fit in nicely with plenty of decor themes but thanks to the varied shades your dinner party will be anything but dull.

Ecocentric’s Oliver Heath says of the set, ‘The mix and match look breaks down the formality of the traditional dining set. Much like a dining table surrounded by friends and family, everyone who comes to the table brings  unique experience. In a similar way, mixing and matching the crockery adds character to the tabletop. This playfulness will add subtle pleasure to any meal.’ We see what he’s saying and we like the quirky focus of displaying monochrome as a fun aspect of dining.

Made from reprocessed waste materials and also fully recyclable, the set will give your table top something to br proud of, if not your Nigella style cooking of course.

The dinner set is £80.75 down from £95 at ecocentric.co.uk. You can also get a very delicious vibrant blue version for £47.60 down from £56 if you are looking for something a little less extravagant in the wallet stakes.

Next page: This 50s floral cushion is a vintage dream

Sarah writes:

I dated a man yonks back who would put these crazy UFO-shaped objects in his washing machine, along with his man shirts, grundypants and socks. Oh, and the odd DIY scruffs too, impacted with man sweat (he was undoubtedly great at DIY). No washing liquid, just UFOs. I thought he was nuts. The thing was, he was always superbly clean and never smelled of anything other than his sheer love for me (I can dream).

It turns out he was using Ecozone Ecoballs, and he wasn’t so mad after all. Credit to him, this was when it was a novelty to have organic veggies delivered, plastic bags weren’t evil and folk were still complaining about nuisance recycling bins.

Too long later, I’ve decided to give said Ecoballs a whirl, courtesy of the lovely folk at ExpertVerdict.com. Could it be true that they really work?

Here’s the science bit:
They work by increasing the alkaline content of the water in the same way that washing powders and detergents do.  Because they don’t need temperature to activate any enzymes and because there is no powder build-up to wash away you can both wash at lower temperatures and reduce your rinse cycle, which saves both water, energy and cash.

They’re hypo-allergenic, residue-free and anti-bacterial. And based on a 30-minute wash Ecoballs have been tested to last up to 750 washes, and you can gain an extra 250 washes by topping up with the refills provided. It works out at about 35 pence per wash.

Did they work for me?
Well, yes, of course. I’ve done a few loads of washing now, all fairly standard stuff, and it’s all come out clean. I’ve had no complaints from nearest and dearest anyway. I love the fact that I’m not loading up with powders and liquids and the like. It all feels so much simpler, oddly.

The only thing you have to get used to is that your washing won’t smell like freshly washed linen, even when it is freshly washed linen! Funny what we’ve all become used to, isn’t it? Your Ecoballed washing will be totally fragrance-free. You can probably get over that when you realise how much money you’ll be saving on liquids and the like, and just how much better it is for your home, your skin and the environment.

Ecozone, the manufacturers, are so confident that you will be satisfied that they offer a 30-day money back guarantee from date of receipt. The Independent also voted Ecoballs one of the 10 best green household products. What’s to lose? I say give them a whirl.

Buy Ecozone Ecoballs from ExpertVerdict.com, £34.95 for a pack of three (required for a wash)

Greenmystyle.com reviews the ‘pioneering’ Eco Kettle, and marvels at a kitchen appliance that can save both energy, money and our sanity in a crisis.

Editor Sarah Woodhead writes:

I have a bad habit. No, it’s not chocolate, chardonnay or tall, dark, handsome strangers. It’s tea. Yes, I’m one of those people who chain-drinks tea and reacts to all crises, big or small, with those peace-brokering words: ‘Shall I put the kettle on?’

So, when it came to thinking about which home appliances to green up first – kettle, washing machine or toaster for starters – I figured that as I drink tea more often than I wash my smalls it would have to be an eco kettle.

No sooner had I thunk it, than the lovely people at eco store BigGreenSmile.com sent me one to review. Thank you BigGreenSmile, and thanks too for now stocking the beauty range Yes To Carrots. That’s got to be one of the best brand names since No To Sprouts hasn’t it? I look forward to reviewing that too.

So, I’ve been roadtesting the Eco Kettle (yes, its real name) for two weeks now. I say ‘roadtesting’, but the only driving I’ve done with it is drive it hard with frequent use! Is it wrong to literally breath a sigh of relief and feel tension ebb away at the mere sound of a kettle switch flicking on?

The official blurb about the Eco Kettle…

This is the product description: “The Eco Kettle helps you save electricity. Until now, accurately measuring the amount of water to be boiled in a kettle has been all but impossible. The result? It is estimated that, on average, we boil twice the volume of water needed every time. Which means twice as much energy, twice as much time. With a 3kW kettle that’s the same as wasting the energy of around 50 light bulbs!

“With its patented “Dual Chamber” design, the Eco Kettle is different. The internal reservoir holds 1.5 litres of water ready for use, while the measuring button allows any quantity to be released into a separate chamber for boiling. Simply fill up, then decide exactly how much water to boil – from one cup to full capacity – at the touch of a button.

“The result? With the Eco kettle you use exactly the right amount of water every time you boil – and no more waste. Brilliantly Simple – Simply Brilliant!

In independent consumer trials, directed by the Energy Saving Trust, the energy saving Eco Kettle used an average of 31% less energy than standard kettles.”

Impressive so far, yes? Plus, I’ve also discovered that the Eco Kettle has been approved by the Good Housekeeping Institute and is recommended by Powergen as a “pioneering product in the battle to save energy in the nation’s homes”.

Now for my review…

The Eco Kettle does, for sure, take less time to boil than my ordinary Bodum kettle. Now, my GCSE-level physics suggest to me that this has to simply be down to measuring a one-mug amount of water more accurately than I do with the Bodum.

I must admit this flummoxed me at first. As I’ve always been one of life’s careful measurers, I presumed that the dual chamber feature wouldn’t benefit me much. I was wrong, and as I write I am happily drinking a more environmentally-friendly cup of tea that has cost me less to make.

With regards to style – and yes, that’s a factor for greenmystyle.com – the Eco Kettle isn’t going to win any design awards. It’s a fairly bogstandard design; white, plasticy and a little bulky to accommodate the energy-saving dual chamber action. It isn’t as stylish as the sleek slate grey Bodum kettle, for example. Shame.

The Eco kettle retails at about the £30-£40 mark, depending on where you buy it. More expensive eco kettles might include water filtration too, which would help prevent the build up of limescale and possibly extend the life of your kettle.

Overall, I’d say don’t chuck out your perfectly good kettle for the sake of the Eco Kettle. But, when your kettle reaches the end of its natural life, this Eco kettle does what it says, is a good price and definitely worth considering.

Buy this kettle now at Big Green Smile for the discounted price of £29.99 (down from £39.99)

Do you own the Eco Kettle? We’d love to know what you think. Please leave a comment below.