What’s New in Vegan Food plus… London’s Top Ten Ethical Cafes

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Wonky vegan crisps

Air-dried fruit and veg crisps made from oddly-shaped, discoloured or blemished produce that doesn’t conform to supermarket standards. A virtuous bag of crisps, in other words. Each bag is 80Kcals, vegan, high in fibre. Flavours include pear and ginger, apple and cinnamon and beetroot and apple cider vinegar

Spare Snacks vegan fruit and veg crisps, £1.25/22g available Co Op, Planet Organic and Eat Cafes, sparesnacks.com

Seed and Bean

Lovely bars of chocolate made from ethically sourced beans in 22 flavours, 15 of which are vegan and include extra dark chocolate blended with English botanicals flavoured with coconut and raspberry and mandarin and ginger

Seed and Bean vegan chocolate bars, £2.69/85g, seedandbean.co.uk

Vegan Little Moons

Handmade Asian desserts – bite-sized balls of artisan gelato ice cream in a layer of soft, chewy mochi in six flavours inc coconut, vanilla and Matcha. This January Little Moons launch their vegan Belgian chocolate mochi – chocolate ice cream wrapped in a layer of mochi and dusted with coca powder.

Little Moons  Mochi, £4.99 for a box of six, available Selfridges and Ocado, littlemoons.co.uk


Plus… London’s Top Ten Ethical Cafes nominated for this year’s Foodism Awards

Bean & Wheat

The adjoining café to Adam Handling’s The Frog Hoxton. Bean & Wheat uses the restaurant’s byproducts in its fresh dishes and sources from a network of sustainable London producers while also offering apprentices help with sustainable hospitality qualifications

321 Old Street, EC1V 9LE; beanandwheat.co.uk

Cafe from Crisis

A café run by the charity Crisis, which seeks to end homelessness through practical catering and barista training, while also sourcing from and connecting with like-minded ethical producers and businesses

64 Commercial Street, E1 6LT; crisis.org.uk

Cafe in the Crypt

Set up by St Martin-in-the-Fields, Café in the Crypt supports the work done by the church in helping homeless or otherwise vulnerable people and refugees, with an emphasis on high-welfare sourcing and environmentalism

St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, WC2N 4JH; stmartin-in-the-fields.org

Central Street Cafe

An Old Street community café run in conjunction with St Luke’s Trust, whose profits go towards food and services for elderly people in Islington. The focus on sourcing sustainable, organic produce wherever possible

90 Central Street, EC1V 8AB; centralstreetcafe.london

Change Please

A group of portable cafés and coffee bars, set up in stations, offices and trucks to train the homeless and support them with social integration, housing and logistical aid

Various locations; changeplease.org

Clerkenwell Kitchen

A café with a top-to-bottom ethos revolving around careful, sustainable sourcing, linking up with producers and farmers in London and the surrounding counties

27-31 Clerkenwell Close, EC1R 0AT; theclerkenwellkitchen.co.uk

Redemption Roasters

Bloomsbury outpost of Redemption Roasters, a coffee roastery inside HMP Aylesbury, which trains current inmates in all aspects of speciality  coffee and helps them into work after release

84b Lamb’s Conduit Street, WC1N 3LR; redemptionroasters.com

Social Pantry Cafe

A café in Battersea run by catering company Social Pantry, which works with charity Key4Life to help get ex-offenders back in work. Some of its produce is sourced from the Bad Boys Bakery in HMP Brixton

170A Lavender Hill, SW11 5TG; socialpantry.co.uk

Old Spike Roastery

A roastery and café on Peckham Rye. Profits are donated to causes aiming to end homelessness in the capital. Old Spike also offers employment opportunities for homeless and vulnerable people

54 Peckham Rye, SE15 4JR; oldspikeroastery.com

Teatulia

Tea room by day, cocktail bar by night, Teatulia serves single-estate, organic teas from a co-operative in the Teatulia region in Bangladesh. It helps support local growers to improve literacy in the area

36 Neal Street, WC2H 9PS; teatuliabar.com


Foodism is a London-based food and drink website and weekly newsletter. Its annual Foodism 100 list features the 100 best businesses and venues affecting positive change in London’s sustainable and ethical food and drink scene. This year’s awards night was held on 24th January in Greenwich Market.  For details of the winners visit foodism.co.uk

Illustration:  roberthuffstutter on Visualhunt.com / CC BY-NC