I recently attended an evening learning about the art of good taste hosted by Innocent Drinks at their offices at Fruit Towers. Fruit Towers is an amazing venue with lots of open plan places for the staff to think, eat, drink and work and get their creative juices flowing.
On arrival we were greeted and treated with lots of canapes and presented with our own uniquely created mocktail. We also had the opportunity to explore the amazing fruit towers with its open spaces, staff areas, kitchens, lego wall and interactive room. Its an amazing place to work.
After our tour we split up into groups and did some taste and smell challenges using our five senses; sight,smell,taste,touch and hearing. We tried different foods whilst taking note of the impact they have on our senses.
We each tried the Ishihara colour recognition test to test our colour vision as colour is very important part of food . After this we took part in a sensory training course, where we were presented with five different samples and had to identify them by describing the samples as either, sweet. sour ,salt, bitter and umami, Those who identified the samples correctly were awarded an innocent sensory training certificate.
The highlight of the evening was an interactive talk and hands on tasting session by the authors of The Flavour Bible Karen Page and Andrew Dornenberg. We learnt about vegetarian trends in the US and how combining different foods with different spices give amazingly different results on your tastebuds.
Finally we were able to go into the Innocent kitchens and make our own fruit and veg smoothies in a smoothie making challenge. We were able to cycle our blenders to pulse our juices!! Very hard work indeed and not many of us realise the process that goes into making a smoothie from sourcing the best ingredients to creating a perfectly balanced and eye appealing smoothie.
Did you know that innocent is celebrating the unique stories of devotion necessary to ensure only the best tasting fruit goes in to an innocent juice.
The farmers turn their mangoes by hand, every day for seven days, to make sure they are perfectly ripe and exceptionally juicy
By protecting their pears with a wall of icicles in winter, innocent can make sure the pears don’t frost overnight and grow big and juicy, ready to be blended in their apple, peach & pear juice.
Innocent takes the calyx off every single strawberry that they use in their innocent juices. (The calyx is the leafy green stalk that lots of other people just leave in.)
Innocent builds their pineapples a water bed so they don’t get bumped around or bruised. Bashed up pineapples don’t taste as fresh or pineappley, so it’s important to keep them comfy
AND FINALLY .......An innocent drink tastes good (crammed full of all that delicious fruit) which in turn does you some good. And the good keeps going: because innocent gives 10% of profits to charity, people around the world lead better lives as a result
Wow. This looks fantastic. Unfortunately I don't drink juices for several reasons, but those really make it hard to resist.
ReplyDeleteNice review .. they have a good variety of drinks.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a fun and informative evening - thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteVery nice reading about a corporation that cares enough to go through this hard work to make a quality product. This sounds like an evening I would have wanted to be included in. Alana visiting from UBC.
ReplyDeleteI love innocent smoothies, I always thought the "mango being turned by hand for days ' was just for TV ad purposes glad to know it's not
ReplyDeleteThat looks like a really fun night - I think I'd like to work at Fruit Towers ;-)
ReplyDeleteCycling to make a smoothie looks so much fun! I'm not a huge fan of fruit but I LOVE smoothies!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you had a fab time and I love the cycle to make a smoothie, not sure it would be something to encourage me more, but I like the idea of it x
ReplyDeleteIm not a fan of smoothies at all, something about the texture really puts me off.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a smoothie lover tbh but these do look nice x
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a great event, very interesting and a fab brand x
ReplyDeleteLove smoothies! Smoothie making challenge sounds like fun Nayna! Oh and what a nice venue! I wish my office was as nice as this one!
ReplyDeleteMy children love Innocent drinks. They also like the doodles on the back of the packaging. Sounds like a really fun night.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a really interesting and fun event Nayna - making your own smoothies by leg power is definitely different.
ReplyDeleteI love innocent drinks and their juices are always a welcome treat!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a fantastic evening
ReplyDeletelove Innocent drinks - sounds like a fun evening
ReplyDeleteMy gosh. what a fun sounding event. Especially the smoothie making challenge which I would have loved.
ReplyDeleteI love innocent drinks as a little treat.
ReplyDeleteLOL you do look as if you had fun on the bicycle. Innocent are such nice people
ReplyDeleteLooks like a lot of fun, and informative to boot! I have to admit, I DO like an Innocent smoothie now and then...
ReplyDeleteNicee.. come over & link ur recipes to my event Back to School Lunch Ideas ur participation is most welcomed :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun evening. Sounds great.
ReplyDeleteMy children love these
I love Innocent smoothies...as do all 3 of my children! This looks like a great event. Love the Innocent facts too.
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