Claire Phoenix is FoodBev Media managing editor – magazines. This is a personal blog and views expressed are her own.
There is no way that the Natural & Organic Products Europe exhibition could fit into London’s lovely old Olympia for another year. NOPE, as it is now known, is destined for greater things and this year boasted over 600 exhibitors at the clean and contemporary Excel exhibition centre.
It opened yesterday with hordes of keen “naturophiles” queuing to get through the doors at 9.30am. A mix of beauty products and food and drink – the edible section – seemed to have the edge in terms of stand numbers but both contained a noisy throng of healthy inquisitors keen to find out if the words “natural” and “organic” were being seriously adhered to.
I had an interview pre-organised with Christine Renier of Nuva Water – a spring water launching at the show in three flavour variants: cucumber and mint, ginger and lemon, and melon and jasmine. It is aimed at “ambitious young women” looking for zero calorie hydration; the taste is light and refreshing. Ginger was certainly high up the food agenda here along with date-based products from companies such as Beloved and enhanced chia ancient grains (such as those with blueberry or strawberry) from Ireland’s Chia BIA; and a dramatic increase in the number of birch sap products – including prettily bottled Treevitalise birch water, plus Tapped in stylish cylindrical packaging and Jubi birch water from The Fresh-Organic Products Co.
Other stylish drinks on offer include Lemonaid beverages, Pom Star (yes!) – a sharply delicious 100% pure pomegranate juice – El Molecule premium health and wellness beverages, Juiceman cold-pressed juice drinks including green juice, cashew Juice and a fiery hot shot, and the beautifully presented Jools drinks with kelp balls – containing natural fruit extracts that burst in your mouth.
Of course there were a raft of loose leaf teas in every possible variant to meet the cool trend towards tea, headed up by the massive Pukka café central to the exhibition – supported by Pukka Teas. It doesn’t seem a minute since this company were a start up too and just look at them now!
This has to be the sector awarded the prize for most striking packaging – just take a look at ChariTea, SynerChi Kombucha and Or Tea if you need convincing.
Lunch for me was some very tasty, mildly spiced bite-size hot veggie burgers from Italy’s Biolab range – and I am not vegetarian so perhaps harder to please.
For dessert there were some fantastic organic chocolates including Lovechock with the slogan “happiness inside” and Iswari 100% organic chocolate including a slender mint crisp. But my most memorable taste of the day? Well it has to be the Kalamata olives from Mani Blauel Greek organic products – a family run business working with 300 local farmers to produce organic olive oil, olive paste and a wide range of olives.
The show is open this Monday too so if you are around you can scoot across to Custom House and sample the latest in all things natural. You can bet your last sesame seed you won’t regret it.
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