We don't have any new recipes to introduce this week. In fact, we don't have much news from the world of drinks. It's August - people are on holiday, or off eating their lunch in the park, or searching for a picture of a dog wearing pink sunglasses. Fair enough.

Read on

When we say that there's no news from the world of drinks, we don't quite mean it. In fact, this week, we recorded a first here at Fruit Towers - we were in Reader's Digest. RD, as we like to call it, has a circulation of 860,562 and is translated into 19 languages. But there's no need for translating this picture - any fool can see that Rich, Jon and Adam are pretending to be good and holy when they'd rather be down at the Dog and Clarinet having half a Woodpecker. Click here to have a look at the article - it's all about using humour to make your business better.

IsOokSchitterend!

Here's another man who's having a laugh. It's Udo, winner of our win-a-year's-supply-of-drinks thing, after he became the 10,000th person to subscribe to this news. We thought we'd check that he was still getting the drinks, and Udo was glad to send us this picture as proof that it's all still working. Udo lives in Schiedam, one of Holland's oldest cities, which has the tallest stellingmolen / windmill in the world. You learn something new every day.

In other Dutch news, Joost, who writes our labels and stuff in Holland, has been rocking one of our t-shirts at his band's gigs. His band IsOokSchitterend! (it means Is The Toilet Broken?*) have a single out right now which is rather good in an epic rock kind of way, and are getting some heavy airplay on Dutch music channels such as The Box. Check out their site for some mean and moody shots of our Joost www.ios.nl

Boring holidays - winners

The winners of last week's Most Boring Holiday Ever competition really earned their victory. They relived the pain and the horror by setting out their vacation hell in writing and sending it to us. Very, very brave. Here in no particular order are the four winners (we were only going to do three prizes but had to include the farting dog as well).

Rachael - her visit to Spongerama, a destination entirely themed around the natural sponge, wasn't all that she envisaged.

Helen - inventing a game of cards where the winner got a sip of Coke was the highpoint of this caravan trip to the Isle of Wight.

Gemma - a boring holiday was enlivened when her Gran suggested watching Ceefax. "Oh yes, I often watch that when there's nothing on the television - it's quite nice to see what planes are coming in" said Grandma.

Sandy - the biggest thrill of a stay in a Yorkshire guesthouse was playing with the landlady's blind dog, which passed wind constantly due to its diet of tripe and tripe.

The last bit

Our Emma saw Derek from Big Brother last week. According to her "he was playing tennis on the court next to me at Battersea Park last night. If that wasn't exciting enough, he was swigging from an innocent carton between sets. I can report that Derek's recipe of choice was strawberries and bananas, and that his volleying needs some work."

And the hunt for that Swap Shop squidgy cake continues. Elinor emailed us to say that she thought that mayonnaise was one of the chief ingredients. The plot thickens, as will our artery walls if we ever get hold of the recipe. Perhaps it's best if we never find it.

Finally, here are some more hot dog fashions

http://www.purecountrypetboutique.com/store/index.php

* not really. It actually means IsAlsoFantastic!

August is quiet. Everyone's on the beach playing paddleball and fiddling about in rock pools. Apart from you. You seem to be looking at your computer, reading this. If you are unfortunate enough to be stuck in the office, click here to get some instant seaside. You can even download the sound of surf and seagulls. And check out the Boring August competition later in the news to win drinks and therefore slightly unbore you.

Phone clapping

As you know, we don't like to blow our own trumpets. In fact, we've hired a team of monkeys to blow them for us*. But it's worth us taking the time to say that our smoothies for kids have won a prize. And not just any old prize. Oh no. In fact, they won the treasured Gold Award at the Great Taste Awards. The specific recipe that succeeded was apples and blackcurrants. Give us a ring and clap down the phone if you feel like celebrating. The number is 020 8600 3993.

We love prizes and we also love a mention in the papers. The last few days have seen us receive some fine praise in the dailies, including a good mention in the Daily Express. They were comparing lots of kids' fruit juices, and they came to the stunning conclusion that they're all pretty bad for little 'uns, apart from our smoothies for kids. Read all about it right here.

And we were also featured in the FT (unfortunately the full article can only be read by FT subscribers) with a bit of a review of the history of the company and all of that stuff. It says that there's a hippy at Fruit Towers. We're looking for him/her right now (man).

You learn something new every day

Here's something to make you think. If you stand one of our bottles in a certain kind of light it'll cast a shadow that looks exactly the same as Darth Vader. We learned this fact from six year old Emily and her parents, who are all fans of the Lord of the Sith. And a little bit further down the page you can see a picture that Emily drew (it's the view from White Horse Hill).

Boring August

OK. So we've already worked out that August is boring if you're stuck at work. All of your mates are living it up in Turkey or Florida or the Gower whilst you're stuck there playing paperclip bingo. In an effort to remedy this malaise, we thought we should invent a dumb competition. You know, to help you feel good about being marooned at work. So here we go... ***All you have to is tell us about your most boring holiday ever*** No essays needed - a few short lines will do. The winner will be the person who captures the essence of the boring holiday most perfectly - the 8 hour game of gin rummy with Uncle Roger, trapped by torrential rain in a smelly static caravan near Hastings. No disaster stories please - we're after bona fide boredom. Inaction. Desperate ennui.

Send your boring tales to hello@innocentdrinks.co.uk and we'll send a case of drinks to the three stories that send us to sleep the quickest. Good luck (yawn).

The last bit

Firstly, thanks to Becky H for sending us a squidgy cake recipe. Unfortunately it wasn't the exact Swap Shop recipe but it does look a bit nice - click here to have a look at it.

And a quick poke in the ribs about a new job that we're advertising for. It's for the position of Irish Grocery Commercial Manager and there's more about it and lots of other vacancies if you click right here.

* not really

Hello. The world changed forever on this day (16th August) in 1977. For it was on this day that the King of Rock'n'Roll died. Elvis ate his last fried peanut butter and banana sandwich and toddled off to the great big shindig in the sky. We miss you, King. PS if you fancy making the sandwich or Priscilla's wedding cake, click here to buy "Are You Hungry Tonight?"

Down on the farm

We went to the farm last week to see how our blackcurrants were doing. And the answer is that they're doing OK. They're being harvested by a big red contraption and they're looking sweet and juicy. Conditions have been pretty good this year so we're expecting a bumper crop. Here's a picture of our Stuart driving the big red thing.

Up, up and away

It's at this point most weeks that we like to thank an Irishman for advertising us from the side of his hot air balloon. Our profound thanks to Richard and his brother Zach for producing a homemade advert and then flying it from the side of their dad's balloon somewhere over Waterford.

We don't normally try and flog you stuff in our newsletter, but we're trying to raise money for a good cause. So please click here and buy a copy of our Fruitstock CD. It's only a fiver and every penny of this goes to CHICKS. You'll get 10 nice tracks (by the likes of Ty, Nate James and The Rebirth) and a warm feeling like you've done your good deed for the day. Thanks for helping out.

Spotted ...

People we saw drinking our smoothies this week - Chris and Gwyneth at Heathrow airport and Anastacia at MTV. She gave us a photo and everything.

The King lives

OK, so we told you earlier that he was dead. But who's this, having a good old dance in front of the main stage at Fruitstock? Is it really the King? And who's the other guy? Click here to check the evidence. Many thanks to Will, Buzz and Elisabeth for the clip.

A little bit of culture

Here's a poem from Joe Cray, aged 8

I never eat vegetables,
I never eat fruit,
but now I've discovered Innocent
That's all gone down the chute.

I love the different flavours,
and the goodness that it brings,
It stops my mum from nagging
about me eating all green things!

So thank you for sorting out us kids,
that are as fussy as can be,
and finding a cool way
to make a super healthy me!

Can you help? You're our only hope (at least those of you born before 1982). Cast your minds back to the Noel Edmonds' Multicoloured Swap Shop - one of the greatest kids' shows ever. Anyway, they once made a cake called Swap Shop Squidgy Cake, or at least that's what we think its name was. What's happened is that Row's mum has lost the recipe and it's a bit of a disaster. Does anyone have it? Keith Chegwin, Maggie Philbin - if you're reading this, can you help?

Send your tips to hello@innocentdrinks.co.uk

What can we say? We guess 'thanks' would be good to start with. If you were one of the 110,000 people who came to Fruitstock at the weekend, we hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for coming.

Some Fruitstock facts

Fruitstock had its third outing over the weekend, and it was the biggest yet. 110,000 good souls enjoyed blue skies, meaning that we've still got 9,600 emergency waterproof ponchos clogging up the store room. And, like the last couple of years, it was an insanely great two days. People danced, ate, napped and no doubt fell in love. We'd just like to say it again - thanks for coming. Without you, our festival would just be us hanging out in the park with our parents. And although we love them dearly, we'd rather hang with you these days.

Have a look at this year's pictures at www.fruitstock.com

Some Fruitstock music

Festivals without music are like planes without wings. Rubbish. Useless. Etc. Thankfully, we had plenty of music at Fruitstock, and have been lucky over the years to attract many classy acts. So we thought it was about time to compile a CD of the Fruitstock tunes that have rocked our world. The CD is available to buy at www.fruitstock.com for the tiny sum of £5. What's more, every penny of this is going to a charity called CHICKS, so you'll be doing a bit of good as well as listening to fresh tunes from Ty, The Rebirth, Jerry Fish & The Mudbug Club and more.

We've also got 10 CDs available for a bit of a giveaway, so if you get this question right, you stand a chance of winning one...

What was the name of the band who won our talent competition this year?

The first ten correct answers to arrive at hello@innocentdrinks.co.uk will win. And please include your postal address or it could be kind of hard to send them to you.

Them drums

Drums. Ancient rhythm keepers of the old world. Primal telephones. We like drums. In fact, we like drums enough to have an innocent drum club, who got their fifteen minutes of fame on the main stage at Fruitstock. Check them out. Shake shake shake. Drum drum drum.

Hot threads

Finally, here's a picture of Harry. Remember we challenged you to wear an outfit made from innocent stuff? Well, Harry rose to the challenge, as did his family. They looked hot, they turned heads and their efforts won them access to all sorts of free stuff over the weekend. Nice one Harry.

On my way to the forum

Finally finally, if you want to say anything about Fruitstock, get it off your chest on the website (www.fruitstock.com). We'd love to hear what you think, especially if you've got ideas for making it even better next time.

Someone else's Fruitstock stuff...

http://www.ukstudentlife.com/Ideas/Album/Fruitstock.htm

p.s. One of our innocent postboxes was nicked from Fruitstock on Sunday. First of all we'd like to apologise to anyone who sent us a message, but won’t now get a reply. Secondly, if anyone has any information that may lead to its safe return, there's a case of smoothies in it for you. If you're not going to give it back, at the very least we'd like a postcard and some comedy photos of it on holiday somewhere that we can use in next week's news.

Arachibutyrophobia is the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth. So now you know.

The time has come

It's looming. Somewhere on the horizon is a free festival called Fruitstock. If you've been on holiday for a while, you will have missed us banging on about it. But for the rest of us, there is no excuse - we will be in Regent's Park in London this weekend (6th and 7th August) to watch the bands, dance to the DJs and eat/drink a bit (we'll have a homemade cake stall, the UK's largest farmers' market, lots of other posh food and drink and even a big champagne bar courtesy of Champagne G.H. Mumm - thanks Mumm).

We have prepared a short checklist to make sure you have a great time at Fruitstock - bring the following for maximum pleasure:

• A rug or picnic blanket
• Dancing shoes
• A hat
• Friends
• A scotch egg (just in case)

Check www.fruitstock.com for last minute news and if you have a moment you can also look at this homemade tribute to Fruitstock, which we absolutely love.

Ten's company

But it's not all about getting naked at free festivals. No. For instance, this week will see our bottles appear for the first time in The Coffee Company, a chain of fine coffee bars that serve the best coffee in Amsterdam. Even better, they strongly promote sustainable development and socially responsible coffee production. Good on them.

Hairy cornflake

We remember the days when pictures from a roadshow might have featured Dave Lee Travis trying to get off with the tall one out of Bananarama. Unfortunately we can't offer you such delights, but here's a nice picture of some kids tasting our smoothies during our Tesco roadshow. Next week our roadshow will be hitting the following Tesco shops:

Tuesday 9th August

Mather Avenue, Liverpool Merseyside L18 6HF
Mogden Lane, Isleworth Middlesex TW7 7JY

Wednesday 10th August

Parrs Wood Lane Manchester, Greater Manchester M20 5NP
Ashenden Road, Guildford Surrey GU2 7UN

Thursday 11th August

Wellington Avenue, Aldershot, Hampshire GU11 1SQ
Park Road, Prestwich, Manchester M25 3TG

Friday 12th August

Altcar Road, Liverpool, Merseyside L37 8DP
Napier Road, Reading, Berkshire RG1 8DF

Saturday 13th August

Riverside Avenue, Bournemouth, Dorset BH7 7DY
Askham Bar, Tadcaster Road, York, North Yorkshire YO24 1LW

Sunday 14th August

Manchester Road, Northwich, Cheshire CW9 5LY
The Bourne Centre, Southampton Road, Salisbury, Wiltshire SP1 2NY

Mmm, tasty

There are always new people appearing at innocent. This week we would like to put Steve under the spotlight. He's a very bright chap - here to do something to do with money and making sure we buy enough fruit. Quite important then. Steve would like to share the following with us:

• Steve speaks Portuguese
• He used to work in an aerosol factory
• He's curious as to what human flesh might taste like
• PS we should point out that he doesn't actually want to eat people. He's just curious.