We know that you know that we know that work can sometimes get boring. So here's something for the next boring moment.

Ruud van Robbery

We start with sad news this week. Fruit Towers in Amsterdam has been broken into. Reports that the robbers stole some large pieces of cheese and a pair of clogs are ill-founded. Everyone in Holland already has cheese and clogs. The true facts are that the robbers broke a window and made off with some computers, a coffee machine and a grass-covered scooter. Dutch police are looking out for someone with a sore backside (the robbers forgot to nick the scooter's seat) and we've set up an alert on ebay.nl for 'begrasde scooter'
(Dutch for 'grassy scooter').

Clean and serene

Without our knowledge, our drinks have been secretly tested by the Pesticide Residue Committee. But this is a good thing. The PRC was set up in 2000 by the government to monitor pesticide residues in the food and drink we buy in the shops. And the great news is that no residues were detected in our drinks, which kind of figures, seeing as we test them ourselves on a regular basis and have never found anything remotely nasty in them.

A special tweet Say hello to Harry. Harry is 11 years old, lives in Gloucestershire and in his spare time makes bird feeders out of our kids cartons. Thanks Harry. And thanks to Saskia too. She's 13 and says that if you want to get the last little bit of smoothie out of your carton you should half fill it with milk because it makes an amazing milkshake. Smart.

Quite literally

Did we tell you that our new recipe book would be in the shops on April 3rd? I think we did. Still, we're fairly shameless, so we'll tell you again. And we're still excited about it. Probably more excited than we were last week. You see, we've now actually seen a copy in the flesh. And it looks and feels a bit good - beautiful photos and nice heavy 100% recycled paper. Silvia from the publishers says that "people here can't stop touching it". Ooh. Look at it here and click the pic to have a look at another recipe.

And finally

Please don't think that we forgot the 50 winners of the Smoothhound Sharks CDs. We didn't. We're sending them out this week - 50 of you should be getting a nice surprise. And thanks for the suggestions for new cow van names. Lots of votes for Sacred, Buttercup and just one vote so far for Podgington. An early favourite here at Fruit Towers is Belle - very smart.

And you've been saying some fine things about our new and improved strawberries and bananas recipe, which sounds a bit like this...

I opened the seal, and took a swig, yum how juicy is that?! Unknown, 24 March '06

Boy is it good. It has improved my boring, boring Wednesday too. If only everything could have 3 extra strawberries squashed into it. RC, 22 March '06

Usually not my favourite recipe, but it was the only innocent smoothie on the shelf and I wouldn't buy anybody else's smoothie. The phrase 'new & improved' has to be the most misused of all the clichés in advertising, but what can I say. I was bowled over by the fresh pink taste. GF, 15 March '06

Brilliant - I always thought that the strawberry and banana thing could do with having a bit more zing. Hooray! M, 14 March '06

I'm actually excited to see what you have up your sleeves next (sad I know but true nevertheless). I think you should give the kitchen ladies a day off and send them to a spa or something nice. F, 20 March '06

What's new in the world? Jeans made out of sugar cane, no jeans (or anything else) in Caracas and our new cow van...

The naming game

We've got a new cow van. For those of you who haven't met our cow vans before, they're quite nice. They have horns, udders and a button on the dashboard that makes them go 'moo' when someone pulls out in front of you. We're about to start a test to see if they'll run OK on biodiesel as well - it'll be great if it works. Anyway, the new cow van in the picture needs a name. Email your suggestion to winwinwin@innocentdrinks.co.uk and the winner will get lots of drinks. And the honour of their name being chosen, obviously. To give you an idea, our other cow vans are called Holy, Pat, Clover and Ermintrude. In other words, you can definitely do better than us.

Le World

We thought we'd give you a quick sneak preview of our new recipe book. We're about to get our hands on the first proper copies and it'll be in the shops on 3rd April. Woo hoo. Here's one of the recipes - if you make it, mail hello@innocentdrinks.co.uk and let us know if it tastes OK. And if you fancy pre-ordering at Amazon, we're hardly going to stop you.

Hip coffee scene

For those who like live music with their macchiato, Beanscene have just opened two new coffee shops in Scotland. The Shepherds Bush branch is long overdue.

Here's a story from our Nicky...

We haven't shown you our flowers of the week for a while. No particular reason. But this week seemed like a good time to get back to the flowers, mainly because they look weird; flowers from another planet. Holding them are Will and Sam. And in the background you might be able to spot the person who, as well as being in charge of inventing all of our drinks, also hates being left out of a picture. She's called Lucy. PS our florist says that the weird flowers are called ginger lilies.

Sign of the Times

If you stay with our news this week, you'll find a tasty recipe for Weird Chicken Curry at the bottom. Sounds a bit odd, tastes delicious.

Make the best better Strawberries and bananas is our most popular recipe. So we thought we'd change it. But not in a bad way. That would just be dumb dumb dumb. No, we thought it would be quite nice if we could squeeze in a few more strawberries - three more in every bottle, which works out to be twelve more in every big carton. It's even tastier, it's a few shades pinker and the carton looks like it's got measles, just in case you can't spot it on the shelves. PS if you still need more strawberries, make your own here.

What're you doing? Here's part two of "What're you doing?" It's a new feature where we walk up to someone's desk and ask them "What're you doing?" It's Ed's turn: Ed just bought some new football boots. He broke them in on Saturday. Then he took his girlfriend out for a Thai meal. What a gent. Ed has just got back from South Africa, his spiritual home. He says that he misses the sun but can always cheer himself up by watching Bottle Rocket. Anyway, the most useful thing that Ed gave us in his interview was this recipe. He says it's for two people but it looks like quite a lot of food. Guess he's just a hungry guy. The good thing is that he uses our smoothies in it, which at least makes it relevant. 4 chicken thighs cut in half garlic - Ed used about 5 smashed cloves a handful of grated ginger one finely chopped Scotch Bonnet chilli (an ugly looking vindictive chilli) a few potatoes (peeled and cut into bitesize chunks) 1 bottle of our guest smoothie (mango, coconut and lemongrass ) 1 orange and mango kids smoothie a tin of coconut milk (Ed used low fat coconut milk) half a lime Fry the garlic, ginger and vicious scotch bonnet in a couple of lugs of oil in a casserole dish for a minute or so. Add the chicken and brown it for a further 2/3 minutes. Add the smoothies, coconut milk and potatoes. Once the smoothie/coconut milk starts bubbling, turn it down, pop the lid on the casserole dish and let it simmer for about an hour, stirring occasionally. Ed also squeezed in the juice of half a lime and a bit of soy for seasoning at the end, and he says that you should eat the curry when it gets thick and creamy. Serve with rice. Obviously. Thanks Ed.

OK, so last week's email was a little light on actual news. But when your hottest story is that someone sent in a shoe with their CV, it can be pretty tough. This week we have a new smoothie out and have come 16th in something. Where to start?

New kid on the block After the surprise success of our last guest recipe, beetroot detox, we thought we'd follow it up with another unusual but tasty combo. The result is our new mangoes, coconuts and lemongrass smoothie. It contains the finest Alphonso mangoes, known the world over for their buttery flesh and fragrant aroma. These are mixed with subtle, floral lemongrass (a first in a smoothie as far as we know), and topped off with coconut. The result is akin to taking a posh tropical holiday, without the delayed flight, sunburn or language problems. You'll find it in the shops later this week.

Sweet Sixteen Britain's James Fox was understandably disappointed at his 16th place in Eurovision 2004. But he'd been in a field of 24 and the eventual winner was a Ukrainian EthnoHardDance* diva named Ruslana. Last week, when we found out we'd finished 16th in the Sunday Times Best Small Companies to Work For 2006, we were much happier. We were up against about 25,000 other companies and the winner was a lovely charity called Tower Homes that helps people find affordable housing. If working for number 16 sounds good enough for you, click here for our current jobs.

And finally...

If you're over in Ireland keep an eye out for the special little booklets that'll be appearing on our smoothie bottles in the run up to St Patrick's Day. From March 18th you can use them to get money off our smoothies and help you on your way to recovery. All you need to know is in the booklet. Sorry, no big, green, foam hat promotion this year.

You write the news

We figured that it might be quite a nice idea to have a bit in our news that's actually your news - you send us in things that have happened to you, or maybe some advance warning of your village fete, and then we can spread the word to like-minded innocent people.

There is one proviso - we maintain the right to not shamelessly plug other people's products or pass on any news that could be deemed a) a bit rude or b) a bit boring. But we reckon that it might just work. Just send your news to mynewsis@innocentdrinks.co.uk And we'll reward anything that we use with a big fat case of drinks and a knowing smile. Thanks.