Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat, and if you're anything like us you might be a bit overwhelmed by all the hustle and bustle, and short of a vital present or two. Don't worry, here's a little glimmer of joy in the form of our review of the year featuring plenty of pretty pictures and a spot of light reading. Perfect. (If you'd prefer to eat all the chocolates in your advent calendar and watch some films, click here). We'll see you over the hump in 2008.

January - Limited edition

This year kicked off with a new visitor to the smoothie family, cunningly called 'smoothie of the month.'  It allowed us to bring back some old favourites as well as introducing some new recipes which hopefully found their way to your hearts (and stomachs).

January - Post-Kissmas

In December we sent lots of mistletoe to our family members and asked nicely if they'd send us some photos of it in action in exchange for a chance to win some smoothies. When January rolled around we were proud to present these lucky winners. Pucker up.

January - Rotten

January was also the month in which we discovered what happens to tomatoes which are left to their own devices.

February - Stanley the fox terrier

Stanley the fox terrier couldn't get enough of our newly-launched breakfast thickie. And you know you've hit the big time when your drinks appear on Supermarket Sweep. Our smoothies made their proud Dale debut back in February.

March - Get the look

March was pretty quiet, but we did find out about these useful tips to make your brain work better. And of course, we were treated to the sight of Sparky the Dutch dog modelling not one but two sophisticated 'looks' next to some of our smoothies. Good boy.

April - Celebrate good times

Rain, tax (both inevitable). We couldn't have agreed more with Celine Dion when she sang that tax, along with rain, is just inevitable. Unfortunately, the government still charges VAT on healthy fruit juices and smoothies, which we think is daft, especially when other foods like chips remain tax free. We set up a petition on the PM's website to tell him what we thought and over 17,000 of you seemed to agree with us. It's still running if you fancy adding your own two-penneth. If we win them over on this one we'll have a go at the rain next. Happy Birthday to us, innocent turned 8 on the 28th of April 2007.  We ate a lot of cake and sang Happy Birthday to ourselves. 

May - Lucky streak

We've been lucky enough to have won a fair few prizes over the years, but May was a bumper month for winning. First off, the Rainforest Alliance celebrated their 20th birthday, and we were fortunate enough to win their Green Globe award.  Then we picked up the Business Achievement prize at the Greatest Britons awards, and after a quick game of rock, scissors, paper it was left to Adam to do the acceptance speech whilst Richard and Jon looked pretty in the background.  And if that wasn't enough, we also found this solution to an age-old problem - why don't you see any baby pigeons?
Satisfying.

June - Fete-tastic tour

This month saw the kick-off of our touring fete.  We travelled the country and saw all sorts of stuff. Dogs jumping through hoops of fire, Chestnut and Floral Queens strutting their stuff, fortune tellers, Dead Rat Preserves, multi-coloured sheep and one very Dynamic Vocal Entertainer.  We had an absolute blast, and we'd like to thank all the people who made us feel so welcome wherever our dancing grass van happened to visit.

July - Setting sail

We were pretty busy in July, mainly because we were getting everything ready for our big London fete in August. It seems as though somebody had a fair bit of free time on their hands, though, because they made a replica Viking longboat out of 15 million lolly sticks.

August - The feteful weekend

After months of planning and a word with Mother Nature to ensure that we had the best weather possible, it was finally time for the innocent village fete. Thousands of you turned up to watch the ferret racing and duck herding, tried your hand at knitting, and watched some great musical talent.  On top of all that, you helped us to raise £150,000 for charity. You can reminisce about your day and what it was like to feel sunshine in a summer where there wasn't much sun here.
In other news, a mysterious giant lego man appeared on a Dutch beach.

September - A world first

Slowly but surely we've been building up the amount of recycled plastic in our bottles.  First off we started with 25%, gradually pushed it up to 50% and finally back in September we were able to launch the world's first 100% recycled plastic bottle.  Thank you for being so patient with us - we knew we'd get there in the end, and we're going to continue to make big and little changes in how we do stuff to make sure we're doing our bit.

October - Local Heroes

October's Smoothie Of The Month was packed full of locally-sourced damsons, blackberries, elderflowers and apples from this season's harvests all over the UK.  We got to meet some great characters as we collected them, some of whom you can meet here.

October - Treemendous

In October we started a scheme called 'Buy One Get One Tree'. All of our special one litre cartons had a code printed on the side which could be registered on our 'Buy One Get One Tree' website. For each code registered we donated one tree to be planted in India or Africa. We were aiming for 100,000 trees, but in the end got 164,020, which we thought was pretty good. Our online virtual forest is currently being planted and will one day flourish into a source of income for families in India and Africa.

October - A right royal visit

We tucked our shirts in, polished our shoes and were given the once over by some eagle-eyed bodyguards in preparation for H.R.H The Duke of York paying Fruit Towers a visit.  He seemed to like what we'd done with the place, laughed at all of Adam's bad jokes and looked intensely interested in all the right places.  One most definitely approved.

November - Remember, remember the month of Movember

November was largely about one thing in Fruit Towers, and that was dodgy male facial hair. 
We also found out that we are closely related to a ghostly flying Malaysian mammal - and so are you.
colugo.

December - Hat trick

Once again it was time to ask men and women of all ages and abilities to embrace their needles and knit like the wind to help us with our Big Knit project.  We more than met our target of over 400,000 hats, making this the biggest Big Knit ever. A huge thank you to everyone who helped us, whether you knitted one hat or one hundred - we truly couldn't have done it without you.



Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas.

Love from innocent x





Jealous of our beards? Tired of leaving your lower face exposed to the elements? Sounds like you might be in need of a Beard Cap.

Hello, and welcome to the penultimate news of 2007. Next week it’ll be the review of the year, so this is the last fresh stuff you’ll be getting until 2008. Savour it, like a Murray Mint.

Hankies at the ready

Cannon and Ball.  The Krankies.  Blackberries and blueberries.  These duos have become something of an institution.  But all good things must come to an end.  After almost seven years of dutiful service, our blackberries and blueberries smoothie has decided to retire, to be replaced by an even better berry recipe in the New Year. Believe me, if you think you’re upset at this loss, you should just come down to Fruit Towers. People are sobbing openly, like big girls.  Some are even thinking of getting a transfer to mainland Europe, where the old recipe will still be available (in France, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and Luxembourg). But there’s still time to wallow in the old faithful – she’ll be on shelves in the UK for another couple of weeks. So treat her right – pour her into a glass instead of swigging from the bottle and perhaps reminisce about the good old days when you could enjoy an evening out at the cinema, get a bag of chips and catch the bus - home and still have change from a fiver.

If you think we’re goofing up royally, you can always email youfools@innocentdrinks.com and let us know why the disappearance of this recipe is the dumbest thing we’ve done since trying to invent that clam’n’onion thing. Please be gentle.

Smaller, lighter, better 

We've been working hard to reduce our carbon footprint in 2007.  And the good news is that we've cut it by 15%.  A few big things happened to help us do better. In September we were proud to become the first company in the world to put our drinks into 100% recycled plastic bottles.  Four of our recipes are currently in these new bottles and the rest of the them will join in from January 2008.  Using this bottle means a 20% reduction in materials as well as a 55% carbon reduction in terms of the bottle's manufacture.  We're also really proud that one of our carton co-packers has signed up to not only buy 100% renewable energy for their entire site, but to also educate and encourage their people to recycle more, which has resulted in a 54% reduction of waste to landfill.  We file this news under 'slightly boring but brilliant' and we plan to do plenty more of this boring, brilliant stuff next year because we quite fancy having a planet to skip about

Tree's a crowd

We've been watching in awe as our treeometer has been scaling heights we never thought it could reach.  After smashing our original Buy One Get One Tree target of 100,000 trees, we managed to get to 164,020 trees.  2000 teak trees have already been planted (lots more to go) and 33 community groups have been set up in Tamil Nadu (India), consisting of people who will ultimately benefit from the trees. We pass on their thanks to you, seeing as it was you who bought the cartons, registered your trees and made sure that in years to come these folks will have a steady tree-based income. Thank you.   

The gift that keeps giving

Christmas presents, like pine needles, can be a pain in the backside. But if you’re struggling for ideas, may we suggest a Rocket Garden? We met Mike (the boss at Rocket) the other day and he amazed us with the tales of his vegetable and herb gardens in a box, lovingly nurtured on his Cornwall farm and then sent to you in the spring to plant out in your garden. They make smart gifts for the slightly lazy do-gooder in your life. And if you're really stumped, we have some Charlie and Lola books for you to win (signed by author Lauren Child, who’s also judging our kids' packaging design competition).  To win a set of books, just click here (link only available to family members via our email news letter) and answer the easiest question ever.

And finally...

Hello. As we near the end of the year, let’s take a short moment to look back on some of the year’s most spellbinding events. Right, that’s long enough. We’ve got the news to write.

Number twelve

Here’s the last smoothie of the month for 2007. And what a year it’s been. As Ted so memorably says on our blog, "It’s been emotional." 2007 was the first year of us making a monthly recipe, and it’s gone very well. Who could forget May? Or August? Or October (shall we go on)? We hope you’ve enjoyed all twelve of the recipes – if you managed to taste them all, jump out of your seat right now and shout “I did it. Snakes alive, I darn well did it”. It should make you really popular in the office. And while you’re at it, make sure you taste number twelve – festive fruits and spices. It’s a beauty.

The grand hat judging

The votes are in. Last week we asked you to decide which of the little hats should win and we can now reveal the winners...

All winners will receive a special Big Knit trophy and smoothies galore. And we’d like to say thank you again, to everyone who knitted a hat. Lots of older people will be warmer this winter thanks to your efforts (and hats).

Your tips for a better life

In the news on 21/11/07, we asked if any of you had a cure for runny noses, wet shoes and burnt toast. We weren’t expecting too many tips, but we got a load, and thought we should share them with you, seeing as they’re common complaints at this time of year.

A cure for burnt toast
Just eat bread
Turn your toaster down
Have cereal instead

A cure for runny noses
Block nostrils with tissue
Do a handstand, using gravity to hold back the sn*t
Get a new nose at the shops. £5.99 from Argos.

A cure for wet shoes
Buy some wellies
Nick some dry ones
Sellotape hairdryers to your knees

Thank you. You have made our lives better.

And finally...