We hope this week’s news finds you basking in hazy late September sunshine, or if you’re in Australia (where it’s currently March) perhaps a touch of ground frost.

Team of the year

The team that counts together, stays together. Or something like that. Anyway, a few months ago, James (our Finance Director) nominated our Finance team for the Accountancy Age Awards (the Oscars of number crunching) and last week, we found out that they’ve been shortlisted for the Finance Team of the Year Award. Having already nailed the ‘Fastest team in Fruit Towers to assemble for a photo call’ award, they’re now busy polishing their abacuses and writing ‘58008’ on their calculators before turning them upside down, such is their excitement. We’ll let you know how they do after the finals in November.

Banana free love

Over the years, we’ve had lots of letters, phone calls and pleas to make a banana-free smoothie. And over the years, we kept a detailed record of all the people who got in touch to beg for such a thing, so that when that fateful banana-free day did arrive, we’d be able to let them all know straight away. Well, back in April, that lauded day did cometh – our first ever banana free recipe (kiwis, apples & limes) was born. And true to our word, we sent out vouchers to all and sundry on our banana-free list so that they could enjoy a bottle on us. In return, we’ve had loads of nice thank you letters, emails and cards in reply. Quite overwhelming. Thank you for your thanks yous.

The future is rotating cellophane

On a recent sojourn to France, our senior designer Kat happened upon ‘the future’, smack bang in the middle of the ladies toilet in Orleans’ poshest restaurant. Being a connoisseur of all things modern, she made a little video of said toilette right here. OK, so none of us are exactly sure how clingfilm whizzing round at 13mph makes a loo seat more hygienic, but then who are we to question the lav of the future? If you happen to spot any other seemingly pointless contraptions on your travels, send them in to hello@innocentdrinks.co.uk and we’ll post them up here (the best ones get free drinks).

Well done to last week’s competition winners, Victoria, Sian and Julie who are all off to the premiere of Vanishing of the Bees this Thursday.

And finally...

This week you can win tickets to a premiere, learn about man eating birds and make everyone jealous of your lunch. Oh yes.

Strawberry surprise

Actually, that’s a slight misnomer, seeing as the strawberry is the surprise. Sort of. The more eagle eyed amongst you might have noticed that we’ve swapped the raspberries for strawberries in our berry recipe. But fret not. Our blackberries, strawberries & boysenberries recipe is still a winner. Just slightly sweeter, slightly redder and slightly more strawberrier than before. Available as ever in little bottles, big cartons and all reputable fridges near you.

Putting milk in your tea first stops that scummy bit forming on top

Well, it does in London anyway.

Reclaim your lunchbox

Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dine like a pauper. At no point in this saying do the words ‘flabby sandwich’, ‘squashed crisps’ or ‘sausage roll’ feature. So how they end up creeping into lunchboxes is something of a mystery. Our Dr. Shilpee has written her top tips for making the healthiest and tastiest lunchbox in the playground/office right here. Or if you’re pushed for time, you could always have one of our veg pots for your midday meal. Either way, lunchtime is a time to celebrate, not commiserate. So treat it like royalty, ditch the apologetic lettuce and make your packed lunch as fit for a prince as a quail’s egg omelette.

Vanishing bees

Not vanishing in a magic-wand-top-hat-temporary-rabbit-abduction sort of way, but vanishing for good. All over the world, bees are disappearing, and this winter alone we lost over 20% of UK honeybee hives. And this doesn't just mean a shortage of honey on the market or on your breakfast table. Bees also play a crucial role in global agriculture as pollinators of our food crops and trees so the effects of the disappearing bees could be huge. Vanishing of the Bees is brand new film documenting the bee disappearance and we have a pair of tickets to next Thursday’s premiere to give away. So if you fancy going along, just answer the following question:

Which of these fruits are pollinated by bees?

A. Pears
B. Apples
C. Blueberries
D. All of the above?

Pop your answer in an email to terry@dogwoof.com by Monday 28th September and the winner will get 2 tickets to next Thursday’s premiere in London.

And finally...

Apparently, you can make edible cheese from the milk of 24 different mammals. Not that we’re chucking down the cheese making gauntlet. Just letting you know that cat cheese is technically feasible.

It’s official

Big news this week. After lots of chats, scientific tests and official adjudications, the ASA have officially ruled that our smoothies can count as 2 portions of your 5-a-day. This ruling is officially supported by the people at the Department of Health, The Food Standards Agency and The British Nutrition Foundation, who have all agreed our smoothies count as 2 portions. So now we have every official rubber stamp in the official stamping book. And to add to the whole officialness of the situation, Dr. Shilpee now has her very own shiny new website for healthcare professionals. Just to make things officially official.

Back to school

Itchy new uniform. Not being prefect. Getting bogwashed. Again. Yes, September heralds the back to school blues and half term seems an age away. But instead of venting your frustration via compass carved desk graffiti, we thought we’d give away all the bits you need for the catchily named ‘Beat The Back to School Blues’ party. Posh party bags, handmade bunting, cupcakes and a locker full of our kids’ smoothies. A party in a box and enough tuck for 10 kids to have a rip roaring good time. To enter, just click here, preferably during break time.

Thriller Jim

Most people celebrate their 30th birthday with a bit of a knees up, a comedy flashing badge and two pints of mild and bitter. But not our Jim. To celebrate entering his fourth decade, Jim donned a red bomber jacket, worked out some killer moves and recruited a cast of tens to recreate Michael Jackson’s Thriller video. Rehearsals have taken place in the car park/bus stop, and costumes have been buried in gardens for that ‘authentic’ just-zombied look. The filming takes place after dark this weekend and the final cut will be previewed here in a couple of weeks time. For now though, here’s a taster of what’s to come: Jim. Some tight red leather. And a whole lotta hee-hee.

And finally...

This week’s news is brought to you by some wool, some knitting needles and the best hat puns this side of Hat Town. It’s hat time again…

Ready, steady, knit

It seems like only yesterday we were packing away our needles, shearing the last of the sheep and waving goodbye to the final little bobble hats from last year’s Big Knit. But here we are again, needles ready, sheep shorn and this year’s Big Knit chomping at the bit. Where there’s wool, there’s little woolly hats and this year we need your help to knit even more hats than ever. For every behatted smoothie sold, innocent and Sainsbury's will give 35p to Age Concern and Help the Aged to help keep older people healthy this winter time. There’s lots more info, snazzy patterns and knitting tips right here as well as details of where to send your hats and so on. The deadline for hats is 16th October, so there couldn’t be a better time to dust off your needles, grab the nearest sheep and get knitting.

Hat’ll do nicely

To help you whip up some woollen wonders, we've got 100 special Big Knit knitting packs to give away, each containing some smart new needles, posh wool, the latest in knitting accessories, patterns, stickers and a hatometer. Not to mention an array of bobble. All you need to do to be in with a darned good chance of winning is complete the following sentence:

"Knitting is my life because..."

Simply pop your answer here, cross every digit you possess and a box of knitting goodies could be winging its way to you very soon. Best of luck.

Hat of the week

Hang on to your hats - it's time to reinstate our thrilling 'Hat of the Week' competition. Each week, we’ll show you the crème of the woolly hatted crop and ask you to vote for your favourites. Sort of like X Factor but without the premium rate phone calls. The winning hat will then take pride of place on the plinth in reception and the proud knitter will win a case of our finest drinks. Going head to head this week, we have the Virtual Insanity Jamiroquai inspired hat from Alison of the 'Priddy Purlers' and the 'Majestic Mouse' from Mrs. Joan Lockett. Who will be first to the claim the coveted spot upon the plinth of purlfection this week? Click here to decide.

And finally...

• Old school computer
• Giraffe gallery (thanks to Deborah for this link)
• The lost world discovered
• The mango factor
• Cat orchestra (thanks to Stevo for this link)

“Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up and snow is exhilarating; there really is no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather” (John Ruskin). So that’s us told then.

innocent pictures proudly presents...

…our new TV advert for our kids’ smoothies. It features a young man called Freddie and hopefully the solution to an age old problem – mums want kids to eat more fruit, kids want to eat more Space Invaders (or whatever it is kids are into these days). Gemma (who is in charge of all things kids at innocent) got very excited when the ad appeared on her TV and took a photo. Of her telly (capturing the moment allegedly). You can do the same this week as our ad will be appearing during the ad breaks of Emmerdale and Ugly Betty (amongst others). Feel free to tune in to these popular shows for a glimpse of Freddie, or just watch it here.

The people have spoken

We've a tradition round here of making important decisions by throwing stuff in the bin. So we used this foolproof technique to decide on our new veg pot recipe. Or rather you did back at our AGM in May. All attendees were asked to vote for one of two recipes – a scrumptious woodland mushroom risotto versus a tasty butternut pearl barley risotto. A rice-off, if you will.

The voting was tense, the atmosphere electric, with a hint of tarragon. And the winner by five small votes? Autumn in a pot, or as we prefer to call it, butternut pearl barley risotto. In shops right now.

Wrap up warm

September heralds the arrival of Autumn, and also the arrival of the first little woolly hats for the Big Knit here at Fruit Towers. We got off to a flying start with an excellent haul from Ligia, who has already knitted 1,758 of the little critters. And then there were the Stitch and Bitchers, who came in for an evening back in what was apparently August, to knit in true group style.

This year we’re aiming for a whopping 620,000 knitted items. So, if you fancy flexing your needles and joining in or want to knock Ligia from her metaphorical perch (shaped rather like a large knitting needle) then everything you need to know can be found right here. Or if you'd like to get details by post, simply register here.

A shocking story

Let’s get right down to it – someone has nicked/kidnapped/hijacked our banana phone. It’s not good news. We’ve loved that phone dearly since we bought it back in 1999. It even has its own special page in our new book. So as you can imagine, we felt sick to our hind-quarters when we found out it had been pinched. And to add insult to injury, the ‘jackers want cold hard cash for it’s safe return. We don’t know what to do, but we do know that every penny is going to count. Read the details here, witness the sickening toilet torture for yourself and help us bring the banana back (please).

And finally...