More from Belgium - Chocolate, not Brussels!

Hello!

A chilly start to the day here in the highest point on the railway main line from Southampton to London!  It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas as Jack Frost definitely nipped at the toes this morning.  So, enough of that lyrical waxing.  Chocolate!

Chocolate - 24vend is very open about our love for Chocolate and if you're a regular reader of our blog, you'll know that we have written regularly about this ancient and much-loved food stuff.  In fact, we are really hoping to see the Chocolate train in Brussels later this week.  Watch this space, as they say.

Chocolate - we were delighted to feature a really new and exciting, scientifically proven to be good for you, product at our recent "Being Healthy" conference.  For those who were busy vending elsewhere, here is some information from the fab team at "ohso" - may it whet your appetite and curiosity!

All of which goes to show that Belgium is famous for more than just Brussels!

Enjoy your day - the Friendly Vending Geeks!

  

PROBIOTIC CHOCOLATE BARS ENTER THE UK VENDING MARKET

ohso, the must-have healthy Belgian chocolate

 Ohso Chocolate, which is made from 53% delicious Belgian chocolate and is clinically proven* to be three times more effective at delivering your daily probiotics than a yoghurt drink, will be on sales in vending machines across the UK from next month.

Ohso will be the first probiotic chocolate to be available via vending machines in the UK and will be bought in packs of three available in both flavours, original and orange.

At just 72kcals per bar, ohso, the guilt free chocolate bar that loves your tummy, was launched to the UK market at the beginning of the year via Harvey Nichols Foodhalls. The product has seen rapid growth and has since gained listings in Tesco-owned Nutricentres and Ocado, as the shelves of many nationwide independent retailers.  

 “We are very excited to be entering the vending market”, says Andrew Marten, founder of ohso and director of Goodnesse, the company behind the brand. “Ohso is a perfect fit for vending machines. With no-added dairy, gluten and wheat and nut free, it’s a great healthy chocolate alternative. Each individually wrapped bar is designed to provide consumers with the optimum daily amount of probiotic to help support their digestive health, restoring the bacterial flora of good bacteria in the gut to help improve immunity and overall health and wellbeing.” 

ohso is also available to buy online at www.ohsolovesyourtummy.com

Note (and all the technical scientific stuff you require)

Recent figures show Britons have an insatiable appetite for ‘functional foods’ which have health benefits beyond basic nutrition and annual sales of such products are set to hit £915m by 2015 according to Mintel.

*Based on the survival rates of probiotics passing through the stomach to the small intestine, it was found that the survival rates in the probiotic yoghurt matrix were three times lower than in chocolate.  Source: Ghent University, Belgium

The 12 Vends of Christmas!

Possibly a little bit silly, terribly British and may not translate... but, hey ho (and Jingle Bells) it is that time of year...


To all our friends in the Vending Village, we proudly present....

12 Ounce cup of Coffee

11 Piping Lattes

10  inch colour touch screen

9  holes at lunchtime

8  too much chocolate (work with me on this one!)

7 days a week

6 months to AVEX!

5 gold coins!

4  course Christmas lunch

3 cans of Coke

2 finger Kit Kat

AND

A nice cup of freshly brewed tea!

Guinness Book of Records - Chocolate!

A train made entirely of chocolate sets a new Guinness World Record as the longest chocolate structure in the world. The train is 112ft long, weighs 1,250kg and took more than 700 hours to construct. The sculpture, constructed by Maltese chocolate-artist Andrew Farrugia, is on display at a railway station in Brussels

 Two of our favourite things - chocolate and trains

Praise be!

We will check this out when we're next in Brussels! 

Not sure it would work in even the most technologically advanced, touchscreen, smartphone activated, robotic vending machine!

Yours in vending chocolate
Gillian & Neil

In praise of Chocolate

Hello everyone

Another week and for all our American friends, it’s a short but busy one.  First celebrated in 1621 as an autumn harvest celebration, it wasn’t until 1863 (in the midst of civil war) that Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a set Thursday in November be celebrated as Thanksgiving Day.  Enjoy!

After that dose of history, let’s return to today’s topic; chocolate.  Even older than Thanksgiving, we have a great deal to thank the Aztecs for; Emperor Montezuma is long associated with this amazing product that stands the test of time and enjoys frequent innovation and reinvention.   So, in praise of chocolate, let’s start this chilly wintry week!

Some of you reading this may scratch your heads and take us aside to say, “we thought 24vend were all about health and stuff like that?”.  Indeed, you are absolutely right, but that doesn’t mean we can’t love chocolate.  The desire to be well, healthy and nutritionally positive does not negate the occasional indulgent decadence of polyphenol and flavenol rich chocolate.

Our stance is one of choice, education and responsibility (Corporate or Personal).  If we educate, inform and provide consumers with the knowledge that enables them to make good choices from the wide range of products available, then it is down to them to make a responsible decision about what they really need to consume.   I, for one, do not desire to live in a world where I’m told what to consume; we should rise to the level of responsible sellers, rather than run the risk of dumbed-down do-as-you’re-told decision-making through onerous regulation. 

No, it’s not simple, but if it were, life would be dull.  I would rather be challenged every day to be curious, learn and develop than settle for a world of monochromatic predictability.

So, can chocolate and health rub shoulders in a healthy lifestyle?  Absolutely, yes!  In the last few days, there have been a number of articles in praise of chocolate and you can read some of them here, and here!  

Nobody every said you should live on chocolate, and nobody actually makes you buy it; of course it’s marketed and advertised; if you buy into a world of consumerism (last time we looked!), then that’s business.   But, if the pre-frontal cortex drives you to a few moments of chocolate heaven, praise be!

Enjoy your week, good people of the Vending Village

Gillian and Neil

The Friendly Vending Geeks @ 24vend

Look up at the Stars

A flood of winter sunshine is gleaming on us as we write today’s news from the pews!  We’ve been busy packing goody bags ahead of next week’s Being Healthy conference.  A few more items to go, but first a cup of tea and a blog!

I wanted to thank and mention those that have helped make our goody bags interesting, different and tasty! 

Coeliac UK (of which I’m Vice Chair) very kindly donated the bags themselves and a quick word for those that may not be aware.  Coeliac disease affects around 1 in 100 people (UK) and is an autoimmune condition.  A lifelong adherence to a strict gluten-free diet is the way that those with the disease (including me!) stay healthy and well.  The charity obviously supports research in medical areas to improve diagnosis amongst other things.  It is also very important that food choices are available, affordably and tasty, particularly out of home – this is an area that I have worked very closely with the Charity in my role as Vice-Chair.  It is relevant to Being Healthy and vending as labelling and choice are paramount.  A coeliac can’t “cheat” on their diet and certainly can’t play roulette (Russian or otherwise) by hoping that the consumer information is right; it has to be!  Food for thought indeed.  A Charity I’m proud to support.

·       Warburtons, British and family owned are tempting us with baked pitta chips.  They also offer gluten free goodies but none available in vending (yet)(a not so subtle hint!).  Lower fat and salt compared to other savoury products, this is an interesting challenge to the regular “top shelf” items!

·       Multiple Marketing, another British based, family owned business, will be supplying a range of products, many of which are “school” compliant.  This is an interesting area for many in vending and often in debate – more about that at the conference (you have to be there to hear it!)

·       OhSoLovesYourTummy are a new player in the market with a fantastic probiotic, low calorie chocolate.  Can’t face a yoghurt drink to provide what your tummy needs, then look on further than this innovative, scientifically proven chocolate.  Mmmm, music to my ears!

·       Innocent smoothies are well known to all but never to be missed!  Supporting Age UK with their knitted hats every winter, they are a great example of companies giving back and making you smile as they do

·       24vend will also be supplying some healthy surprises!  Only those that book their place at the conference will be able to share the mystery!

We also wanted to make a special mention to some new friends of ours Planet Vending.  Friendly (like us!) and taking a fresh look at vending.  They include our blogs and thoughts about vending as well as lots of other useful and important points of view - head over there soon and tell them we sent you!

I’m sure many of you reading this will remember 2012 for great sporting achievements at both the Olympic and Paralympic games.  Stephen Hawking, one of the great scientists and thinkers of our time, gave us a phrase that I would like all of us in vending to take to our hearts  “Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Be curious”

Why not be curious and join the conversation next week?  You have nothing to lose!  

See you in Manchester on 12^th November

Curiously yours,

The Friendly Vending Geeks @24vend