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4 Top Finds at Expo West

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Tracey Stapleton
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4 Top Finds at Expo West

News

When it comes to showcasing the natural, organic and healthy product industry, no one does this better than the Natural Products Expo West Show in California. This is a huge event attracting some 80,000 people and taking over, not only the Anaheim Convention Centre, but the nearby Hilton and Marriott Hotels. It even makes Disneyland look small!

Dr-Bronners

We were fortunate to attend this year’s show with our wonderful client, Dr. Bronner’s, the top selling natural soap brand in the USA, who you just can’t beat when it comes to being natural, organic and ethical. Preceding the annual 3 day symposium for Dr. Bronner’s international distributors in San Diego,  we spent a sunny Saturday touring Expo West finding out what else is hot when it comes to natural in the USA.  Here are 4 of our greatest finds:

KombuchaDog

kombuchadog

Kombucha, this trendy fermented health beverage which has been around for thousands of years, is really making a name for itself. With a whole host of companies showcasing their ‘pure’ craft brewed Kombucha , this drink is recognised as having a whole host of health benefits, particularly as a great detox. One of the most interesting Kombucha companies we came across was KombuchaDog.  This company uses raw, undiluted kombucha brewed using all organic ingredients and cold-pressed juices.  The drinks come in brown ‘beer type’ bottles with labels of different dogs. The dogs are actual LA-based rescue dogs awaiting adoption and so far, more than 150 of their featured canines have found their forever families. How lovely is that?

Ripple

Ripple-web

In recent years I’ve tried to cut down on the amount of dairy I consume but finding a milk alternative for my daily cup of tea hasn’t been easy as neither almond, rice, coconut nor oat milk does the job! So I was really excited to try ‘Ripple’. Ripple is milk made from split peas and it’s the closest I’ve found yet to dairy milk. It’s thicker than the other plant milks, creamy and has a fantastic real dairy taste.  What’s more it’s got 8 x protein of almond milk.  Unfortunately it’s not available in the UK yet but if it was, I reckon it would top the non-dairy milk charts!

Nellies All-Natural

nellies-s

I love vintage products and strangely I love cleaning! So the two are perfectly wrapped up in Nellies All-Natural, which makes natural cleaning products for the laundry, bathroom and kitchen.  Every dryerball, fragrance stick and laundry nugget is free of irritating toxins and phosphates.  Their packaging looks more 1950s with cartoon Nellie smiling as she tackles her daily chores!  I fell for this cute mini tumble dryer tin with ‘Nellies Lamby Wool Dryerballs’ which not only make my clothes nice and soft but the tin looks fab on my own ‘laundry shelf’.  Apparently their top product is ‘Nellie’s Wow Stick Stain Remover’ which I have yet to try but I’m told in order to produce it they tested all the non-natural brands and made sure it performed better than those.  Hurrah for Nellie and for keeping us naturally clean.

Confluence Coffee Co

Confluence-web

If you love your coffee strong then this is worth a try. Confluence Coffee Co is a craft cold coffee brewery which produces seasonal ready-to-drink coffee beverages which look like the coolest craft beers. There’s no alcohol in sight but what you do get is a line of cold coffee drinks which pack the punch when it comes to caffeine.  They use the finest organic and fair trade coffee and experiment with brewing methods to produce a powerful soft but very much adult drink.  I tried a sip of the House Nitro which was smooth and strong.  I’m not sure I could have managed a whole can but this is still one cool coffee drink.