Our Light Sparkling range was nominated, and has made it as a finalist in the SIAL DÓr (Salon Internationale de Alimentation) Awards - a contest run as part of the world's second biggest food show held in Paris every two years. We're proud as punch and really quite humbled to have a product internationally recognised. Judging takes place in November, so we'll keep you posted.

At the end of the day though, it's you our loyal customer, not judges who we aim to please and will continually innovate for. As long as you're happy, we are!

Last month we added two Limited Edition flavours to our organic soft drink range. You guys love them so much we might have to make them part of our permanent family of drinks!

Creaming Soda harks back to a time when a carbon footprint was a mark on the carpet. We've created a natural vanilla delight using an authentic organic recipe. Give one a try and relive those milk bar days!

Our organic Herbal Cola does not contain da herb, but it does contain Ginkgo Biloba to keep you feeling sharp, Damiana and Ginseng for energy, and Passionflower to ree-lax. All combining to leave you feeling Irie mon! And in case you don%u2019t know what Irie means, it is Rasta for being at peace and harmony with yourself, and your environment of course.

A few months back we joined the campaign to remove the controversial and potentially dangerous artificial sweetener Aspartame (sometimes labelled deceptively E951 or phenylalanine) from our food chain. According to independent (non-industry funded) doctors and researchers, Aspartame can cause a range of symptoms ranging from mild and transitory to debilitating and life-threatening, eg. headaches, memory loss, vision loss, depression, seizures, tinnitus, brain damage, cancers, epilepsy. And it can even contribute towards obesity because it causes cravings for carbohydrates.


We think that%u2019s really bad so we made some ads and gave away flyers and bottles of our naturally sweetened cola to educate consumers on this dangerous neurotoxin. And we assisted the Safe Food Campaign to collect signatures on a petition that was presented to parliament on April 17th. Over 7,000 signatories have petitioned to have Aspartame laden drinks banned from schools and warning labels put on products that contain it, as well as an education programme for consumers and the medical profession.

So let%u2019s hope Government listens and act for the good of us all. In the meantime, it makes sense to avoid the stuff altogether. And here at Phoenix, that%u2019s exactly what we do. Find out more about Aspartame and which NZ products contain it %u2013 all here on our website.

We reduce, reuse and recycle everything we can here at Phoenix. Even our rainwater can%u2019t escape without being captured and put to good use. So it is with great fanfare that we welcome the humble worm into our workplace. These cute little invertabrates have been given a home by our worm nanny Megan May. They happily hang out in their little worm farm chomping on all our lunch scraps we feed them. Amazing how quickly they can devour that apple core or half eaten sandwich! And so too is the juice that comes out the bottom of their home %u2013 great for feeding to your pot plants! So here%u2019s to Lowly Worm.

Thanks to everyone who came to Phoenix Fest 08! The sun was shining, people streamed in from all entry points to Basque Park, the markets interested, the Funky Monkeys kept the kids happy, and the music entertained. Kicking off with SJD, the tunes were cruisy, then ramped up a bit with The Lewis McCallum Orchestra, and hit an all time high (and everyone on their feet) for Kora, our headline act.

With an estimated 15,000 people enjoying the Phoenix Fest over the course of the afternoon, it's become a must-have on Auckland's event calendar. So there's no doubt we'll be bringing it to you again next summer. Keep checking www.phoenixfest.co.nz for an announcement later this year of the dates and acts for Phoenix Fest 09. See you there!

We wanted to bring you something new this summer, and here it is, for a limited time only:

Limited Edition Creaming Soda
Harking back to a time when a carbon footprint was a mark on the carpet, we've created this natural vanilla delight using an authentic organic recipe.

Available now at selected cafes.

Also watch out for Limited Edition Herbal Cola - coming soon!

Basque Park, Newton, Auckland, Saturday 29 March, free entry.


Featuring:

• KORA
• SJD
• The Lewis McCallum Orchestra
• The Turnaround DJs

New packaging for the Phoenix Organic Carbonates range is starting to hit the shelves. With a natural background and bold colours to differentiate the flavour variants, our carbs cluster packs are hard to miss. One key change to note is that we're now using yellow for Ginger Beer, with Lemon Lime & Bitters retaining green as its distinguishing colour.

Look out for these packs in the mainstream drinks aisle of your local supermarket. And enjoy!

Today is a special day for us at Phoenix - one of our long termers, Alan "Chalky" Chalk is leaving us for his well deserved retirement. We'll miss Chalky and his old school ways. Sushi and even rice is a foreign food to him. And we love the story about how, when his wife got fed up with doing the dishes and bought a dishwasher, Chalky refused to plumb it up for her and it sat unused in their kitchen for 20 years. Chalky is a man from the good old days, "when men where men" and you did the dishes by hand. Good on ya Chalky, we'll miss you.

Wow, talk about a loyal Phoenix fan!

We've had an email from Rebekah in Sydney who tells us she's been drinking Phoenix for some time now and has just had a baby girl who she's named Phoenix! That's Phoenix and her brother Nash in the picture. Apparently Nash is also a huge Phoenix fan (both the drink and his baby sister!)

Phoenix Organics welcomes baby Phoenix into the world and congratulations Rebekah on producing two beautiful children!