19 July 2015

Cinnamongate: is cinnamon safe to eat?

We regularly get asked questions about the safety of cinnamon, e.g. “is cinnamon safe to consume?” or “how much coumarin is there in Steenbergs cinnamon?”  There's a lot of chatter about this issue in webworld and in blogs.

07 July 2015

Matcha Chai Smoothie - A Morning Pick-Me-Up

I was feeling a bit jaded this morning, so I needed a pick-me-up to kick start the morning.

24 June 2015

Cacao Chai Smoothie - A Quick Breakfast

This morning we made this dairy-free chocolate flavoured smoothie using almond and coconut milk.

05 June 2015

What is Steenbergs’ carbon footprint?

We seek to offset our carbon footprint so it is pretty small.

19 May 2015

What’s the carbon footprint of your cuppa?

It depends is perhaps the best answer.

25 March 2015

How much water is needed for a mug of coffee or tea?

The simple answer is not much – about 225ml.

01 May 2014

Axel's and Sophie's quirky guide to running a small business

Here’s our list of things we have learnt over the last 10 years of running a small start-up and a guide to the way we do business. It’s all rather homespun and certainly will never find its way into books on how to run a successful business nor in an...

11 April 2012

Life So Material

“For too long we seem to have surrendered personal excellence and community value in the mere accumulation of material things.  Our gross national product now is over 800 billion dollars a year, but that gross national product, if we judge the United...

24 August 2011

Another Poem By Yeats - The Second Coming

Another poem by Yeats, The Second Coming, was written in 1919 after the First World War and is a slightly depressing poem.  While about war - whether the First World War or the earlier Prussian War - it hints at the destructive power of humanity whet...

18 May 2011

Context...Social Dividends And Choosing Charities For Steenbergs Web-shop

So following on from my last blog, we see Steenbergs' brand as being entangled with our range, the quality of our products and the context of these products.  Where the spices, teas and blend ideas come from tells us about different cultures around t...

20 November 2010

Two Mugs Given As Presents

It was my birthday recently and  I had cheesecake for my birthday cake, which was a great idea.  I was, also, given two mugs by my children: on the first was written "My train of thought was 15 minutes late" and on the second "I've learned so much fr...

04 October 2010

Review of Gillette Fatboy Razor From Late 1950s

22 August 2010

Life Really Does Begin At Forty

I am 42 now and I have finally worked out what the phrase "life begins at forty" means.  It came as a Pauline moment as I was driving home the other day.  It really means that you only ever plan your life until you get to about 40 years old*, so now...

01 June 2010

Steenbergs Has Improved Our Range Of Household Cleaning Products

Did you know that one of my first jobs was in the Pets & Cleaning Department in Fenwick's in Newcastle?  And ever since, I have had a strange and haunting obsession for Household Cleaning products.  Well, I am not really that fascinated in them,...

28 April 2010

Fairtrade Flowers And The Volcano - An Update

This is the response I got from Sainsbury's on Fairtrade Flowers:

15 March 2010

Child Labour and Vanilla

There was a pretty damning article in The Times yesterday about child labour and low prices paid for vanilla from Madagascar - see http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article7060962.ece, however rest assured our vanilla beans are not c...

21 February 2010

How We Are Reducing Our Family Environmental Impact – Insulating the Loft

One of the major users of energy in a house is for heating the building.  Space and water heating in homes gives off about 20% of the UK's carbon dioxide emissions, which is about 5 tonnes CO2 per home every year.

13 February 2010

How We Are Reducing Our Family Environmental Impact – Getting Started

I thought we could share how we have tried to reduce our carbon footprint and what we are still looking at doing.