Red Sugar Cafe

I am working here in Edinburgh, on my way to see my parents up in Aberdeenshire. Yesterday I decided to go and visit the Red Sugar Café, which opened earlier in the year. This is one place I have wanted to visit all year. I walked in scanning the products on display and their menu on the wall, when I was approached by one of the co-founders of Red Sugar, Steve Montgomery. Now, I’m 99% sure it was Steve Montgomery, I got so wrapped up in what he was saying to me, I forgot to ask. D'oh!

This guy obviously knows his stuff. He knew all the health benefits of each ingredient, where it came from, the environmental and Fair Trade ethics. What's more impressive, he has done this off his own back. What I mean by this, he didn’t take any raw food classes to come up with the cakes and smoothies he sells in his café. It has all been done down to research, motivation, passion and determination. He also sells some of the hard to get ingredients, which are pretty much only available over the Internet.

You can either sit inside the minimalist thoughtfully designed café or take-away your food that are served into recyclable corn-starched cardboard boxes. The café was designed by Steve himself (a trained architect) using locally sourced, recycled materials and LED lighting. Every little detail has been thought of and he seems to have a passion to improve this further in time.

I decided to sit in and ordered the Skin Pleaser smoothie (recommended by Steve) and a blueberry cake, whilst I read a booklet created by the team giving nutritional facts about the ingredients used in the café. My blueberry cake and smoothie were served in ‘gourmet’ style and wow, did it taste good. My socks were literally knocked off.

I really truly hope this café becomes a great success. We need to see more of this in this country and I hope they are able to extend in the future. If you are visiting or living in Edinburgh, I highly recommend you to check this place out. The food is a little pricey but these ingredients are organic, raw and some are not so easily available in this country. If you are new to raw, these cakes taste totally different to your standard cakes, much more healthier and worth every penny.

Steve and the team are extending their menu to include savoury items such as breads and burgers in two weeks time. I was lucky enough to taste a sample of one of their tasty flat breads. I can’t wait to see this develop further.

I wish the Red Sugar team much success and I hope to be visiting again soon.

www.red-sugar.co.uk

A new fridge!

Since coming back from California, I have been absolutely fed-up with my fridge. I was buying fresh fruit and vegetables and my fridge was just literally destroying the contents. The salad draws filled up with water. Salad or vegetables stored on the shelves just froze or rapidly withered away and I had to literally use an ice pick to get into the freezer draws. Sometimes I would just take one look at the fridge and decide to cook something instead rather than face the contents. The fridge was so old it was wasting food and energy. Enough was enough, a new fridge well over due. I finally got one ordered and it arrived last week!

The old one got quickly shoved out side waiting to be collected for recycling (if possible) and a gleaming new energy efficient fridge took its place. I knew the fridge was going to make a difference but I had not quite envisaged how much of a difference it was going to make.

Now my vegetables and salads last much longer than I thought, especially when stored in a green bag, bought from Asda (I used these handy green bags a lot whilst out in California). I can now find items much easier than ever before. I can freeze food without food getting frost-bite or wondering how will I ever get it out again. But the biggest impact, it has inspired and motivated me to stay raw. I now enjoy going into the fridge and pulling out fresh vegetables and salads to use in my meals. I no longer dread going into the fridge to be faced with moulding contents that might cause me to loose my appetite for raw food. And the best bit, I can know make raw ice-cream for those special treats.

Ok, I had for fork out a small amount money to buy a fridge freezer, but a little change like this has made the world of difference, helping me keep to a high raw diet.