Well, our first birthday has come and gone.  We had a great time – a visit from the Lord Mayor of Canterbury, a lovely feature in April’s Canterbury Index, a picture in the Whitstable Gazette, “mentions” elsewhere and many good wishes from our social networking friends, suppliers and fellow independent businesses. We’re grateful to all of them.

To mark the occasion, we launched our new home-made pink lemonade at a “1st birthday” price of £1.   It was an instant hit and will join apple mojitos as a “special” for the summer.  Meanwhile, our hot, spiced apple may have to stay on the Specials Board for some time yet, judging by the requests to keep it there.

We had a lot of fun with a very special offer of free chocolate to the first ten people to come in on the day and say “Happy Birthday” – with a bonus for people who sang.  Which they did!

Now it’s Easter which means that “Supplier of the Month” has to be The Kentish Chocolate Company which good-naturedly moved heaven and earth to bring us chocolate chickens, bunnies and eggs.  Working with this sort of Kent-based start-up, which puts all the value into high-quality products and keeps its packaging costs down, is exactly what we’re about. And it means that customers are amazed by the value-for-money on such great-looking gifts – the packaging may be minimal, but the effect is still chic.

Looking ahead, we’re moving steadily from coffee and hot chocolate into juices and smoothies.  Our next milestone will be our 5,000^th smoothie.  There’ll be a bonus basket of local produce for the person who buys it – and we’ll be doing a public count down when we’re getting near.

And finally, having started with facebook and twitter, and followed on with foursquare, we’ve launched ourselves on pinterest  – early days but it’s certainly easy to use and a nice way of expressing the brand’s “personality”.  We sometimes wonder whether the virtual world will eclipse the physical one day – but then we remember that using fresh produce to create products in front of our customers will mean that we’ll always be very grounded indeed. We'd be interested to hear others' experiences.

www.63harbourstreet.co.uk

www.facebook.com/63harbourstreet

www.twitter.com/63harbourst

http://pinterest.com/63harbourstreet/pins/

https://foursquare.com/v/63-harbour-street--juices-smoothies-coffee--more/4ef9b2c8a17cdc15b3e542f6

27 March 2012

Dogs Trust launches its “Chocs Away” Awareness drive

A shocking new survey* from Dogs Trust has revealed that over 57% of pet dogs have eaten chocolate intended for humans and over 1 in 10 have become ill from it. Of these, 8% have died due to the effects and nearly a quarter have required urgent veterinary treatment.

To prevent the number of dogs that end up hopping to the vet with chocolate poisoning, Dogs Trust, the UK’s largest dog welfare charity, is today launching a new “Chocs Away!” awareness drive to highlight the tragic consequences of feeding your dog human chocolate this Easter.

Sadly many dog owners are simply unaware of the dangers. Over 39% of dogs who ate human chocolate were given the treat by their owners and 61% found it themselves after it was left in easy to find places in the home.

Dogs Trust Veterinary Director, Paula Boyden, comments:

“Apart from the risks of obesity and the obvious dangers of eating the foil wrapping, the biggest risk of eating human chocolate is poisoning, resulting in an emergency dash to the vet and sadly even death.

Chocolate contains theobromine, which, although tolerated by humans, is extremely toxic to man’s best friend. The darker the chocolate, the greater the amount of theobromine. Toxic doses vary according to the size of dog and cocoa solid content of the chocolate. As a rough guide, Dogs Trust estimates that 50g of plain chocolate could be enough to kill a small dog, such as a Yorkshire Terrier, while just 400g could be enough to kill an average size dog.”

So, if you are partial to Easter Eggs and want to keep your dog safe, follow these simple rules:

Keep your “Chocs Away” – this means hidden out of sight and unavailable to your dog

NEVER feed your dog chocolate intended for humans

If your egg is missing and you suspect the dog is the culprit, contact your vet straight away

Look out for any of the following symptoms; vomiting containing blood, a sore tummy, excessive thirst, excitability, drooling, rapid heart rate, and in severe cases, epileptic-type fits

If your dog is displaying any of these signs then take him immediately to your vet

There is no antidote for theobromine poisoning with treatment being symptomatic. Therefore the sooner treatment is implemented, the greater the chance of recovery

If you want to treat your dog this Easter stick to natural doggy snacks that are kinder to your canine

Notes to editors:

*fatal doses of theobromine quoted in the range 90 – 250mg per kg of body weight, from  “The Handbook of Poisoning in Cats and Dogs” by Alexander Campbell and Michael Chapman (Blackwell Science). For the average Yorkshire Terrier we have estimated a body weight of 2.5kg and for an average dog we have estimated a body weight of 25kg.

Cases of death by an Easter egg alone are relatively unlikely, most reported cases of death by theobromine are from dogs eating cocoa powder and cocoa mulch in the garden, so please be vigilant if your dog is also exposed to these products.

*Survey conducted in March 2012 with over 1,115 respondents.

Case Study

Dog owner Anne Esposito from Kettering in Northamptonshire has first hand experience of the consequences:

“A few years ago my beloved King Charles Spaniel Hugo helped himself to the contents of an entire chocolate fountain. We discovered him the next day in a terrible state and rushed him straight to the vets where we were told he had severe chocolate poisoning and there was a strong chance that he would not survive.

Fortunately, after a long stay at the vets Hugo gradually recovered but he has been left with a compromised digestive system. He suffers from ongoing health problems and nearly died recently from an illness due to the lasting damage caused by chocolate poisoning.”

Further case studies are available on request.

For more information please contact Dogs Trust Press Office on:

Jennifer Blaber: 020 7833 7657 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Sarah Graham:  020 7833 7709 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

63 Harbour Street - nearly one year old and going strong!

Since 63 Harbour Street’s juicer first whirled into life last April, much has happened.  We've blended over 4,000 smoothies, used bushels of fruit and vegetables (all locally grown or locally sourced) and forged some great relationships with Kent producers.

Our suppliers include Whitstable's greengrocers Hedges, baker My Goodness and Olivesrgood4u.  Further afield we work with The Kent & Sussex Tea & Coffee Company, Little Stour Orchard, which answered our appeal for “single-estate” apples at harvest-time, Jemima's Kitchen and The Kentish Chocolate Company.  Like us, many of these businesses are in their first year.  We're finding our way together and sharing knowledge and skills where we can.

Another discovery has been social networking:  We like creating "limited-edition" juices and smoothies and we buy our products in small, fresh batches.  Twitter and facebook are great for letting people know what's new and we've found producers through them too.  It's a quick, personal approach that seems to work well for a "micro-business".

Some other things we've found:

- Lots of dogs love apples. "A smoothie for me and an apple for him please"  Well, it was news to us...

- Whitstable attracts a truly international crowd. We've had customers from all over the world - literally - in our first ten months. They appreciate really fresh products.  And visitors from coffee-growing countries have a notably professional interest in coffee - the blend, the grind, the Gaggia...

- We have Whitstable regulars too, which is great.  We hoped we would appeal to the resident community as well as to visitors and that seems to be the case.  Loyalty cards are booming...