No need for soaring energy use when you decide you need your first cup of hot chocolate this autumn.
Here’s all you need for a green cup of hot chocolate:
Step 1: Make sure you only boil as much water as you need for that hot chocolate. It’s easy to do with an Eco-Kettle or Tefal Quick Cup. At £29.50 you can’t go wrong with the Eco-Kettle. As an Eco-Kettle user myself, I heartily recommend them. The Tefal Quick Cup has had mixed reviews, and costs twice as much at £59.99. Design-wise it’s a more attractive thing to have on your kitchen counter, but looks aren’t everything. And there’s also the all new Morphy Richards Ecolectric kettle that has an 85′C setting for coffee and hot chocolate. Not a bad price at £34.99.
Step 2: Get your mug out. If it’s a global warming mug to remind you of why you’re making the effort to live green, all the better!
Step 3: Spoon some lovely Cocodirect Fairtrade Drinking Chocolate powder into your mug. It’s rich, creamy and velvety, and guaranteed to contain only Fairtrade cocoa beans and cane sugar from Latin America. At no less than 40% cocoa solids, it has almost twice as much as ordinary drinking chocolate. If you’re going to indulge, you do it properly!
Step 4: Pour the water over the hot chocolate, add a little organic milk if you like, and enjoy!
Best price for one of these babies ever (so far)! If you’re feeling the pinch, you’ll be delighted to know that an OWL wireless electricity monitor will now only set you back £29.95 (they usually cost £49.95).
The OWL shows you how much electricity you use and how much it costs you, as well as the level of harmful C02 emissions you are contributing to the environment through your electricity usage. It gives you everything you need to know to start saving electricity, and can end up saving you up to 25% on your electricity bill. So at this low price, your investment will pay itself back in no time, and save the planet at the same time.
My very first green gadget was a SavaPlug that I wired to an old freezer that was used to store my allotment produce. The old freezer saw its demise a few years ago and has been replaced with a super-efficient model, but it was the start of my love affair with green gadgetry. Wow, haven’t things moved on? Be warned, I’m no ecogeek, so don’t go expecting technical specifications and other techno-bafflement. This is my pick of green gadgets for the masses.
1. Freeplay Energy compact DAB wind up radio & flashlight
I’ll admit a bit of a penchant for wind-up stuff, so this one’s first on the list. The latest radio offering from Freeplay is a lot smaller than previous wind-up radios, and as the lovely Richard from Freeplay puts it in this video, the radio gives you more reward for your wind with an improved cranking mechanism.
2. Philips Eco TV
This sexy looking high-definition LCD television won the “Best in Show” award at CES2008. It’s the perfect telly for your off-grid home with several power saving features meaning it uses less electricity than a 100W lightbulb to run. These will be available from March in the States, with a price tag of just under $1400. Philips UK say they’ll be out here in March or April too, priced at £999.
3. Everex Cloudbook P40
A super-compact laptop with a battery that keeps going for five hours thanks to it’s low-voltage processor from Via. It comes with plenty of pre-installed open source software and is available from the end of January from Walmart stores in the US at $399. Sadly it seems these are going to be hard to get hold of in the UK, but things may change. Doesn’t ASDA belong to Walmart? Mmm, somehow I don’t see these lining the shelves of ASDA. Click here to read more…
Any advice offered on this site is to be taken in conjunction with your own intelligence and common sense. EcoStreet accepts no responsibility for anything negative that may happen to you. You are living your own karma.
Step 1: Make sure you only boil as much water as you need for that hot chocolate. It’s easy to do with an Eco-Kettle or Tefal Quick Cup. At £29.50 you can’t go wrong with the Eco-Kettle. As an Eco-Kettle user myself, I heartily recommend them. The Tefal Quick Cup has had mixed reviews, and costs twice as much at £59.99. Design-wise it’s a more attractive thing to have on your kitchen counter, but looks aren’t everything. And there’s also the all new Morphy Richards Ecolectric kettle that has an 85′C setting for coffee and hot chocolate. Not a bad price at £34.99.
Step 3: Spoon some lovely Cocodirect Fairtrade Drinking Chocolate powder into your mug. It’s rich, creamy and velvety, and guaranteed to contain only Fairtrade cocoa beans and cane sugar from Latin America. At no less than 40% cocoa solids, it has almost twice as much as ordinary drinking chocolate. If you’re going to indulge, you do it properly!
