That was the week, that was

Well, we had planned to blog a bit more than we have but to say the least, this week has been busier than we expected.

I did get a chance to snap a quick video of us from one evening though to give you a sense of what a soup monger gets up to after a long day's toil in the soup mines.

Reportage

Very excitingly, I woke up this morning to find in my inbox that we have been recommended by Edinburgh Reporter as one of the five things to know today.Admittedly we came right after reports of a "fowl" smell but nothing's perfect.

Other than that, today has been probably the last day off before the last push starts. The window seat ought to be being made right now which means that Elaine can get busy with the sewing machine and we're testing out some more savoury mufflets on guinea pigs friends tonight. The soup kettles have arrived and Elaine will be off to the suppliers for a bunch of exotic spices.

This time next week the shop fit will be complete (all bar the snagging) and big red will have arrived from Italy ready to brew the first of, hopefully, many fine coffees. After many months of hunting down sites, planning and re-planning menus, trialling recipes and a fair amount of medicinal whisky, Union of Genius is now only days away.

The perfect package

Who would have thought that packaging could be so exciting? Not me but now we have bowls, labels and printed cups. 25 boxes worth, all from our friends at Vegware.

Part of the ethos of Union of Genius is something we call "full circle." We don't want our soup packaging ending up in landfill. For that reason our loyalty scheme is going to be based on bringing the packaging back but to complete the circle we need packaging that is produced sustainably and can be easily composted. That's where vegware comes in.

Even the labels can be composted.

So right now we have 11,000 printed cups and lids with bowls, cutlery, brown paper bags and napkins on the way. And nerves. Plenty of nerves...