Honest Pop Up Garden Event in South Bank London

Last week I was invited to attend a really cool event organised by organic tea company, Honest. They did a 3 day summer pop-up garden party which was called Honest Garden, inspired by the company’s commitment to sourcing organic ingredients for its products, where they were giving Londoners the opportunity to try refreshing experiences including Yoga, Salad lunches and Terrarium-making in an immersive green sanctuary right next to the River Thames.

On the morning of the event, the sun was shining beautifully and it was feeling warm too. Apparently, there were showers forecast and we were all praying for them not to happen! I guess it worked because the day was amazing, with blue sky and no clouds! I was actually thinking, how nice would be to be able to seat down on a beautiful fresh cut garden like the ones you can get from gardenerslondon.org.uk overlooking that gorgeous view!

It was a very early start but I didn’t care because it was a lovely sunny day. I really love sunny days, especially when I’m travelling into Central London because the views are just so beautiful. The location for this event, couldn’t be better. I have been around the area before but not particularly where the pop up was, which was near Gabriel’s Wharf not far from Waterloo or Southwark tube stations. For me it was a straightforward and enjoyable journey.

The day I was invited it was the launch event and Julia Bradbury (tv presenter) was our host for that morning. We also had people from Groundwork and Energy Garden LDN, a food YouTuber Food Busker and eco artist Sarah Turner. I will explain each of their roles below.

ABOUT HONEST

First, I would like to talk about Honest and explain a little bit more about them so you know what are they achieving. Honest Tea is a soft drink that combines herbal teas with a touch of sweetness to produce refreshing iced tea drinks. All the drinks are 100 calories or less. The bottles themselves are made from 50% recycled plastic, and the whole bottle and packaging are recyclable.

Honest have a really great background and all around ethos, helping communities and being a responsible business. In 1998, Seth Goldman and his Yale School of Business professor, Barry Nalebuff, launched HONEST out of Seth’s kitchen in Bethesda, MD. An active person, Seth was continually in search of the perfect drink to quench his thirst but the options were too sweet. Barry also believed there was an opportunity to create a less sweet, but flavorful beverage.

The Honest Garden pop up event was inspired by their commitment to sourcing only organic ingredients for their drinks and their campaign to bring green spaces back to unloved corners of the city. They played host to a series of wonderfully refreshing experiences – each with its own unique flavour. The connecting concept being well-being and health.

HONEST GARDEN WITH JULIA BRADBURY

I am sure a lot of you know who Julia Bradbury is. She is a famous tv presenter in the UK. She introduced all the guests. She revealed new research about how the nation wants to go back to the good life and spend more time in nature.

She was lovely and so down to earth, very natural and really easy to listen and talk to. She was great at her role and entertained us through the morning full of fantastic workshops.

HONEST GARDEN WITH GROUNDWORK & ENERGY GARDEN LDN

The first guest to talk was Ben Coles, director of Communities & Environmental Services at charity Groundwork London. He explained to us how it is transforming urban spaces into community gardens. It was really interesting. He also mentioned about Organic drink HONEST partnering with them to champion green spaces and urban gardening and encouraging everyone to connect with nature

After Ben, we had Agamemnon Otero who is a confounder at Energy Garden LDN. He told us a little bit about his background which was impressive. He is a cancer survivor and his story was very inspirational. He talked about how to apply practical solutions to social, environmental and economic crisis as well as about solar panels at overground stations. I thought what he had to say was very interesting.

HONEST GARDEN WITH FOOD BUSKER

We then had a fun workshop with John Quilter, who is a cook, presenter, writer, entrepreneur and YouTuber. He is the CCO and co-founder of Food Busker

He talked about the importance of growing your own organic ingredients in a cooking demonstration. He prepared a super tasty granola for us! It was delicious! I really liked it.

HONEST GARDEN WITH SARAH TURNER

Last but not least we had a super fun workshop with eco-artist Sarah Turner. She showed us how to make small planters by up-cycling HONEST Tea bottles.

Making my own planter

When Sarah demonstrated how to make it, she made it look super easy to do but then when it was our time to try, it was more difficult than what I thought but I must admit I felt very proud of my planter. Considering I am not good at this type of things, I think I made an awesome planter, LOL! What do you think?

Results

I was so excited about my planter that I had to take lots of photos! I think I took one in every corner, LOL! I thought it looked so pretty! 😉

The whole event was lovely. I learnt a lot about Honest and about the importance of spending more time in nature. This is something I am definitely trying to do more. I was also very happy to spot a familiar friend too. Louise from Birds & Lilies was there too and it was fun to spend some time together catching up over a lovely coffee after the event! 🙂

Honest organic drinks are so refreshing and perfect for the summer. I enjoyed the new flavours I was given to try. The one I enjoyed most was the orange and mango flavour which was delicious!

Have you tried Honest’s new range of drinks? Do you like iced tea? What do you think of this pop-up and the new partnership between Honest and Groundwork to champion green spaces and urban gardening? What do you think about the importance of reconnecting with nature? 

*Disclosure: I was invited to spend a morning at the Honest Garden pop up event in South Bank to learn about what Honest is now achieving, for the purpose of this blog post. This is a collaborative post with Honest. 

Thanks for stopping by,

Love you all ❤️

Franca  💋

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