By The Green Parent
28th March 2018
“I made my first batch of almond milk on a bit of a whim not expecting much from it really. Having only tried the long life stuff in supermarkets, it blew my socks off. It was halfway through my morning shower that the idea of the delivery service popped into my head. One of those infrequent lightbulb moments that you either act on or forget about.
We produce a diverse and exciting range of alternative mylks and deliver them across London. Our rounds start at 5am. We grab the mylk that we made earlier that morning and load up the ‘Walnut whip’ aka our delivery bike and hit the streets, delivering to homes, offices, coffee shops and even boats. Normally our customers leave out the empties – we give 25p back for each bottle returned.
One of the nicest things about delivering ourselves is getting to know and meet our customers face to face. It’s refreshing to have actually have a chat on someone’s doorstep and spend a few minutes getting to know our customers. Particularly in an ever more digitalised world.
Everything we sell is handmade which can sometimes mean long shifts in the kitchen and sore wrists. The plus side of this is my new, almost superhuman grip! We tried using a commercial press but found that the mylks did not taste as good as when pressed by hand. Some of our more unusual blends have been the most well received, in particular the pistachio and sweet chai and our tumeric mylk, while our almond milk is perfect for day-to-day use. We’ve been trialing out a few new flavours at markets too, including walnut, date and fig, pecan and maple, cashew, cocoa and tonka bean and a cashew, coconut and pistachio mylk.
Our bottles are cute and nostalgic, but this isn’t actually the reason we chose to go with glass. From the outset I was determined that I didn’t want to contribute to the world’s growing plastic problem and made the decision that Mylkman would be a completely plastic-free business. The mylks taste better, look better and are better for the environment. We often turn the leftover nut pulp into products that we can give to our customers. These include energy balls, face masks and body scrubs.”
The Mylkman covers all London postcodes and plans to expand. Keep an eye out for him tootling down a lane near you mylkman.co.uk
KNOCK KNOCK - More ethical home deliverers
- Who Gives A Crap - Get 100% forest friendly (and very prettily wrapped) loo paper delivered to your door, with free shipping on most orders. 50% of the profits are donated to help build toilets. uk.whogivesacrap.org
- The Real Flower Company Beautiful - blooms from a LEAF Marked company – minimum cold storage, they cut only what they can sell, and use best practice farming methods. realflowers.co.uk
- The Soil Association - Use their website to find an organic vegetable box scheme local to you that suits your ethical requirements. soilassociation.org
- Green Book Club - Buy, sell, or swap books on this browsable site. 5p from every sale is donated to the Woodland Trust greenbook.club
