Need sweets?

credit: NeedSweets

Did I promise a couple of days ago that this blog will get an impressive reboot in terms of content? This is just the beginning of what I wish to be a very rich year of posting and tasting interesting products, recipes and  chasing top-notch subjects. 

This gorgeous menu will start with a very delicious portion of sweets from Need Sweets, a company based in UK but delivering sweet treats for customers all over the world. Orders over £50, there is a free delivery waiting for you. And, there are kosher marshmallows too!

Nick and Elisa Edwards, the bright minds behind this funny sweet brand took a bit of their busy time for talking with me about their never ending love for quality vegetarian desserts and their plans for the next 12 months.

How did you have the idea of creating this company?

The concept of Need Sweets was born a few years ago out of frustration. We were two sweet toothed vegetarians with over 18 years of vegetarian living between us. We had managed to get our sugar fix from the small range of vegetarian sweets on offer at our local organic food shop but mainly from chocolate and ice lollies which is all very well but its not the same as sweeties and marshmallows! 

Children and life have delayed things for a few years but in October 2012 we launched Need Sweets online. Being keen internet shoppers ourselves and aware of the benefits of specialist products being delivered to your door we decided to create a one stop shop so that any vegetarian can buy their favourite treats with ease and confidence.

‘’Our vegan products do not contain any dairy, eggs or any other products which are derived from animals or use animal based components in their production’’.

What do you bring new on the market compared with other similar companies?

Years of trawling through endless lists of ingredients only to find the disappointing “gelatine” told us that vegetarians find it hardest to find suitable gummy sweets and almost impossible to find marshmallows they can enjoy. Our aim is to offer our vegetarian customers a genuine choice from a range that includes high-street brands and artisan producers. We carefully select each of our products by taste testing them first, something we see as a perk rather than a chore! 

Currently we stock a wide range of marshmallows from 4 producers and 20 lines of sweets which are all suitable for vegetarians. We are currently expanding our vegan range but as it stands all of our marshmallows and 7 of our sweets lines are suitable for vegans. All our products are suitable for lacto-ovo-vegetarians (who eat both dairy products and eggs) and our list of approved ingredients is as defined by the Vegetarian society. Our vegan products do not contain any dairy, eggs or any other products which are derived from animals or use animal based components in their production.

Tell me something about the preparation of your products.

Our vegan marshmallows are our flagship products. We started off by sourcing Sweet & Sara marshmallows which are produced in the USA and have a large fan base in their home country. They are a delicious, chewy hand-made marshmallow which are fully vegan, kosher and made with natural ingredients. 

Next we found some chocolate coated, agar based marshmallows from a Polish producer. These have a firmer bite to them and are really more-ish with a hot drink. Then the UK came up trumps as we found the lightest and fluffiest range of marshmallow sticks and minis from Sweet Vegan. 

The minis are great in hot chocolate and the cubes in the Vanilla stick toast just like their gelatinous air-puffed cousins, better in fact. We are just beginning to stock some lines from Ananda's agar based UK produced range. We particularly like using their mini marshmallows in our home baking.

Our sweets are carefully sourced and currently all hand packed however we will be expanding our range to include more pre-packaged, natural and organic gummy sweets in 2013. We are currently experimenting with recipes for our own products but they're not ready to go to market yet.

What were the most successful products in 2012?

Our bestsellers of 2012 were our Sweet & Sara Vanilla marshmallows (£6.49 for 170g), our vegan marshmallow sticks in “try me” selection pack  (£3.50 for 100g) and mini marshmallows (£4.50 for 150g). 

Our most popular lines of sweets were cola bottles but vegans embraced the fizzy fish and flying saucers. (All sweets currently £1.49 in our January sale until midnight 31/01/2013, usual price £1.99.)

What are your plans for 2013?

We will continue to expand both our marshmallow and sweet ranges further in 2013. We are excited about developing our own range and will continue to drive forward in that direction so that we will have something new to offer soon. 

We are looking forward to meeting some like minded people at Vegfest (Europe's biggest vegan festival) 24th-26^th May 2013 at the Harbourside in Bristol. We'll be there with our marshmallows in the Amphitheatre marquee on Saturday and Sunday and we're offering free sweets with every purchase. It's a fully vegan festival with stalls, markets and music so there's no excuse for not coming and finding us there if you're within easy reach of Bristol.