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Irish VAT rates on natural healthcare

By Holo19th January 2019healthcare, natural heathcare, tax on health, VAT

A picture tells a thousand words – or in this case, actions speak louder than empty words.

A few months back the government levied 23% VAT on Kombucha. Now its the turn of food supplements (on 1st March, 2019) which many people rely on – it seems there has been a policy shift towards taxing anything that is natural and good for you. Health is not a luxury and should be exempt from VAT. These moves to levy VAT on natural methods discourages people from maintaining their health in a natural and preventative lifestyle and instead forces people into a reactionary and artificial pharmaceutical lifestyle. It leads to more people needing treatment in an already disastrous and overburdened health system.

Cleaning chemicals are as bad as cigarettes

By Holo20th February 2018chemicals in food, cleaning, sickness, toxic cleaning chemicals

It’s like people are waking up every day to the damage caused by the use of chemicals in their food, water, personal care products, clothes and environment. Sometimes it’s bewildering how these chemicals even make it past regulators, particularly into our food. Put it this way, anything in a factory that needs gloves, a chem suit and air filter probably doesn’t belong in the food being served. Trying to get this message out can be a bit like banging your head against a wall and then some guys and girls in white coats show up, publish a bit of research and Voila! it’s front page news.

Holistic Food

By Holo7th September 2017holistic food, life force, prana, qi in food, spiritual foods

What follows is a rough reconstruction of a presentation I gave at the West Waterford festival of Food.

Food. It’s something that permeates every aspect of our lives. From the moment we rise until we fall asleep, much our daily lives revolve around it. We’re all familiar with the food pyramid. Eat 5 a day fruit and veg and only now experts are saying our fruit and veg intake should be closer to 10 a day. Reduce the intake of fatty foods and so on.

#Winning – Great Taste Awards

By Holo29th August 2017competition, great taste, start up, validation

Thrilled that Holo Kombucha has won a gold star at the Great Taste Awards. 12,366 products were entered and 500 judges went sipping, poking, prodding, smelling and tasting (Let us save you some math – each had to taste an average of 25 products :D) . That means we’re in the top third of producers entered in the UK and Ireland. Go on Holo!

Queen of the Sea Festival, 2017

By Holo31st July 2017festival, queen of the sea, sharon shannon, youghal

Hometown festivals. They’re the best! Easy to get to, easy to roll home and lots of friends and family around. So it was with the Queen of the Sea Festival in Youghal. This is an annual festival that has grown year on year to become one of the main festivals in the town with fireworks, amusements, live entertainment and a bucket load of free activities for kids and families.

Happy Summer Solstice!

By Holo21st June 2017holo, hot, kombucha, summer solstice, sun

It’s sweltering. On one of the hottest days of the year with temperatures reaching towards 26 degrees, a cold Holo is gone beyond nice – it’s heavenly! On the Summer Solstice, I got to thinking about the last six months of the year which in a way brought me round to thinking of the journey so far.

The Stress Effect

By Holo30th March 2017change stress, life purpose, pressure, stress, stressed

Long before computers and office environments, when we lived with the monkeys and ran with the hares, stress was a necessary response to situations where we might find ourselves as dinner for some stronger, hungry dinosaurs. Stress is a fight or flight response and evolved to warn us about situations that might prove dangerous to our body integrity. It was no use reacting to a situation when a lion had half our hand – stress was the recognition that “this could get bad” and so we hightailed it outta there.

Soul Food

By Holo10th February 2017food for the soul, food for thought, gut feeling, lagom, religious food, soul food, spiritual food

The glossy mags have declared 2017 to be the year of Lagom. The Sweedish word means “just enough“. Like Goldilocks and the Three Bears, we should approach 2017 seeking to have just enough of everything. No overeating or undereating. No fanatical fitness or living on the couch for a week. Lagom implies just the right amount of time at work. The word implies a balance between all things.

We’re carbon neutral!

By Holo24th January 2017carbon neutral, care, climate neutral now, earth, kombucha

It would be nice to have a magic wand to fix the earth’s climate problems or better, a cheap, renewable source of energy we could give away for free (tell me again why we haven’t figured out the sun, wind and sea to mass produce energy?!). Until then, our little brewery has signed the Climate Neutral Now pledge, an initiative by no less than the UNFCCC secretariat.

Follow your dreams

By Holo23rd January 20171 commentdream, inspiration, journey, life, motivation, path

Don’t be afraid of following your dreams. So often, we see people following a path that is not theirs – it might be for family, out of fear, social expectations or simply they think they have no choice. Some of us operate on autopilot, drifting through life and never really experiencing the sheer joy (and fear!) that comes with following your own path.

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