Nicking apples, in a good way...

There is a thing in Norway that we do, that is pretty rude.. so you should(n't) really do it. But most kids have done it. Which is stealing apples from someone's garden. I guess you didn't know that about the innocent Norwegians! We call it 'epleslang' (apple stealing, basically.. or scrumping, as they say in England:) ). If you were really good at it, no one would ever catch you. If you weren't.. Well..

Anyway, I just spotted that there is a company in Norway who has decided to make a profit doing this. I know right, professional thiefs!! So cool. Ok, so they might have asked the private garden owners for permission... But the concept is still really cool, and it is named 'Epleslang'. So what do they do? They collect the windfall from private gardens in the local area, make apple juice out of it and then sell it in local cafés. It is a great concept that raises awareness about the resources around us that we might otherwise discard! Another really nice part is: They create job opportunities for disabled people.

The bottle design is pretty nice too. It somehow does feel local, a bit quirky but at the same time honest. The way it has been wrapped around the top sort of resembles the paper bag homeless people (somewhere..) could wrap around a bottle of alcohol, but at the same time not (luckily). It becomes something different. Something original. When you "un-wrap" it, the inside of the paper gives you a nice bit of information about where the apples have been harvested and about the concept in general.

This is something you can drink with a good conscience: It's organic, local and you support disabled people. And it tastes bloody amazing!

Illustrations by Oslo, Norway based Peter-John de Villiers:
www.theshallowtree.com
in cooperation with Dinamo: www.dinamo.no

Epleslang: facebook.com/Epleslang
Anne Dubrau, one of the co-funders, with her very cute Norwegian-English accent: youtube.com/epleslang