Cheers to change!

I’ve been familiar with TOAST beer for quite some time but little did I know how they have expanded their offering from a humble pale ale to a great variety of planet-friendly brews. Founded by the food waste campaigner Tristram Stewart, TOAST is a social enterprise fighting food waste, climate change, and food poverty. Food production is the biggest contributor to climate change, so they replace a third of barley in their beer with surplus bread sourced from bakeries, at the same time helping to reduce food waste (so far, 2,622,291 slices have been saved and counting). All of their profits are donated to charities. It’s a win-win situation on every front. I was super excited to try the full range. The taster box came in compact, fully recyclable packaging and a nice intro note on their missing (printed on recycled paper, no less). I’m an IPA lover, so I had to start with their American Pale Ale, while my partner opted for the Session IPA. The Session IPA was light, smooth and clean, but it was the IPA that won heart instantly. With tropical scent and toffee notes, it’s a full-bodied beer with a fantastic depth of flavour. It is also sweeter than the Session IPA. We continued our journey with the Raspberry Sour. Fizzy, with a lovely rosy colour, it was the perfect thirst quencher during the recent heat wave. A limited-edition and a partnership with a fellow B Corp company - Rubies in the Rubble (which produces condiments from surplus produce) - it is part of Toast’s “Companion Series,” which is a collaboration with 26 breweries to create beers to highlight climate emergency. This one, specifically, was created for Earth Overshoot Day (the day in the year when humanity’s Earth resources and services in a given year exceed what the Earth can regenerate in that year). If you are a kombucha or cider fan, you’ll love it, and if you care about %, that’s even better, this beer has a very low voltage. The Coffee Porter is another collab with yet another good company Cafédirect. Brewed with Fairtrade Brazilian small-batch coffee, the beer has a rich, dark colour and an intense coffee aroma with bitter-sweet notes of burnt caramel. I rarely drink lager, but Toast’s lager can convert even naysayers. Refreshing, silky, and mouthful, it goes well with salty potato crisps. Pale Ale - light, smooth and clean. Its fruity scent hit me from the moment I opened the can. Caramelly in colour, it is richer than the lager, with nutty aromas and a slight bitterness. It goes well with snacks like BBQ almonds or salty peanuts. I'm generally not a fan of zeros (be it fat, sugar, or alcohol), so The Low Alcoholic Lager was my least favourite from the selection. It's very subtle, but I'm sure it has many fans among people who like ultra-light beers. If you’d like to try your luck with a planet-friendly brew at home, you can download Toast’s homebrew recipe from their website (with over 80 thousand downloads, it is clearly highly popular!). Toast’s website also inspires people to take action and to get involved in the fight with climate change. I don’t know about you, but I’m on board. #TimeToRiseUp