As a vegan couple we spend a lot of our time in the kitchen, preparing seasonal, fresh and nutrient rich food. However, our kitchen isn’t just a place we prepare food in, it’s also where we host water taste tests and presentations for Waterlyy as well as Niko’s favorite morning routine, freshly ground Italian espresso.
When choosing a new gadget, utensil or appliance we always ask the following questions:
– What materials is it made from?
– How long is it going to last? Maybe a lifetime so we can pass it on to our kids one day.
– Does it have excellent feedback and customer reviews?
– Is it going to save us money long term and could it potentially MAKE us money as an investment (I’ll get to this in a second)?
– Does the company donate a portion of its profit to local charities, plant trees or support animal sanctuaries?
After doing our own research and testing many products, we have put together a list of the 5 kitchen essentials we use every single day and we hope it can help you make a few more sustainable choices on your eco journey as well.
*This post contains affiliate links
Quick links for sustainable kitchen brands
Price range: $26 – $375 / 24€ – 333€
At Milky Plant you can find a variety of eco-friendly products for your kitchen such as: an instant nut milk maker, glass bottles and ceramic mugs for your delicious hot drinks.
About Milky Plant
Milky Plant is best known for its compact machine which can produce instant plant-based milk. This little gadget has been designed to eliminate the pre-soaking process, therefore you can have fresh and nutritiously rich milk in less than 5 minutes. All you have to do is fill up the water tank, add the ingredients (nuts, dates, seeds) and press the start button.
The company has expanded their product range and they are now offering glass bottles with metal lids and ceramic mugs for cappuccino, hot chocolate or latte.
What makes the Milky Plant so great is that for every order they plant 5 trees and give 1% back to the world’s most pressing environmental issues.
While living in Spain we came across ‘chufa’, also known as tiger nuts. It is a native edible tuber which is the size of a chickpea but it tastes like a creamy coconut. We buy chufa in bulk from our local market and we make fresh milk for our morning coffee and cereal using the Milky Plant. This is a great way to support the local farmers, eliminate our plastic consumption (by not paying for Tetra Paks) and saving money along the way.
Price range: $760 – $5,980 / 680€ – 4,200€
At Enagic you can find an array of sustainable products which can eliminate the plastic and chemical consumption in your home. Some of these products include ionizing water machines, a home spa system, a variety of pre-filter cartridges, wild turmeric tea and natural soap.
About Enagic
Enagic is a privately owned Japanese company providing people with clean alkaline water since 1974. The company has since expanded internationally and there are now offices in America, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Europe, Australia, Hong Kong, India, Russia, Dubai and Malaysia.
Find out more here.
We came across the Enagic products while searching for a water filtration system that we could mount on to our kitchen faucet. It had to be easy to install and dismantle when moving from one apartment to another (if you are renting, you know what I’m talking about).
We went a step further, because what we found is a medical grade device that can be transported through air security, because it has all the necessary certifications.
There are many different devices that we came across while doing our research, such as: water treatment systems with UV lights, purifiers, filters and machines for various methods of reverse osmosis. However in many cases the water that they produce is ‘dead water’ which means that it is depleted of the nutrients and minerals we need.
In comparison the Leveluk K8 produces ‘living water’ which is electrically charged, rich in antioxidants and hydrogen.
Since our bodies are made up of water it is essential to stay hydrated and to drink good quality water. We knew that buying bottled water isn’t good for our health and the planet, so we signed up for the Enagic financing plan and paid off our machine within two years.
One of the main reasons we chose to invest in Enagic is that once we purchase an Enagic machine we automatically receive a distributor ID number. This means that we can drink clean, antioxidant rich water and turn this investment into our own, online business and receive commissions for every direct sale we make.
Find out more about the business here.
Price range: $30 – $500 / 40€ – 600€
At Lomi you can find electric home composters which are great for people living in apartments with no access to outdoor or garden space to compost their food scraps.
On their website, you can now find activated charcoal filters, as well as nutrient rich pods and mineral blends which can speed up the composting process, add minerals and eliminate odors.
About Lomi
Lomi is a company dedicated to reducing the planet’s carbon footprint by transforming food scraps into healthy and nutrient rich fertilizer.
By using a Lomi home composter for a year, each one of us can help prevent the emissions equivalent to:
– powering a gasoline car for 576 miles / 927 kilometers
– burning 257 pounds / 116 kilograms of coal
– charging your smartphone 28,221 times
The reason why we chose Lomi, as opposed to any other home composter on the market, is because we have a limited amount of space. We also don’t have to worry about flies, insects or worms in the kitchen as well as having the right ratio of wet to dry ingredients (which is essential with standard outdoor composters). Plus there is no mess or odder coming out of the machine, we just have to fill it up throughout the day, close the lid and press a button. Not to mention that we have completely eliminated plastic bin bags from our home!
* Lomi is the sister company of Pela , which offers compostable phone cases, watch bands, cards wallets, AirPod cases and liquid screen protectors.
Price range: $15 – $2,200 / 13€ – 1,990€
At Breville you can find a wide range of products for your kitchen such as espresso machines, juicers, blenders, toasters, waffle makers and even pizza ovens.
About Breville
Breville, also known as Sage, is an award winning Australian-based company which uses high quality materials throughout their product range. The company focuses on sustainability and giving back to native communities. Breville is part of the ‘Fair Trade’ association, the ‘Sustainable Forest Initiative’ and the ‘Rainforest Alliance’.
All of these ethics are important to us, because we are passionate about tea and coffee and we know how labor intensive these two crops are to grow, harvest and process. Companies often add to this already serious issue by
– paying the farmers extremely low wages or using child labour
– designing and manufacturing machines with low quality materials
– selling us a trend
– polluting the landfill with tons of plastic (in the form of single use coffee capsules)
However, when we as customers demand change and we invest in high quality products these companies will respond.
We bought the Barista Pro because it gives us the ability to make high quality coffee at home. There is an integrated grinder with adjustable grind size and a TurboJet heating system that archives the optimum extraction temperature in 3 seconds. This technology uses up to 32% less energy annually compared to a Thermoblock heating system.
Price range: $8 – $456 / 7€ – 413€
At Xtrema you can find ceramic saute pans, skillets, bakeware and tea kettles.
About Xtrema
Xtrema is a family-owned company in New Jersey which specializes in natural and sustainable cookware made from pure ceramic.
Unlike other cookware products on the market which are made from a mixture of materials or have stainless steel core and non stick coating – Xtrema uses just one piece of kiln-fired ceramic which forms the entire body , including the handle and the lid.
The company has designed the cookware to be dishwasher and microwave-safe and they even have a scratch free surface.
We are very conscious about the products we invest in because we want them to last us a long time, maybe even a lifetime. We were looking for cookware that is made of natural materials which can be recycled and won’t harm us or the environment. This is why after doing our research and reading many reviews online we invested in our first Xtrema cooking pot. As we are using this product I want to create a whole post dedicated to this cooking pot and share our experience and results, maybe even a yummy vegan recipe.
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