This new system should be operational in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, you still can pay using paypal (even if you don't have a paypal account).

We are moving our shop to Kings Cross in January and we are also going to have a new mailorder website where you'll be able to order everything that's available at our London's shop. Yes, that means the whole range of biscuits, cookies and other vegan junk food.

Merry Christmas!

AND for those who can't make it to London, we will make everything available online. You'll be able to get some vegan Oreos and vegan cat food and vegan marshmallows through our brand new website.

We'll keep you updated but it's definitely happening in January 2010. Be ready.

WHO WANTS TO WIN SOME SSOV T-SHIRTS, STICKERS, PATCHES AND BADGES?

We are giving away some SSOV merch this xmas!

DO YOU WANT SOME?

Simple: post here a picture.

A PICTURE?

Yes, a picture.

ANY PICTURE?

No, it has to be about the almighty Secret Society Of Vegans.The best entries will win a t-shirt of their choice and many other goodies (stickers, badges, patches, Dame Blanche biscuits)!

WHAT SORT OF PICTURE?

You'll win if the picture is funny / crazy. Depending on the number of entries, we will reward the best three images. Go on, get your camera on and start shooting!

GO TO WWW.SECRETSOCIETYOFVEGANS.COM

Other news is that we have got a new zip hoodie, with PINK print. Check it out!

We are going to bring back the Nutty Chews (=vegan Snickers), Dame Blanche and... Vegan Oreos!

It looks like we should have some MacBeth shoes next month. Feel free to email us if you would like to pre-order a pair. We are going to keep a low price and I don't think you will find any cheaper anywhere.

SALE!

This month (June 2009), The Secret Society Of Vegans shop in Camden Town is selling all of the Vegetarian Shoes at a very discounted price! You won't find it cheaper anywhere else!!! Give us a call if you want to make sure we have got your size left in stock (075 2678 9432). Check the website for direction.

Ace Pump Black

Sizes: 37 / 38 / 39 / 40

Price: £45 £30

Ace Pump Olive

Sizes: 36 / 37 / 38

Price: £40 £30

Ace Pump Red

Sizes: 37 / 38 / 39 / 40

Price: £45 £30

Airseal 3 Eye Black

Sizes: 8 / 10

Price: £70 £55

Ally Sandal Brown

Sizes: 37 / 38

Price: £55 £35

Para Boot Black

Sizes: 6 / 9

Price: £90 £75

Veg Hemp Delite Black

Sizes: 42

Price: £70 £50

Veg Supreme Black

Sizes: 42

Price: £65 £50

We have won the 2009 Vegan Environmental Awards' BEST MEDIA category! Yay! It was happening at the Bristol Vegan fayre last weekend. We had a good time at the fayre. A lot of people showed up and everybody seems to have enjoyed themselves. Next year we are competing in the best dancer section.

We have got some new yummy treats waiting for you at the SSOV Camden Town shop! Check this out:

Vegan Instant Cappuccino! ideal for traveling in hostile territory (France, for example), this is amazing!

Vegan Chocolate Wafer. Delicious and addictive.

Vegan Biscuits!. We have got some new choco and non-choco biscuits in stock. They are amazing! Check the pictures!

We also have the usual treats (Nutty Chews, Tommy's chocolate bears, Choco Scottish Shortbread, Dame Blanche, Notnuts choco bars)

Our shop is open from Tuesday to Sunday.... More info on the SSOV | CTS website!

And we found it!

It's located in Coptic street, near the British Museum. It's no longer called V&M Express. It's called now Next Generation Gourmet. They have been open since last week. They serve the same stuff they used to have at V&M Express. They are going to start selling vegan cakes soon too. There's a bit more space for sitting down. It's still mostly a fast-food / take away place.

Yay!

We are working on a new project right now, we are going to launch another SSOV website. It will have a forum, interviews and guest bloggers. The site is slowly filling up with features and interviews. We will announce its launch soonish.

We have got the Sarah Kramer's 2010 calendars. We need to send them now to our distribution centre. They are super cool!

Our shop in Camden Town is doing well, thanks to all the people who are now regularly visiting us. We have received another delivery from Vegetarian Shoes and we have got some more crazy vegan junk food in stock now. Instant vegan cappuccino anyone? We also have some Scottish shortbread, choco waffers, caramel/coffee bonbons... We have also some new bags. We have printed the Birdies bag on a green eco bag. Come and see it for yourself!

We are getting some of these calendars very soon. They will be available online and also at our Camden Town shop! Yay!

Hey! We've got a SSOV mug! Check it out!

A new UK website called veganfood.org.uk has interviewed the SSOV. Click here to read it.

"[My car is] very light, though it isn't as efficient as one those horrible cars, what are they called? Those new sort of smart cars. It's not like I take it out apart from the odd spin at the weekend or something, but in my defence I am a vegan, and that diet is very good for the environment. I can't back it up scientifically and I don't know who said it, but a vegan in a 4X4 is still using more emissions than a meat eater on a bicycle. I went to this talk by this guy from The Vegan Society and he was talking about people having enough land to sustain themselves, and he was saying a vegan could live off one acre of land using the resources of everything within that acre. So environmentally, I'm covered."

Alan Donohoe (The Rakes) while talking about his passion for classic cars and hatred of Jeremy Clarkson...

Read article here

V and M Express, the vegan burger place is closed. We are devastated. The V and M Dining next door is still open though....

We were at the Brighton Vegan Fayre on Saturday. It was nice meeting all of you. The fayre wasn't the big success the organisers expected. I reckon that the £8.00 ticket to get in was a big factor. The venue was massive and it was a bit too big for a first-time event such like this one. I got lost trying to find the campaign room. The usual food stallholders (Veggies) were not allowed to sell food, the venue had the monopoly on food and drinks. Food was crap and expensive. I don't drink but my friends told me that the beer-flavoured water sold for £3.50 a pint made them quite annoyed. Oh well.

We met Elsa from POP MY CHERRY vegan cakes. She makes some amazing cupcakes. And she is a SSOV agent as you can see on the picture, she's wearing a SSOV apron. She doesn't have a website yet, I'll post it here when it's online.

We got the new issue of Off the Hoof, the magazine launched by Yaoh. It's issue two and it's as shocking as the first issue. It looks like it's designed by a colorblind 12 year old who's just discovered PaintBox. There are some good articles in there but it's ruined by the visual diarrhea. The same graphic designer is responsible for the atrocious posters and promotional leaflet for the recent and upcoming Vegan Fayres. This is not helping to get our message across the mainstream as it makes us look cheap and crap.

This is Shaun. SSOV Camden Town Shop's very first customer. We had our opening on Saturday and Shaun was there at 11am. We love Shaun.

We would appreciate if you could spread this banner all over the interweb. Just copy and paste this code onto your page:

Thanks!

The shop is located in the Camden Market Hall in front of the Camden Town tube station.. Have a look at our brand new website.

We hope to see you there!

I will keep you updated and let you know the exact date of the opening...

As you might have heard here on this blog, we have been nominated at The Vegan Environmental Awards 2009. We are in the 'Best vegan Media' section.

We were ahead of the poll last month, crushing all of competitors. We are now head to head with the Veganvillage.com website. We can't lose! I repeat: WE MUST NOT LOSE! Death before dishonor!

You people need to go on this website and vote for us in the Media Award section.

Come on people! Make us proud!

Our U.S website has been offline for a while, we are sorry about that. We had a lot of trouble with the move of our stock to our new distribution center in Reno, Nevada. The good news is that all of the stock has been sent and we should be able to re-open the website around (or maybe before) the 20th of March!

Thanks for your patience!

March is going to be a busy and exciting month for the SSOV. First, we will be at the first edition of the Brighton Vegan Fayre. It's happening on the 21st of March. A lot of people seem to dig the new additions to our grocery section (Dame Blanche, Nutty Chews), well my friends, we are going to bring out more of these sort of chocolatey mini orgasms. We will have some big bags of chocolate cookies and sandwich cookies (like Oreo's but vegan!). We will also have some SSOV mugs too! And before you ask, yes the mugs are BLACK!

Now after reading this, you must be wondering why the above picture showing Camden Town tube station? Is it because a secretive vegan organisation is opening a shop in the Camden Hall Market on the 14th of March?

We have added another payment gateway to our shopping cart. It's now letting us accept payments with:

• Dankort Card (Danemark)
• Carte Bleue (France)
• Postepay (Italy)
• Sofort / Giropay (Germany)
• Laser (Ireland)
• Lastschrift (Germany)
• CartaSi (Italy)
• Nordea Solo (Sweden/Finland)
• iDeal (Netherland)
• EPS Online (Austria)
• POLi (Australia)
• ALL traditional credit cards (Visa, Solo, MasterCard, Amex etc..)

Click on the Moneybookers payment button in your shopping cart to use these options.

I have been told that a group of people have started a flickr group called: "The Secret Society of vegans rules!!!!!". They are inviting people to post their best SSOV pictures. There are already some cool pictures on there, feel free to upload/link yours. Go to Flickr (The Secret Society Of Vegans rules!!!!!)

To celebrate their 150th release, hardcore stalwarts Revelation Records have produced a new compilation and special Adidas shoes styled to match the labels colour scheme and logos. Those shoes are vegan and are made of canvas and fake leather! The compilation features covers of classic Revelation acts by modern bands and includes performances by Sick of It All, Terror, Ignite, Death By Stereo, Set Your Goals, Ambitions, Down To Nothing, Capital, The Scare, Mikoto, This is Hell, covering bands like Gorilla Biscuits, Youth of Today, Bold, Shai Hulud, Texas is the Reason and more. Only 150 pairs of shoes have been manufactured and they will be given aways to the bands involved in the compilation.

You can read a cool interview about this here...

The bestselling "Vegan a go-go!" book is back in stock! As an exclusive for the Secret Society of Vegans, all the books are signed by Sarah Kramer! Autographs hunters, Kramerophiles and ebay fiends: get a copy before they're gone!

"Hi to you guys, Just wanted to say thanks for the SSOV stuff i bought last week it is great and what a great valentines gift can not wait to see his face when he opens his SSOV apron, now all I can say is lets get cooking ha ha ha !!!!!! (made me laugh any way). You sent the stuff super fast which was great and I have been wearing my hoodie already, with all the snow it was super warm cheers from SharonXX"

This picture was sent to us by one of our South London (xSurreyxQuaysx) agent. Yes, it has been snowing here. You don't see this sort of things happening often here in London. So let's enjoy it and let's go make some snowmen/snowwomen today!

As you might have heard here on this blog, we have been nominated at The Vegan Environmental Awards 2009. We are in the 'Best vegan Media' section. I still don't know why we are a media entity now, the only thing I know is that according to the latest count, we are way ahead in the polls! Oh no, it looks like we might be winning this award and I will have to go on stage and receive the trophy from a dude dressed in a pig costume!

But it's not over yet! We might be ahead right now but I expect the competition to wake up and rally their supporters and family. You need to vote for us again until the voting process ends on the 30th of May 2009. You can vote once a month, so vote now and next month and next month and next month... Please go to this website and vote for us in the Media Award section. The results will be announced on Sunday 31st of May at The Bristol Vegan Fayre.

For those who were missing Peanut Chews (out-of-stock for a while, blame the $ rate!),we have finally sourced an alternative! Believe it or not but there's a Belgian company producing the same product under another name. Let me introduce you to Nutty Chews! Totally vegan and super addictive, these dairy-free Snickers are unbelievable.

Also, we have decided to share with you our favourite chocolate snack. Dame Blanche is a chocolate-cream filled biscuit that just tastes better than anything you ever had before... Sold in individual packet, it is the perfect chocolate treat that you can carry around in your pocket.

Look at what he's wearing?! Fur boots? Fur - Boots? What the F? It's so wrong on so many levels...

We have been nominated at The Vegan Environmental Awards 2009, but to win this, we are going to need you people to vote for us! For a mysterious reason, we are in the 'Best vegan Media' section, competing against some tough opponents (Lifescape, Off the Hoof, VeggieVision to name a few). We are definitely the underdog.

Please go to this website and vote for us in the Media Award section. You can vote as many times as you want, officially you only allowed to vote once a month. The voting process ends on the 30th of May 2009. The results will be announced on Sunday 31st of May at The Bristol Vegan Fayre.

The other thing is, that when you win an Vegan Environmental Award, you go on stage in front of thousand people at the Bristol vegan Fayre and receive your award from a man dressed in a pig costume... How surreal and awkward, haha. So, if you hate us - vote for us. If you love us - vote for us. If you love us but you would like to see us on stage being embarrassed - vote for us. We don't deserve to win so vote for us.

Neon Collective is a new vegan online store, they are based in the UK and they are selling some pretty stylish dress shoes. If you're into Stella or Bourgeois Boheme, you'll probably going to dig their shoes and bags.

Open for a couple of months now, the ALL VEGAN takeaway & restaurant V&M has become our favourite guilty pleasure. We are pretty much regulars now of the takeaway, going there any chance we get. We just can't get enough of the Chix Royal (fake chicken burger) and Chix Nuggets (dipped in vegan mayo!). Their hot chocolate is probably the best in town, made by melting Plamil chocolate spread in warm soya milk and topping it with soya whipped cream.

But enough of the take-away, it was time for us to try the V&M Dining located next door. As we sat down, we were greeted with some courtesy spring rolls and a off-menu courgette/tofu/ginger/vegan fish dish. I must say I was quite impressed by the fishy tofu/courgette plate. This is definitely not something I'm used to get in a vegan restaurant.

What's funny about the whole menu is that they barely mention that everything is vegan. I'm not even sure they mention it at all! There's a page at the end of the menu explaining the pros of vegetarian food. And that's it. So, it must be a bit confusing for a vegan tourist to go there and order some Bikini Shrimp Salad or crispy chicken. V&M seems to want to employ a vegan Trojan Horse tactic by banning the word 'vegan' from their menu and therefore attract the sort of people who would never step into a vegetarian restaurant. This is an interesting idea but I think they should place here and there some hints that it's safe for vegans. The Secret Society Of Vegans is all about mysterious codes and secret hand-shakes so we might have to help them a bit on this...

But let's go back to the food. We had the Bikini Shrimp Salad (lemon pepper shrimp on a bed of mixed lettuce & red cabbage in a light fruity dressing), which was very good and if you're regular at the vegan chinese buffets located all over London, you must have tried the vegan shrimp before. We then ordered the Portabella Mushroom (portabella mushroom, mozzarella, & basil) served in raviolis and the Lobster which looks similar, but has vegan lobster (!!) bits in it. Strange as it sounds, it was pretty good.

For dessert we had a try at their homemade strawberry ice cream with orange slices. And it was pretty good too.

We are going to go back to try the other dishes as the menu has many that sounds as good as what we had for our first time there. You can find more info on the restaurant here.

Read our previous review of the V&M Expresshere

Ira Black's myspace page about the hunger strike

The SSOV has been selected from amongst many hundreds to be nominated in the Vegan Environmental Awards 2009.

The Awards have 9 categories for 2009, with 9 nominees in each – and the full list appears on the Yaoh Home Page www.yaoh.co.uk

Voting starts online from Jan 21st 09 and anyone can vote once a month until the lines close midnight May 30th 09, and the results will be announced on Sunday May 31st at The Bristol Vegan Fayre.

Voting is open to anyone anywhere in the world and will be hosted on www.veganfayre.co.uk from 21st Jan 09

ON THE 21st OF JANUARY, PLEASE VOTE FOR THE SECRET SOCIETY OF VEGANS.

We have run out of the bestselling cookbook "Another dinner is possible", AK Press (U.S.) is going to re-print it in the States and we should get some more in April or May. We are going to get more of Sarah Kramer's "Vegan a Go-go!", we have managed to convince Sarah to sit down and sign each book. We are getting more vegan condoms next week. We should also get a new product called "Chunkies" in stock, have a look at their website.

You heard it first but we are talking about opening a shop in London. Don't tell anybody but it could be happening sooner than you think. This shop / boutique will be selling what's available online and also some other things like shoes, belts and other vegan leather products. Please drop us a line or leave a comment below if you have got any cool ideas or thoughts on the subject.

Just to let you know that we should get more vegan condoms in stock soon. We are also trying to get more Peanut Chews and are about to add some more of vegan jerkies flavors and styles in our grocery section. We should get some new SSOV belts soon.

Have you seen
our new t-shirt? It glows in the dark!!!

Happy New Year fellow vegans! 2008 was an exciting year for the SSOV and we believe that 2009 should bring us even more action-packed adventures. We are about to launch a North American version of the UK website. What has been available so far in the U.S., was sold through our distributor at MerchLackey.com. We thought it was time to get a real website with info, news and more. We are also going to handle the distribution ourselves and we are going to try to open a new branch in Canada.

Talking about Canada, we are discussing with a famous tattooed vegan cookbook author the possibility of producing and selling some merchandise featuring her stylish image. Stay tuned.

Located on Greek street (w1) in the heart of Soho, V&M has just opened its doors. We went there last weekend and we were really impressed by the take-away / fast food place. Yes, two places. V&M is actually not one but two restaurants next to each other. One is the take-away/budget/food on the go (V&M Express) one and the other is a Mediterranean / gourmet restaurant. We haven't tried the gourmet place yet as they were about to open at the time we were there. But the take-away is amazing.

99p for a delicious hot chocolate topped with Soyatoo whipped cream? 99p for a vegan burger? £2.29 for an amazing vegan chicken burger with vegan mayo? A large soya shake for less than £2.00? Yes. Say goodbye to your skinny fit jeans, they won't fit you soon.

V&M is open from Monday to Saturday. They plan on opening more branches, one in Golders Green and one on Theoblads Rd (WC2). I have been told that the main restaurant is going to have a lounge/bar in the basement, I had a look at it and I can say that it wouldn't surprise me that this becomes the new hot spot for the veg celebs you usually see eating at Mildred's or VitaOrganic.

For more info, check their website.

The new Unicorn t-shirts are here! Printed with white and SILVER inks. Yay!

Yes, this is the Glow-in-the Dark t-shirt I have been talking about for a while now. We have finally found a printer that could do the job for us, we should have some t-shirts in stock soon. I can't wait to get one for me!

Congratulations to Sarah Kramer, Veg News Awards 2008 winner!

We were at the West Midlands Vegan Fayre in Wolverhampton yesterday. We had a stall there. We met a lot of nice people. But my favorite part of running a stall at a vegan festival is not answering questions about the SSOV. "What is the Secret Society of Vegans?" is a classic one. Some guy asked me what was the symbology behind the design used on one of the trucker hat. I just blurted out: "I don't know mate, 'looks good mate..."

The nice people at Yaoh gave us a copy of the magazine they have just launched. It's called Off The Hoof, it costs £3.95 including shipping (UK). I'm always really rude with the Yaoh guys and they never told me to piss off. I don't know what's wrong with them, haha. The SSOV is probably going to get involved with Off The Hoof in the next issue. Talking about magazine: we have re-designed the youth/student page in the Vegan magazine (The Vegan Society). Alex C. from Nottingham Student Veg Soc is now in charge of writing the youth page and got us to design it. It should be out soon.