muesli blog

There are people who love to make music… that’s not news. But it is unusual if a person likes to make music so much that one uses mymuesli tins, with or without the caps, full or empty, bowls, spoons and muesli mixes to make the drum part of a song. Combined with a little bit of electronic music and the right software you get the mymuesli-dance which is composed and produced by the musician and author Rich Schwab. We think this is a great idea. The mymuesli-fan surprised us with a mymuesli-CD - and his composition already is a catchy song, sung over and over by almost everybody in our office (just imagine the muesli-boys singing and dancing). We desperately want to share this song with you:)… and tadaa here on soundcloud you can find the masterpiece.
Maybe you are as creative as Rich and create a mymuesli-dance or video clip which fits to the Rich’s piece of music. We are curious…
You can find more information about Rich Schwab on his homepage, just follow this link

a TV-commercial for German and Austrian Television - filmed and edited entirely on the new iPhone 4. It’s finished now and we’re quite happy with the results. The idea behind this little project was to use the iPhone’s great capabilities to full effect and to create an actual TV-commercial - to be aired on Television for a large audience. Cool thing is: The Skydiver, Bernhard, didn’t drop it. And therefore all of our footage made it’s way into the final movie
But see for yourself:

mymuesli2go, a tv commercial - filmed and edited on an iPhone 4 from Max Wittrock on Vimeo.

Please note:

- Due to iMovie on the iPhone we weren’t able to do any colour corrections, just in case you wondered
- The last two screens (eg logo and domain) were added as Photos first, but the iPhone kept exporting them in very poor quality. Therefore we had to add them in iMovie (on a Mac) afterwards

Thanks to the guys over at Servus TV it will also air on Red BULL TV (Austria) between eleven and twelve PM, Saturday, July 10, 2010.

In Germany Red Bull’s very own TV station is supported by Zattoo - just in case you’re not familiar with their program or can’t watch but online.

The commercial will air on German Television approx. on Friday, 9 July, 2010 or Saturday, 10 July, on ProSieben.

Credits:
- shot, edited, directed and produced by Christian Kolb, Daniel Setzermann and Max Wittrock from mymuesli

- sky diver: Bernhard Kurz, jump4you.de

- music (making of): „Man” by Rampa, keinemusik.com

A little story about what Stone Age people and we have in common…
Strawberries, these little red berries, already loved by our forefathers still are one of the most popular summer fruits in Europe. Over two million years ago people gathered wood strawberries which are much smaller than the cultivated ones nowadays. Something which didn’t change within millions of years is the human hunting behavior… In the month of May you can observe crowds who attack market stalls and counters, people who want to get the best goods in the new season. Can you see the analogy to the Stone Age people…? I can totally comprehend this attitude - who doesn’t like to have fresh strawberries with whipped cream, a freshly baked strawberry cake or a yummy muesli with fresh fruit in it? My personal favourite is the traditional Bircher-muesli topped with tasty berries and yoghurt. If you don’t believe that this combination is by far the best - just try it yourself. You will be surprised…

You would like to have a strawberry-muesli but all the fresh fruit in your area is sold out? No problem… I’ve got some advice for you. Maybe you should just swipe some berries out of the neighbors garden (but watch out and don’t be caught) or you try a mymuesli-mix which should help you to keep up the peace with your neighbors. The Strawberry winter is not only loved because of the delicious strawberries in it but also because of the combination with white chocolate, almonds and cranberries. If you prefer a muesli with bananas or apricots or figs or coconut chips or…

here’s the easiest way to get it.

Thanks Daniela, glad you like(d) it!

Does Sachin Tendulkar own a bicycle? Probably, but we’re not exactly sure if he really uses it. But since the famous Indian cricketer received a Ferrari 360 Modena from FIAT a few years ago he probably doesn’t need it at last. And I’d assume that it might be a little difficult for the batsmen to ride a bike around town in India - people would literally freak out…
But Oli Broom’s challenge on the opther hand would not be difficult at all if it weren’t for the bicycle. Imagine Oli driving from London to Brisbane in an Italian luxury car. I suppose he wouldn’t raise any money for charities at all.
But Oli has come a long way since we met him at the mymuesli store in Passau, Germany. He cycled about 7,100kms through 15 countries, playing a form of cricket in all but Luxembourg, Slovakia, Jordan and Egypt. There are still more than 18.000kms to go. But were sure that Oli’s gonna make it in time for The Ashes. That man’s just gotta have an ace up his sleeve.
You can follow Oli online on his website “cycling to The Ashes” or read his blog.
Oli at the mymuesli store in 2009:

The American original. This is one old grain, cultivated in the Americas for thousands of years it was almost completely forgotten after the Spanish Conquistadors discovered the new world. They imposed laws that forced inhabitants to grow only old world grains from Europe and amaranth was completely forgotten….until the 1970’s. That’s when health conscious American scientists became very interested in it’s nutritional profile. Since it has been slowly growing in popularity because of it’s great nutritional value, it’s unique taste, and it’s ability to be used in different ways. Puffed amaranth, mixed with honey or other ingredients, is a very popular treat in many South American countries. It has some really healthy oils and can be used to make breads, cereal bars, and even porridge…but needless to say our favourite way to eat this great grain is in muesli, we think it was made to be there. We experimented with normal and puffed amaranth mixes and came up with a great balance that we think you will like and that we love. If you have another recipe for amaranth please send it to us, we really like hearing from you guys.

A little entry about pine nuts and winter‘s last leg…We‘re having some of our last snow falls here in Bavaria, and it doesn‘t look like the UK is faring much better from all of this awful weather and the seasons swinging back and forth. We’re really looking forward to some warmer weather so to make everyone feel a bit better we came up with a new pine nut mix at the office that‘ll help give an extra boost to get through the next few weeks. Spring officially starts in just one week on March 20th and I don’t know about you but I can’t wait to break out the bermuda shirts and the tropical pineapple muesli. But enough about things to come and on to pine nuts!. These nuts do actually come from pine trees, there are a variety of evergreens that produce edible nuts but we certainly wouldn’t recommend trying the ones in your backyard! Ours are specially grown and prepared to keep their all their essential oils, vitamins, and enzymes intact for the greatest benefit possible. They have a smokey, mellow flavor and contain lots of essential oils and tons of protein, as well as lots of other things your mom always said is great for you. But we aren’t the only ones who know that, a lot of wild critters feast on these evergreen seeds squirrels, songbirds, and quail. Plus the Italians use them in pesto. So be happy, sing a tune, and pop open a can of winter’s last leg muesli mix and munch away the next week until the sun starts shining, the squirrels come out to play and everybody can finally get into their swimsuits!!!

Espresso was created so people could get a quick coffee fix! But before we get into why, what are espresso beans?? I thought espresso was just some kind of coffee….They’re really just…*suspense*…coffee beans, usually Arabica. Espresso is a way of making coffee quicker by using pressure. An Italian, Luigi Bezzerea, invented this “espresso” machine so his employees wouldn’t take so long making coffee…that explains a lot about by grandfather….Now coffee’s a very complex world and if you’re eating espresso beans you may not have the time to read it all :-). So here’s a discussion about why espresso beans are such an effective way of waking you up even though they have less caffein than an espresso, and some more about espresso and coffee beans. But here’s some quick info: coffee beans are actually the seeds of a cherry like fruit that tastes like melon or jasmin. The majority of coffee comes from the Arabica tree which is considered to have the most flavor with out the bitterness of Robusta beans (commonly used in instant coffee) which actually have more caffein. Usually, the higher the tree is the better the coffee is because it takes longer for the fruits to mature and concentrate their flavors. The cherries are hand picked and it is a very labor intensive process to shell and sort and finally roast them (brings out the oils) and that’s what gives coffee it’s great taste. Baristas, Italian for barkeeper, are guys who love to make coffee and a counter culture that’s growing. There are a lot of ways to brew coffee including the drip, the french piston, and the italian espresso. But at the mymuesli factory we prefer to have little more time in the morning to enjoy our organic chocolate covered espresso bean mix just that much more.

A magnificent fruit, discovered by the Germans in 1904, they named it Apple, it which of course in German means “far from Doctor”. No, we’re just kidding. But the Americans do believe that Johnny “Appleseed” Chapman brought this bad fruit to the Americas (well he did plant tens of thousands in the American North East). I call it a bad fruit because its latin name is Malus domestica which is similar to the Latin word for “bad” or “evil” which, some scholars maintain, is why the fruit in the Bible is often said to be an apple. On the other side of the Mediterranean, the Greeks found it to be a forbidden fruit associated with scandalous behavior. They even thought that it caused the Trojan War - a young man named Paris had to decide the fairest of the all goddesses and he chose Aphrodite because she offered him the love of the most beautiful woman in the world: Helen of Troy. Although there are many tales of the escapades of the day, this especially offended the unspoken hospitality laws of the day….But it has a better rep in the UK as from the old English sayin’ “ate an apfel avore gwain to bed, makes the doctor beg his bread”. - Not only is it delicious and nutritious but this red delicious has lots of fiber too. Plus it gives your gums a massage! Crazy for a food that’s been cultivated for millennia. The “original” apple, still growing in the far middle east, is responsible for all the thousands of varieties growing today. Between apple pie and Bircher muesli…we don’t know what we would do without you…exept eat the rest of a delicious apple muesli we just tried. And if you’re still not satisfied, check out what Apple has to say about us.

Begrudgingly, I blog about our trip to the box factory. Knowing what an energy intensive process it is and how environmentally harmful it can potentially be, I can’t say I was excited. But was I pleasantly surprised! They had an enormous solar energy field to feed their machines, and a lot of the paper they used was recycled or from renewable forests plus they’ve been able to reduce the amount of paper they use while strengthening the boxes.
Go figure!
So we all started the day early with coffee or tea and muesli as usual, hopped in the muesli mobiles and headed off to our local box dealer. We got the 411 on how boxes are made, differences between materials and machines, the different processes and so on…. it was pretty rad!:) long story short we designed a new box from 100% recycled paper and using even less materiel is used to make it. Plus we have a lovely and new, eco-friendly mymuesli design so you can show off your boxes as well as your tins! Max even wore the special pants for the occasion. Check out some of the pics: