Yes, it's funny to say "pea milk" out loud. Let's all pause here to get all of those very mature pea milk jokes out of your system. Shall we carry on?
The biggest brand in pea milk thus far has been Ripple Foods, a company that obtained US$44 million (NZ$60m) from Google and Silicon Valley venture capitalists, according to Bloomberg.
But it's about to get competition from Bolthouse Farms, the Campbell's-owned brand that is releasing its own line of pea milks this month.
The milk will soon be available in United States grocery stores including Kroger, Shaw's, Publix and Safeway's eastern division.
It comes in four flavours. Original, which is creamy and lightly sweetened' unsweetened, which has an earthier flavour; and kid-friendly vanilla and chocolate, which taste just like milkshakes.
Pea milk doesn't taste like peas, and it's not made in the same way almond milk is, by soaking in water.
At Bolthouse Farms, it
begins with harvesting yellow peas and milling them into flour. That flour is processed, separating the pea protein from the fibre and starch. The pea protein is further purified and blended together with water and other ingredients, including sunflower oil and sea salt, as well as vitamins such as B12.
"There's some taste trade-offs and some calcium trade-offs and most certainly protein trade-offs with all the alternative milks on the market," said Suzanne Ginestro, the company's chief marketing and innovation officer. Consumers "shouldn't have to compromise on those three things."
The Bolthouse Farms' milks have 10 grams of protein per serving, as compared to one gram in many almond milks.
It has more calcium than dairy milk. It is fortified with 110 per cent of a consumer's daily requirement for B12, which came out of consumer research that "found that vegetarians have a very difficult time getting sources of B12," which is found naturally in animal products, Ginestro said.
And environmentally, pea milk "has a much lower water footprint than growing almonds, and a much smaller carbon footprint than raising dairy cows."
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