There’s a new plant-based milk in town, and it’s causing a Ripple effect in the non-dairy category.
Those of you who are lactose intolerant likely jumped on the soy or almond milk bandwagon ages ago. Consumer thirst for an alternative to dairy has put milk made from cashew, coconut, hemp, flax, oat, macadamia, rice, and hazelnut on your grocer’s shelf.
The newest addition to the line-up comes from a small but might source: the pea. Ripple Pea Milk has many things to recommend it, but let’s get the questions on everyone’s minds out of the way first:
1 No, it does not taste like peas
2 It is not green
According to co-founders Neil Renninger, Ph.D., and Adam Lowry, “We decided to shake things up and create a new product from the standpoint of nutrition. Making a sustainable product is important to us as a company, but we believe consumers base their needs on nutrition.”
Peas are an excellent source of protein, as opposed to almond milk which contains only one gram while coconut and cashew have none. Ripple has 8g of protein per serving. Additionally, the unsweetened flavour claims half the sugar and 50% more calcium than regular milk, as well as 32 mg of DHA Omega 3’s. It may even help you lose weight: studies show that the protein naturally found in peas helps you stay full.
Perhaps the most enticing facet of this new offering comes on the sustainability front. If you replace milk with Ripple for one year, says the brand, you reduce your water footprint. It takes 93 percent less water to make Ripple than dairy milk, and it takes 85 percent less water to grow peas than almonds. California almonds account for 80% of the almonds we eat, and the industry has been blamed for playing a role in the water shortage. Why? Because that almond milk latte uses almonds that suck up 1.1 gallons of water to grow one almond.
In the David and Goliath battle of plant-based milk, it looks like the little guy offering excellent nutrition and sustainability could come up a winner.
Ripple is headed to Whole Foods in Canada this Summer.
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