What is hemp milk?

Hemp milk is essentially the cream of hemp seeds combined with water. Our variation, hemp creamer, is just as simple: creamer for your coffee (or tea, if you prefer) made from hemp seeds. Elmhurst Original Unsweetened Hemp Creamer is crafted using a unique method, HydroRelease™. This allows us to use real hemp cream, rather than the oil byproduct.

As Elmhurst prides itself on nutrient-richness from the source, we’ve minimized the clutter in our creamer. There are only four ingredients – led by water and hemp seeds, which combine to form the hemp cream that gives this product its name.

Finding it hard to get past the word "hemp"? Understandable. It’s loaded with connotations, myths, and questions. In the middle of these are some secret benefits, making hemp creamer more than just a novelty or gimmick. Indeed, it has every potential to be a coffee essential.

Will hemp creamers show up on a drug test?

You will not fail a drug test if you use hemp creamer.

Will hemp creamer get me high? Also a no.

The reason our hemp creamer will not get you high or show on a drug test is in the plant itself. A common misunderstanding has equated hemp with the stuff used to make marijuana. In fact, these are two very different strains of cannabis – some think different species altogether.¹

As relates to psychoactive drug effects, the key difference between the Cannabis sativa subspecies sativa (industrial hemp) and indica is THC. THC is a compound that reacts with certain cannabinoid (CB) receptors in the brain. Behavioral and psychological effects may include euphoria, altered time perception, lack of concentration, and a strange attraction to tie-die.³

For many years, industrial hemp suffered from an erroneous hemp = THC/cannabis/marijuana equation. These were the days of the crime dog, singalong “don’t do drugs” television commercials, and the inevitable “kid caught with pot” episode of every single Friday night family television program in America.

But we all become wiser in time. The 2018 Farm Bill finally removed cannabis with a THC level of 0.3% or less (classified as “hemp”) from the Controlled Substances List.⁴ This timely legislation has cleared the way for Elmhurst to create a legal, perfectly safe hemp creamer.

Elmhurst’s hemp creamer falls within the regulatory limits for THC, containing only trace amounts inherent to hemp seeds. You will not get high or make you fail a drug test from consumption of our creamer at any level. It’s also perfectly safe for children and pregnancy.

The benefits of hemp milk

Wrote early American author-philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson: “What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.” We might have substituted “hemp” for “weed” – at least until recently. (Amazingly there is no pun intended in this conversation.) Now we have discovered that the benefits of hemp are quite exceptional – for both body and earth.

More and more, nutrition and the earth go together. We need our health to be good stewards. And the land sustains us in return. With its trifecta of Omega-3, Vitamin E, and Sustainability, consuming hemp – including hemp creamer – is a great way to achieve a well-balanced array of benefits that make a difference.

How does hemp milk taste

It’s hard to define hemp milk – or, in this case, creamer – with precision because flavor can be a matter of opinion. What we can say with confidence is that it might not taste like anything you are used to. This comes with the territory of being a new idea – but you figure chocolate was new at some point, too!

So, you may find it an acquired taste. Or you may think it’s just plain good. Either way you’ll get your omega-3s. Here are some words that may describe the flavor:

• Natural
• Nutty
• Earthy
• Authentic
• Neutral

That’s an interesting set of ideas, isn’t it? For more insight, we took our hemp creamer on the road to some happening coffee joints. Here is what people thought!

Remember – with Elmhurst the grain, nut, or seed always leads. That’s the nutrition you are getting. And that’s the flavor channeled from nature.

If you don’t find our hemp creamer to be a flavor explosion, that’s good. Subtlety is the point. We don’t want to overpower the coffee; there are some pretty luxurious roasts out there that deserve better than to be buried in a creamer. Our hemp creamer is accordingly designed for balance – forging an alliance with, rather than rivaling, your cup.

How is hemp milk made?

"Let’s start at the very beginning." So said Maria von Trapp in The Sound of Music. In this case, it isn’t the Austrian Alps but the outstretched fields of North America.

It was quite a long road for agricultural production of industrial hemp to even be legal in the U.S. Now that we’ve finally crossed that bridge, here’s how hemp creamer gets to you:

Hemp milk ingredients

There are just four ingredients in Elmhurst original unsweetened hemp creamer. Two – hemp seeds and water – form hemp cream.

Hemp Seeds

Hemp seeds are about 32 percent fat, a vast majority of which is polyunsaturated (PUFA), with a “perfect” 3:1 omega-6 to omega-3 ratio.¹

Filtered Water

Water covers 70 percent of the Earth’s surface and is necessary to life. Only 2.5 percent is fresh water, but this gives us what we need to make hemp cream and pass hemp seed nutrition along.²

Other ingredients, including minerals, may be added to hemp cream in small amounts for functionality (dipotassium phosphate) and to balance taste (natural flavors).

Dipotassium phosphate. This is a water-soluble salt that improves our hemp creamer’s performance in coffee. It is “generally recognized as safe” by the FDA.³

Natural flavors. All of our natural flavors are plant-based – derived from spices, fruits, vegetables, herbs, roots other plant materials. They are considered safe by the FDA and American Vegan Association, and are Non-GMO project verified.

Many companies call their plant-based products “milk” or “creamer.” But not all use the same number of grains, nuts, and seeds. One way to assess this is through nutritional comparison. For instance, Elmhurst’s original Milked Almonds™ has 5g protein per serving compared to the corresponding Califia Farms product’s 1g.⁴ Also notable is how many extras – like gums – are needed to give the product a milk-like texture.