A thing of beauty, no?
I’m so excited (or maybe it’s a caffeine buzz)! But I just made the best cappuccino I’ve ever had in my life (see above- I was so happy I took a damn picture of it).
I recently bought a Bialetti Mukka glass cappuccino maker from Williams Sonoma after looking for a stovetop latte/capp maker for ages.
Why stovetop? I don’t want another hunk of metal sitting on my countertop that sucks electricity from the plug. And those plug-in machines are expensive! The glass Mukka was $99 (the metal one is only $89). And I knew they lasted forever since my dad has his that he bought in Italy over 30 years ago. But I could never find one in the States (the stovetop espresso-only machines were easy to find, but I wanted to be able to steam milk too).
The glass Bialetti latte/cappuccino maker
I guess they’ve just started importing them and I snapped one up as soon as I heard they were available. Then I swung by Whole Foods at Columbus Circle in NYC (my shoe repair place is practically next door) for some delicious organic espresso beans.
I don’t really drink milk, and while I do enjoy soy milk, I also eat tofu on a pretty regular basis; on the advice of my holistic health nutritionist, Cynthia Stadd, I’ve been trying to mix my milk subs up with rice, soy/rice blends, almond and most recently, hemp milks. Having tried rice, soy and hemp milks in my new little capp maker, let me wholeheartedly endorse Living Harvest hempmilk as making the creamiest, richest, closest-to-cow’s-juice froth of the three.
I’m a huge fan of hemp products as you can read here and here, but other hemp milks (unless they were chocolate, or mixed with cereal) were a little strongly flavored for me. But this stuff is creamy, not ‘hempy’, and packed with Omega 3’s and 6’s. Cut the sugar by choosing original which is unsweetened. You can always add agave for a mellow sweetener if you really need it.
Yum Yum!
With some organic cinnamon and nutmeg on top and a square of fair-trade Endangered Species dark chocolate in the bottom, this is a serious afternoon treat for only about 160 calories.
Ooooh, thanks for the recommendation! That looks awesome! I, too, have been searching for soy milk substitutes and lately have been using almond milk a lot, but that hemp milk sounds great.
06/18/08 » 7:38 pm »
I love the hemp and have been giving it to my toddlers. I wonder why Living Harvest is not organic, though?? Hemp Bliss, another popular brand, is organic but they use cane juice, whereas Living Harvest uses brown rice syrup. There is some debate as to which is a more suitable sweetener. Still, I wonder why it is not organic? Perhaps, since it is not being grown in massive quantity for food, it is not modified or sprayed anyway?
06/19/08 » 9:45 am »
Love this post. I’ve been a fan this hemp milk for a while and didn’t dawn on me to use it in a latte. Now I’m rabidly in love with that stove top latte maker. I hope my huge, counter-hogging coffee maker won’t find out I’m contemplating this affair!
06/19/08 » 2:00 pm »
Nuts! I didn’t even notice if it was organic or not! I’m calling them!
06/19/08 » 2:56 pm »
Hmmm….on the package it says “Living Harvest supports sustainable farming. The hemp seeds we use to make Living Harvest Hempmilk are grown without herbicides and pesticides.” Sounds like organic, since I don’t think hemp seeds can be GMO.
To me this translates as either we’re basically organic but 1) Our certified organic USDA paperwork hasn’t gone through yet OR 2) it takes three years of growing organic crops on a field before it can be certified organic. Perhaps these hemp seeds were grown on transitional soil (in between chemical and organic farming).
06/19/08 » 3:01 pm »
OK, just got a call back from a very nice rep at Living Harvest. She said, “Our hemp seeds are Not sprayed with herbicides or pesticides. We use as much transitional seed as we can (this is from farms transitioning from conventional to organic practices-ed.) and work with farmers who are practicing sustainable farming techniques. The rest of our line (supplements and powders) is all organic and our company was founded on organic principles.
I asked if the line would be organic soon.
“We would like to but need an adequate supply of organic hemp seed to meet volume needs. All our hemp seed comes from Canada.”
Now if hemp were allowed to be grown in the US, there would not be this problem, but our government, as usual, has the whole thing backwards and does not allow a food product like hemp seeds to be grown on American soil. LAME!!
This company seems to be doing the right thing and I feel great about buying their hemp milk, and I would feel comfortable giving it to my kids, but I don’t have any! It’s every parents’ call to make.
06/20/08 » 9:11 am »
I used to go through two boxes of this hemp milk a week, then I started making it myself. It’s organic, fresh, and I no longer have to throw those boxes away. It’s very easy:
1/2 cup of hemp seeds (you can buy them at most health food stores)
5 cups of water
3 dates (or more if you want it sweeter)
a splash of vanilla or agave
Blend – I recommend the Vitamix blender – it’s incredible
Hemp milk is the best and it’s full of protein. Enjoy!
06/21/08 » 3:34 pm »
heating up the burner on a stove uses more energy than the machine and unpluging is easy as to not waste engery.
06/24/08 » 12:15 pm »
Organic hemps seeds are available. Nutiva (http://nutiva.com/) has entire line of organic hemp products including seeds. They are USDA Organic and Non-GMO. They have a lot of information on their site about hemp and US legislation. I have had the Organic Hemp & Flax Seed bars and they are very good.
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