Bean There, Done That

Twenty years ago, you basically had two choices in milk: gallon or half-gallon.

Then along came fat-free, 1 percent and 2 percent. Then flavored milks, and organic milk, and lactose-free milk, and goat's milk. Today, however, one of the most common beverages being poured on top of cereal is actually not "milk" at all – it's "soymilk," a delicious and highly nutritious all-natural beverage derived from soy. And at Sprouts, one of the top-sellers is So Nice – an organic soy beverage that is all the rage among dairy department fans.

To answer the most important question first: yes, you can get a "milk mustache" after drinking So Nice Soymilk. After all, soymilk looks, smells, pours and tastes a lot like good old cow's milk. Only, soymilk is cholesterol-free, lactose-free, gluten-free, high in protein, and low in fat and calories. So Nice, indeed.

There was a time, not all that long ago, when soymilk was a fringe product, relegated to the little health food stores that sold gnarly produce and smelled of patchouli. No longer. US. sales of soymilk are now around $1 billion, and you'll find it in just about every supermarket dairy case in the country. (In fact, ever since the FDA approved a claim linking soy with heart disease reduction, overall soy product sales have skyrocketed, from $300 million in 1992 to more than $4 billion in 2008.)

One of the fastest growing companies in the category is Earth's Own, makers of So Nice Soymilk. A subsidiary of Australia's century-old Sanitarium Health Food Company, Earth's Own (formerly Soyaworld) is headquartered in Burnaby, British Columbia, a city of 200,000 just east of Vancouver. True to their roots, this is a company that does things right. Their tagline is "Towards a better organic world," and they are deeply committed to environmental sustainability.

For example, they maintain production facilities in both eastern (Mississauga, Ontario) and western (Delta, BC) Canada. This helps to cut down significantly on transportation costs and the burning of fossil fuels in bringing products to market. Among many other initiatives, Earth's Own also utilizes environmentally friendly packaging, and recycles solid waste from the soybean extraction process for agricultural purposes.

In the past, their website has even featured a section called "Project So Nice," which was sort of a bulletin board full of eco-friendly ideas and projects (car-sharing, anyone? electronics recycling?).

But at its core, that "better organic world" is one that is driven by consumers like you, transitioning into a lifestyle that is both good for you and good for the environment. By simplifying your diet with organic products, you can create a healthy balance for your life and for the planet.

How Do You Milk a Bean?

At Sprouts, you'll find half-gallons of So Nice Soymilk in Original, Vanilla and Unsweetened flavors. But how is it actually made?

Earth's Own starts with certified organic, non-GMO whole soybeans, which means they are grown without the use of chemical pesticides, fertilizers or genetically engineered seeds. These organic farming methods are helping to heal our earth by returning vitality and nutrients to the soil and keeping air and water safe from pollution caused by toxic pesticides and herbicides.

All Earth's Own soybeans are grown in Canada and the U.S. That's a bit unusual – because with the growth of the soymilk category, many manufacturers have had to turn to overseas sources for soybeans, such as China or South America. Not So Nice. They are an all-North American operation, and their products proudly bear the USDA Organic logo.

And while you might have a picture in your head of green soybeans, like edamame, the variety that So Nice uses is the white hilum, which of course produces white by-products. (Interestingly, there are also black varieties, which are sometimes used in China to make black soymilk.)

After the soybean harvest in the fall, the beans arrive in 25KG bags at the two Earth's Own extraction plants... and then the magic begins. The beans are poured into a big stainless steel hopper, and a soaking tower adds warm water to allow the beans to soften for 4-6 hours. From there, the bloated beans drop down into a 3'x2'x2' grinding machine, where the blades cut them into a mealy mush. Everything is then treated with heat – sort of like a pasteurization process – before moving on to a centrifuge, which separates and filters out the "okara" (fibrous portions), leaving behind a product that is about the consistency of cow's milk. (It helps that most soybeans start off with about 13 percent moisture content, and 20 percent oil.)

The soy liquid is shipped over to the production facilities the next day, either by truck or by pipe. Here, by Canadian law, it is fortified with important vitamins and minerals, such as calcium and vitamin D, to become the nutritional equivalent of 2 percent cow's milk. Vanilla, cocoa, sugar or other natural flavors may also be added. The batches are then exposed to an ultra high temperature process, heating them up to 145 degrees Celsius, which will help create the soymilk's extended shelf life of 65 days, 46 days more than cow's milk. It is cooled down in an aseptic tank, and packaged into the half-gallon containers, and loaded onto pallets for shipping. The whole process is carefully overseen, but is largely mechanized. Amazingly, the entire company employs only about 125 people.

So Nice and Easy

The final product is 64 ounces of goodness in a gable-top container. There are 6.25 grams of soy protein per serving. It is smooth, refreshing, great in soups and sauces and desserts...it's really hard to imagine that this came from a plant.

There's clearly still a big market for traditional milk, and always will be. Nobody is going to put Elsie out to pasture, so to speak. But in today's world, with great-tasting and healthful alternatives like So Nice soymilk, there is a range of products to suit different tastes and needs, and to help you introduce organics into your daily routine. Besides, with every carton of So Nice that you bring home, you can feel good knowing you're supporting an environmentally conscious company that is doing what it can to move us all towards a better organic world.

To learn more about So Nice and the benefits of eating organic, visit their website

from the May, 2010 edition of Fresh Off the Press