c-ray
03-09-2007, 02:00 AM
from http://www.openminder.com/issue12.html
I used to drink this stuff, it's actually pretty tasty
Hemp protein can be processed and flavoured in any way soybean protein can. Hemp oil can be used to make highly nutritious tofu, butter, cheese, salad oils, and other foods.
Hemp produces twice as much fibre per acre as cotton! Hemp fibreboard is far stronger than similar wood products, and can replace almost every item used in building a house. (Except electrical wiring and glass windows). The Hemp plant has been used since the beginning of time as one of the world's most nutritious plants, second only to the soybean. Hemp can be grown in almost any climate, allowing for the world to be clothed, housed and fed! Hemp fiber, when wet, swells and forms a natural water barrier. The Hemp plant reduces soil erosion, thereby controlling mudslides and saving mountains and rivers.
With these claims and more about the miraculous hemp plant, the OpenMinder decided to find out how things are going with hemp in this valley, since it was legalized a year and a half ago. We will start off our investigation with a talk with Pavel Demitoff of Brown Bear Medicinals, who has been promoting a tea made from this plant and has been involved with the process from the start in every aspect of its production and promotion.
OpenMinder: What brought about the idea of hemp tea?
Pavel: Childhood memories. I remember the hemp plant all around. I remember cold teas out of the ice box. It was delicious and brings back good memories when I think of it. It seemed like a natural now that hemp is legal.
OM: Even though I've never heard of hemp as a tea before meeting you, I assume that it has a long history.
Pavel: Well, to start off with, hemp has a history of 10,000 years in the diet and medicinal aspects of our culture that we are able to document, not to mention that this valley has its history with hemp, too.
OM: When making the tea, do you use all of the plant when it is full grown?
Pavel: No. We use only the young green growing tips of the plant that gives the sweetest flavour to the tea. Picking only these tips makes it such a unique crop to harvest because you can start picking as early as 2 to 3 weeks after planting. When you pick that growing tip, it doesn't take long before there is double the growing tips to pick again. This way you can get many harvests per season. The plant, harvested this early, also has no time to build up any THC (the psychoactive ingredient) levels.
OM: How long does it take to get the tea to the customer?
Pavel: In 45 days from planting we've had it in the bags and on the shelves for sale. I don't believe that there is another crop you can do this within that short of a time, kind of like being on a 30-day credit plan. Being such a hardy plant, it can grow well under most conditions.
OM: With the hemp plant being so versatile, are you trying to develop other markets as well?
Pavel: There are so many aspects of this plant to experiment with. We have experimented with hemp tea in ice cream and have submitted a taste test to a representative of Baskin & Robbins ice cream. Hempty ice cream tastes entirely different than ice cream made with hemp seed oil. It is light and clean, with a green gold color. Highly appetizing to the natural food connoisseur, and the ice cream fanatic within us all. We have been trying hemp sprouts, which have a wonderful zingy taste. I can't believe how good they do taste, I prefer them to the other sprouts on the market. That is not even taking into consideration their nutritional value which I believe to be far superior. In the early part of this century New Zealand staved off starvation using the nutritional value in the seeds and other by- products of hemp. More projects include working with extracts and tinctures, to be used in teas and holistic remedies.
We feel this is a pretty good crop not only for people's health and the land, but also the farmer's pocket book.
OM: Can you elaborate on this last statement?
Pavel: The plant, being a high biomass producer yields a harvestable crop in a short time and helps to clean the air at the same time. Everyone has heard about the global warming, so the faster growing higher biomass producing plants like hemp are very beneficial. The fact that it thrives even more under ultraviolet light means it will work even harder to repair the depleted ozone. It is a way to reclaim lands lost to weeds, erosion, and lack of funding. Hemp has nitrogen fixing abilities the same as legumes, and can be planted as a cover crop or seeded in fall for an early spring crop. There are strains of hemp that will grow to more than 6 inches in diameter and 20 feet in height within 6 months.
OM: How much return for each acre could be expected for the farmer growing hemp for tea?
Pavel: I'm not sure, I haven't seen a crop grow a whole season, we have been wildcrafting up till now. There are so many variables to consider. It is a labour-intensive crop that is continuously harvested throughout the season. One could give an estimate of a 14 ton to 12 ton per acre.
OM: What is the best way to prepare the hemp tea?
Pavel: One could prepare it much the same a regular green teas, but to get the maximum benefit from the tea, you would want to add milk or a similar oil-based product while you are steeping it. The active ingredients are oil-based and are therefore released to a greater extent with milk.
OM: How much milk would you use?
Pavel: Not too much, about what you might add to your normal tea or coffee.
OM: How has the response been to "hempty"?
Pavel: That depends on if they have tasted it or not. Before they get to taste it, people are usually hesitant, but once they have tasted it, the response has been overwhelmingly positive. As far as the stores handling it, they are putting it on their shelves.
OM: The cannabis plant is under scrutiny for its possible medical uses, does the hemp tea lay claim to these benefits as well?
Pavel: The tea has always had pleasant associations with relaxation, but now scientific research from around the world is suggesting that the tea may have significant positive health benefits. Hemp tea is considered to be one of the healthiest drinks. It is a valuable provider of calcium and other minerals and vitamins as well as having a high antioxidant content. Taken without milk or sugar, it has no calorie or fat content, and is low in sodium. It also contains traces of proteins and carbohydrates, amino acids and lipids. The therapeutic benefits of this plant have been known for generations. It has been shown to be useful in everything from premenstrual syndrome to cancer therapies.
Scientific researchers are investigating how tea drinking can protect us from certain diseases. Scientists believe that drinking tea improves oral health by helping prevent dental caries. A British study published in 1991 suggested that heavy tea drinking could even provide some children with enough fluoride to prevent tooth decay. It has also been suggested that drinking tea decreases plaque. These effects are probably due to the tea's antioxidant components working in synergy with its fluoride content. Even with a high rate of tobacco use, the low rate of cancers has been attributed to the high consumption of green tea in China.
I've had very strong testimonials from people saying that it has cleared their husband's eyesight, that they have had their first good night sleep in years, and were actually very excited that now they could get this product.
We have been supplying compassion clubs with hemp tea for over a year, to be used as an alternative to smoking or ingestion of high THC strains, also with positive results.
OM: What do you see in the future for BBM (Brown Bear Medicinals) and the hempty?
Pavel: BBM is currently able to process and store 200 twenty-serving bags of hempty a week. In time we should be capable of processing and shelving thousands. With an import and export license hemp could be grown for the Canadian and world market. Japan and China are natural tea markets along with India and England. No one to date, at least as far as I know, is marketing hemp for tea. We already have a local network of customers in Grand Forks, also our other current retailers reach from Nelson to Victoria. The Calgary Herald, Monday Magazine in Victoria, B.C. and various other papers, both local and B.C.-wide have given us free ads, and interviews and an article about the hemp tea will be published in High Times magazine (Dec. 99 issue). We have been offered free advertising in Cannabis Culture. The green tea market is a million-dollar market in Canada alone and hemp tea can be a big part of it. Hemp tea is a natural!
I used to drink this stuff, it's actually pretty tasty
Hemp protein can be processed and flavoured in any way soybean protein can. Hemp oil can be used to make highly nutritious tofu, butter, cheese, salad oils, and other foods.
Hemp produces twice as much fibre per acre as cotton! Hemp fibreboard is far stronger than similar wood products, and can replace almost every item used in building a house. (Except electrical wiring and glass windows). The Hemp plant has been used since the beginning of time as one of the world's most nutritious plants, second only to the soybean. Hemp can be grown in almost any climate, allowing for the world to be clothed, housed and fed! Hemp fiber, when wet, swells and forms a natural water barrier. The Hemp plant reduces soil erosion, thereby controlling mudslides and saving mountains and rivers.
With these claims and more about the miraculous hemp plant, the OpenMinder decided to find out how things are going with hemp in this valley, since it was legalized a year and a half ago. We will start off our investigation with a talk with Pavel Demitoff of Brown Bear Medicinals, who has been promoting a tea made from this plant and has been involved with the process from the start in every aspect of its production and promotion.
OpenMinder: What brought about the idea of hemp tea?
Pavel: Childhood memories. I remember the hemp plant all around. I remember cold teas out of the ice box. It was delicious and brings back good memories when I think of it. It seemed like a natural now that hemp is legal.
OM: Even though I've never heard of hemp as a tea before meeting you, I assume that it has a long history.
Pavel: Well, to start off with, hemp has a history of 10,000 years in the diet and medicinal aspects of our culture that we are able to document, not to mention that this valley has its history with hemp, too.
OM: When making the tea, do you use all of the plant when it is full grown?
Pavel: No. We use only the young green growing tips of the plant that gives the sweetest flavour to the tea. Picking only these tips makes it such a unique crop to harvest because you can start picking as early as 2 to 3 weeks after planting. When you pick that growing tip, it doesn't take long before there is double the growing tips to pick again. This way you can get many harvests per season. The plant, harvested this early, also has no time to build up any THC (the psychoactive ingredient) levels.
OM: How long does it take to get the tea to the customer?
Pavel: In 45 days from planting we've had it in the bags and on the shelves for sale. I don't believe that there is another crop you can do this within that short of a time, kind of like being on a 30-day credit plan. Being such a hardy plant, it can grow well under most conditions.
OM: With the hemp plant being so versatile, are you trying to develop other markets as well?
Pavel: There are so many aspects of this plant to experiment with. We have experimented with hemp tea in ice cream and have submitted a taste test to a representative of Baskin & Robbins ice cream. Hempty ice cream tastes entirely different than ice cream made with hemp seed oil. It is light and clean, with a green gold color. Highly appetizing to the natural food connoisseur, and the ice cream fanatic within us all. We have been trying hemp sprouts, which have a wonderful zingy taste. I can't believe how good they do taste, I prefer them to the other sprouts on the market. That is not even taking into consideration their nutritional value which I believe to be far superior. In the early part of this century New Zealand staved off starvation using the nutritional value in the seeds and other by- products of hemp. More projects include working with extracts and tinctures, to be used in teas and holistic remedies.
We feel this is a pretty good crop not only for people's health and the land, but also the farmer's pocket book.
OM: Can you elaborate on this last statement?
Pavel: The plant, being a high biomass producer yields a harvestable crop in a short time and helps to clean the air at the same time. Everyone has heard about the global warming, so the faster growing higher biomass producing plants like hemp are very beneficial. The fact that it thrives even more under ultraviolet light means it will work even harder to repair the depleted ozone. It is a way to reclaim lands lost to weeds, erosion, and lack of funding. Hemp has nitrogen fixing abilities the same as legumes, and can be planted as a cover crop or seeded in fall for an early spring crop. There are strains of hemp that will grow to more than 6 inches in diameter and 20 feet in height within 6 months.
OM: How much return for each acre could be expected for the farmer growing hemp for tea?
Pavel: I'm not sure, I haven't seen a crop grow a whole season, we have been wildcrafting up till now. There are so many variables to consider. It is a labour-intensive crop that is continuously harvested throughout the season. One could give an estimate of a 14 ton to 12 ton per acre.
OM: What is the best way to prepare the hemp tea?
Pavel: One could prepare it much the same a regular green teas, but to get the maximum benefit from the tea, you would want to add milk or a similar oil-based product while you are steeping it. The active ingredients are oil-based and are therefore released to a greater extent with milk.
OM: How much milk would you use?
Pavel: Not too much, about what you might add to your normal tea or coffee.
OM: How has the response been to "hempty"?
Pavel: That depends on if they have tasted it or not. Before they get to taste it, people are usually hesitant, but once they have tasted it, the response has been overwhelmingly positive. As far as the stores handling it, they are putting it on their shelves.
OM: The cannabis plant is under scrutiny for its possible medical uses, does the hemp tea lay claim to these benefits as well?
Pavel: The tea has always had pleasant associations with relaxation, but now scientific research from around the world is suggesting that the tea may have significant positive health benefits. Hemp tea is considered to be one of the healthiest drinks. It is a valuable provider of calcium and other minerals and vitamins as well as having a high antioxidant content. Taken without milk or sugar, it has no calorie or fat content, and is low in sodium. It also contains traces of proteins and carbohydrates, amino acids and lipids. The therapeutic benefits of this plant have been known for generations. It has been shown to be useful in everything from premenstrual syndrome to cancer therapies.
Scientific researchers are investigating how tea drinking can protect us from certain diseases. Scientists believe that drinking tea improves oral health by helping prevent dental caries. A British study published in 1991 suggested that heavy tea drinking could even provide some children with enough fluoride to prevent tooth decay. It has also been suggested that drinking tea decreases plaque. These effects are probably due to the tea's antioxidant components working in synergy with its fluoride content. Even with a high rate of tobacco use, the low rate of cancers has been attributed to the high consumption of green tea in China.
I've had very strong testimonials from people saying that it has cleared their husband's eyesight, that they have had their first good night sleep in years, and were actually very excited that now they could get this product.
We have been supplying compassion clubs with hemp tea for over a year, to be used as an alternative to smoking or ingestion of high THC strains, also with positive results.
OM: What do you see in the future for BBM (Brown Bear Medicinals) and the hempty?
Pavel: BBM is currently able to process and store 200 twenty-serving bags of hempty a week. In time we should be capable of processing and shelving thousands. With an import and export license hemp could be grown for the Canadian and world market. Japan and China are natural tea markets along with India and England. No one to date, at least as far as I know, is marketing hemp for tea. We already have a local network of customers in Grand Forks, also our other current retailers reach from Nelson to Victoria. The Calgary Herald, Monday Magazine in Victoria, B.C. and various other papers, both local and B.C.-wide have given us free ads, and interviews and an article about the hemp tea will be published in High Times magazine (Dec. 99 issue). We have been offered free advertising in Cannabis Culture. The green tea market is a million-dollar market in Canada alone and hemp tea can be a big part of it. Hemp tea is a natural!