Hello fine readers!

We are Team Goodnuss, a nut-milk innovation company from the quirky city of Portland, Oregon. Our mission is to give everyone the opportunity and the education they need in order to make their own nut milk, without the hassle or the mess.

Our goal is to encourage consumers to be more sustainable and enhance their health by providing information on creative ways to use their fresh nut milk and even how to use the by-products in sustainable and fun ways. We fully embrace the glory of the nut!

We are building a community of nut milkers, from the brand new to the experienced, and growing the (M.I.Y) Milk It Yourself Movement! Join us in the fun!

Today we wanted to share a little bit about the origin of Goodnuss, our ideas, and our innovative products.

What’s In a Name?

Good + Nuts = Goodnuss. It’s that simple, really.

The Story of Nutters…

Nutters is our absolutely fantastic mascot/logo inspiration. And like any great mascot, she has a killer origin story. It’s so amazing that we thought it necessary to create an illustrated version:

As you can see, Nutters is the coolest nut on the block. She represents the essence of the Goodnuss brand...great design and hilarious nut jokes. We hope you learn to love her and her triple utter awesomeness as much as we do!

What Do We Do?

We are nuts...honestly...and proud of it! Our passion lies in the benefits of milking your nuts...and how to do so with style! We offer a variety of products including:

• The Goodnuss Sack, the world’s first reusable mess-free nut milk bag
• Our very own healthful nut pulp replacements
• Milk-tastic accessories/brand swag
• Original (and borrowed but always hilarious) nut jokes

Our primary goal is to make nut milking easy, fun, and mess-free.

We are all about educating people on the benefits of nut milk both for their bodies and their sustainability interests. We boast loads of nutty fun knowledge and are excited to continue sharing more of it on our website! See...learning CAN be fun...and hilarious.

So why use our Goodnuss Sack to make your own healthy and delicious nut milk? You’ll learn much more about the plethora of benefits in our future blog posts, however, we think this graphic helps understand how wonderfully easy The Sack makes enjoying fresh nut milk:

Where Did We Come From?

Enter Lizz Hampton, our founder and the mastermind behind the large majority of our nut jokes. It all started in the BFA year of product design school at the University of Oregon. She was working on her final project and needed a problem to solve. She hated the HUGE mess that making your own nut milk made, but knew of all the incredible benefits she wanted to take full advantage of.

At the time, she didn’t know that this project would end up consuming the next four years of her life (and counting) but she just kept getting more and more hooked on the idea as time went on.

“I decided to start a company that would make it easier for people to enjoy fresh almond milk! It started with a simple product, but has evolved into so much more as time goes on. It became the “Milk It Yourself” Movement!”

Our Hopes for the Future of Nut Milking

Since our start, we have continued to be innovators in the nut milk industry and empower people to milk their nuts. Milk Your Nuts...You Know You Want To. We believe nut milk is truly for everyone and we want to make it as easy and available as possible.

We are working hard to take the stereotype out of healthy food choices. Our intention is to prove that nut milk benefits everyone, not just vegans or the dairy-free/allergen communities...shout out to the OG nut milkers out there!

We want to open the minds of the community to embrace nut milk as a healthy option for all. Not just for our bodies but also for our planet. After all, we need the earth to grow nuts and allow for nut jokes to be a thing…

We hope that you learned a little bit more about the origins of Goodnuss, our goals, our hopes for the future, and the nuts that fuel our fire. Stay tuned for many more posts all about milking your nuts, being healthy, and caring for the planet.

With love from our nuts to yours,

The Goodnuss Team

Be sure to follow us on Instagram and Facebook for even more nutty good updates and join our mailing list to get the latest posts and news right away!

Almond Milk: Why you may want to start making your own.

           By Wilfredo Benitez, www.EatRunandDone.com

You like almonds. You like milk. Naturally, almond milk makes sense to you. As a plant-based vegan, but also as someone who cares about the environment and animals, I’m glad you choose or are looking to choose a nondairy milk when you are at the grocery store.

I’m here to tell you, though, that you now may want to start thinking about making your own nut milk every once in a while. You may love the fresh, flavorful taste so much that you decide to only make your own nut milk and that’s cool too.

Absorption of nutrients

Making fresh nut-milk generally involves using freshly soaked almonds and soaking your almonds reduces the phytic acid in them. Phytic acid is an "anti-nutrient" that sucks or leeches certain nutrients from the body and is found in mostly all plant-based foods. Soaking the almonds and reducing that phytic acid content increases the nutritional profile of the almonds and the almond milk you are about to prepare.

The soaking process also reduces the enzyme inhibitors which are natural in nuts and seeds but can affect our own enzymatic activity. Reducing these inhibitors makes the nutrients more bio-available and thus easier and more likely to be digested and absorbed. If you don’t soak your almonds, fear not; you will still be getting many nutrients from consuming this amazing plant food.

Nutrition profile

Speaking of nutrients, fresh almond milk is going to deliver much more nutrition than store-bought versions.  Over the past few years, it has been reported that most store-bought almond milk is actually mostly water and significantly less almonds than you would think would be in almond milk. It is for this reason, as is being claimed, why the calorie content in almond milk is so low compared to actual almonds. A serving size of almonds is going to have about 6g of protein and 15g of healthy fats, yet a cup of store-bought almond milk has only 1g of protein and 3g of fat. And even if these reports are not true (though they likely are), making your own nut milk is going to result in removing much of the fat and protein than what is in whole almonds anyway, but that is why you would reuse the leftover almond pulp…more on this in another blog post!

With regards to nutrients, it is important to note that most store-bought almond milks are fortified with vitamins such as Vitamins A, E, D2, B2 and maybe B12. The absorption rate of these fortified vitamins is not exactly clear, but it is certainly going to be better to get nutrients from whole foods rather than synthetically.

If you're a vegetarian or vegan consumer, you may want to consider that fresh nut milk is not going to provide Vitamins A, D, or B12, but almonds are a good source of Vitamins E and B2 and soaking them makes these vitamins more available. There a many other foods from which to get Vitamin A and fortified nondairy milks should certainly not be relied on for adequate intake of Vitamin B12.

Additives

Next reason…No additives! Store-bought nut milks require additives, but fresh nut milks don't need to add additives. Not having additives means your almond milk won’t keep fresh for as long as store-bought versions, but your milk should keep in the fridge for 5-7 days just fine. If you don’t drink milk regularly; just make less of it! Trust me…the taste is worth the lower fridge-life.

Sweeteners

And lastly, making your own nut milks allows you to use your own sweeteners, if you choose to sweeten. Instead of cane sugar, you can use a couple dates or perhaps maple syrup. Don’t want the sugar, but you want some flavor? Add some pure vanilla extract or some cinnamon for an enhanced flavor profile.

You like almonds. You like almond milk. Great…Milk them yourself!