Move over milk, there is a new product in the dairy aisle that's shaking up the milk market. It's not soy or rice, it's the versatile almond. More than $400,000,000 dollars a year is made from almonds in Kern County. That makes Almonds the 3rd largest crop in our area. Those statistics are making the rise in popularity of almond milk such a sweet treat for many local farmers.
Almond milk is made from almond butter. It's then mixed with a variety of ingredients including water, vitamins and sometimes cane juice for flavor. Like soy or rice milk, almond milk is an alternative for people who are lactose in-tolerant. It's also lower in calories and fat that regular milk. But many people are wondering if it has the same calcium and nutrients as the stuff that comes from cows? The answer is yes, Almond milk has the same amount of calcium as milk.
Almond milk has been around since the late 1990's but surged in popularity in the last year, when refrigerated almond milk hit the shelves in the dairy section. Blue Diamond Grower, Clint Shick, says that the development of cold almond milk helped sales. According to Shick "Refrigerator case is the main place that every shopper goes when they go into the store so that was the key for us."
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