Hemp as cooking ingredient

Over the next 5 years of legal cannabis market in the US will be able to generate an annual profit of 10 billion dollars. At the same time, about 40% of the profit will come from the sale of food with hemp.

Imagine the following scene: After a long day, you decide to relax and have a good time in the evening. Poet on the way home you decide to go to a cafe, where you tell the cashier your order, which goes something like this: "Me, please, easy Moroccan coffee and hemp cake gluten-free." Then you bring just such an order, and you will sit down quietly among the other visitors cannabis cafes, including the visible people of different income classes and to enjoy your hemp delicacy with coffee.

The scenario seems absurd now, but it is possible that just a few years it will become very commonplace. It seems that in the near future, cannabis would be legal and a daily occurrence, it is an integral part of the various spheres of society. Given the growing number of US states that have passed laws to legalize the use of cannabis for medical purposes, various industries are increasingly looking towards cannabis thoughts and plans on how they themselves can take advantage of the success of the growing hemp market. For example, the rap star Snoop Dogg, who is now the largest hemp investors and entrepreneurs, announced the press that he was going to open his own multimedia company called Merry Jane, which will be the news and entertainment channel for the legal community to become lovers of cannabis.

Analysts are predicting that in the course of several years, hemp will be widely socially acceptable in American society recreational substance. Simply put, hemp would be "meynstrimnym" phenomenon for Americans. In particular, the researchers believe that cannabis, primarily become popular as a culinary ingredient, as companies producing food and beverages have turned their attention to the increasingly popular ingredient that is low in calories and sugar, and has not yet bored gourmet palette of flavors.

The trend in the hemp food very much gaining momentum in America, where over the past few years, a large number of states have adopted the decision on decriminalization or legalization of psychoactive hemp complete. Apart from the states, which now operates only a limited legalization of cannabis for medical use, fully legalized hemp four states, namely Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Alaska, together with the District of Columbia. Their example was soon followed by other states, including populous California and Ohio, who are going to hold a referendum on the legalization in the coming November.

It is needless to say that the American gourmets began to experiment with the addition of cannabis to different kinds of food. More recently, in NewsWeek newspaper published an article about one such "hemp Gourmet" who preferred to call himself in the article just like Jeff. Jeff was able to successfully cook with the addition of hemp such a variety of dishes, like beef in Wellington, macaroni and cheese, chicken fillet with potatoes and Brussels sprouts and hemp cheesecake cooked using oil extracts of cannabis. At first, his culinary research prompted his medical reasons - he was preparing food with hemp for seriously ill mother of his close friend. But over time, gradually became the medical cannabis becomes legal for recreational consumption, which gave him the idea that people will want to evaluate different dishes with the addition of hemp. Not surprisingly, the same thought occurred in many other chefs, restaurant owners and food producers.

Matt Gray, chairman and founder of the website "The Stoner's Cookbook", where users publish their hemp recipes suggests that over the next 5 years, the market for cannabis legal in the US will be able to generate an annual profit of 10 billion dollars. At the same time, about 40% of the profit will come from the sale of food with hemp. If you think about it, it turns out that cannabis is far from a niche product: analysts suggest that at least once in their lives, hemp had used about 111 million Americans, or about one-third of the population.

It is obvious that most of these people using psychoactive hemp bypassing laws. It is this image of the "illegal", according to marketers, will be a major obstacle to market growth of hemp food. "We need a Starbucks on the world of cannabis," it said in the pages of the business magazine Adweek. "For the growth of the market hemp food, we need to show the Americans that the cannabis consumed successful and respected people, not criminals and outcasts. That is what will help break the stigma surrounding the consumption of cannabis and help further develop the market," says about the image of hemp Olivia Mannix, is the founder Company Cannabrand, dedicated to the promotion of hemp products and brands in the US market.

It is worth noting that the image and the attitude of the American population to the hemp has been slowly changing for the better. According to the article "The Future of food and drinks," published in the advertising campaign of the company Innovation Group, under the leadership of J. Walter Thompson, 74% of US residents who were born in the 80s, supporting the legalization of cannabis and believe that within ten years it has become commonplace for the use of the substance. The same opinion is shared by 58% of people from the same age group in the UK. Moreover, the company believes that a positive attitude towards cannabis grow after people become aware that hemp is a much healthier alternative to alcoholic beverages.

"With the change, and the liberalization of laws regarding cannabis, more and more people are beginning to see the potential of the plant culinary ingredient," explains Lucy Green, director of Innovation Group, suggesting that in the future there will be many "connoisseurs of cannabis in culinary terms."

In the US, there was already a great many brands of hemp food products, including: soda cannabis extracts from Dixie Elixir; chocolate bars with hemp oil from companies Hubby Bars, Bhang Chocolate and MariButter. Some of these products contain the psychoactive THC, labeled and sold as products "for medical consumption." At the same time, other manufacturers of foods hemp is used not psychoactive its extracts and its specific taste and aroma. These companies include the company in Los Angeles called Compelling & Rich, which produces coffee with the aroma konpli, which is obtained by a special process the coffee beans cooking with cannabis, in which THC vaporizes.

At this point, the view is directly on the gourmet taste of hemp diverge. Some people say that cannabis leaves too bitter to the taste. Others echo them, the taste depends on the variety of the plant. It is among these food lovers have been able to establish that cannabis is best combined with fatty foods containing cream or vegetable oil. According to these gourmet when cooking with oils hemp becomes extremely unusual ingredient having a plurality of flavors, depending on its type and combination with other ingredients.

In the UK, yet it is too early to talk about the development of hemp cooking: psychoactive hemp is still strictly prohibited. Nevertheless, no THC-containing plant parts, such as its seeds can legitimately be used for food. Therefore Anlii from hemp food exists only butter and milk extracts with a content of seeds. At the same time, the US hemp food market is booming. And some US companies, such as located in Denver firm Medicine Man, began to supply more hemp food and health of consumers, to expand from last year and the recreational market.

However, according to analysts, the people of Britain are widely support the full legalization of cannabis, indicating that hemp foods become commonplace in Britain over the next 10 years. It is possible these people something right: Parliament of England to consider warrants in October recently, he had received a petition demanding the legalization, signed by two hundred thousand people. Despite the commitment of Parliament and the people's demands, the authorities continue to insist that they are not willing to consider the possibility of the legalization of cannabis, even for medical purposes. However, estimates of the British experts in the UK regularly uses cannabis for about 3 million people, which creates quite a lot of potential to advance the legalization of hemp and further development of the market.

"Of course, people's actions are dictated by the law," says Ms. Greene. "But the culinary potential of the hemp had already begun to be studied relatively small number of enthusiasts. It is possible that their culinary discoveries will help us in the future to radically change the idea of cooking."

Regarding the UK, Ms. Green noted that the country should be overseas trends, most of which are now in it come from the United States. "People are rapidly changing tastes. For example two years ago, acidic food was not in fashion. Now the British are happy to buy fermented Norwegian oil. Here even the experts is difficult to say what will be the tastes of people tomorrow."

It is possible, hemp cooking will not take off as quickly as it promises to experts. Maybe it will remain the lot of some gourmets. But for now one thing is certain: the interest in the field of cooking is present, which means hemp cooking will continue to grow and develop, becoming more research, more affordable and quaint.