For the next three weeks, we are presenting local businesses that are innovating with new and ingenious food products. To start, Dam and its concentrated vegetable drinks.
Posted at 11:00 a.m.
The idea
A student at HEC Montréal a few years ago, Annie Lafleur took part in an exchange at the University of Melbourne in Australia, then worked during the summer in a restaurant in Sydney where almond milk was made fresh every morning. For her, it’s a revelation! “I am lactose intolerant and a bit of a coffee snob… I think our almond milk is amazing and I decide that I will be responsible for it. I make 30 to 35 liters every day. Back in Montreal, she decided to create, as part of her entrepreneurship study project, her brand of fresh almond drink — Dam — which she hoped to distribute in cafés.
The challenge
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Annie Lafleur and Sébastien Bureau at the Dam offices in Rosemont
Well put together, Annie’s project won scholarships and grants. She launches, but comes up against a problem: the very short lifespan of her product, making it impossible to distribute on a large scale. A friend put her in touch with Sébastien Bureau, specialist in food microbiology and founder of Mannanova, which develops innovative consumer products for companies, particularly fermented and plant-based foods and drinks. This one writes to him: “I have a solution for you! »
innovation
“Canned vegetable milks are so wasteful and on the technical side, it takes a lot of equipment. We could take all that energy and replace it with good quality raw material,” says Sébastien.
His idea: to create a vegetable drink without water, which is much more stable, ecological, light. Inspired by halva (a sweet paste made from sesame), he had already developed a first prototype of a vegetable drink concentrated in cubes, to be mixed with water in a high-speed mixer. The two entrepreneurs decide to team up. For a year, they improve the recipe; the cube is abandoned in favor of a more liquid concentrate that does not require a mixer, in order to democratize the product. A unique — and secret! — is developed. “Our ingredients get crushed for so long that the particles become very small, creating a liquid mixture. There is no filtration, no pasteurization, no byproduct », is content to reveal Annie. This innovative product would have no equal on the world market!
The result
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
The texture of the concentrate is very creamy, almost liquid.
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
To make your milk a success, you first add a little water and the recommended amount of almond or oat concentrate.
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Then just stir vigorously, add the remaining water, mix again and tadam!
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Dam sells a reusable glass jar with instructions for making his vegetable drink.
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PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Dam is sold in large containers of its kind to bulk grocery stores, cafes, but also to individuals.
1/5
Launched in September 2020 in select zero-waste grocery stores, Dam’s unsweetened almond drink contains only four ingredients: almonds, sunflower seeds, cane sugar and Himalayan salt, all organic (except the salt). The product was quickly successful and was distributed in several bulk grocery stores. Developed for cafes, the original almond milk will follow in March 2021, followed by oat milk (organic and gluten-free) and chocolate-peanuts in March 2022.
Today, 50 cafes and around 60 bulk grocery stores in the province (and a few in Canada) offer Dam plant-based drinks. Starting next week, the four branches of the Dispatch cafés will exclusively use Dam oat milk, which will save them from throwing away around 2,000 cartons a month. Concentrates, stable at room temperature, can be kept for at least one year. They are sold in large 4 kg containers or in small individual pouches. Next step: the development of new pouches for supermarkets, and a new product: soy beverage!
To date, Dam has produced the quantity needed to make 60,000 liters of milk, so 60,000 cartons of milk will never have existed thanks to our concept.
Annie Lafleur, co-founder of Dam
Our opinion
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Dam plant drinks have been designed to match the taste of third wave type coffee.
A delicious plant-based drink ready in 20 seconds flat, that’s Dam’s promise. We tested it and kept our promise: just add water, mix vigorously and tadam! Real child’s play. The texture is creamy, the taste is savory and goes well with coffee, but the drink can also be added to smoothies or drunk as is. The whole family fell in love with the chocolate peanut drink — the only one that needs to be made in a high-speed blender. You can also butter it on toast or even use the unsweetened almond drink as a substitute for cream in your recipes. The eco-responsible and zero waste aspect, a minimalist list of ingredients, these are just as many qualities that charmed us at Dam.