About us

The origin of Vegan Milker by Chufamix (note from the inventor)

My name is Andoni, I have been a tigernut plant milk artisan since 2003, when I founded www.monorxata.com.
The problem with tiger nuts milk or “horchata” is that it only lasts 5 days when refrigerated. In fact, many people call us from Barcelona or Madrid to ask for natural “horchata”, but it’s impossible to send it because of this short shelf life. By the time they receive the horchata it would be expired…
Therefore, I felt the need to invent something to solve this problem. And this “something” was a tool that would allow people to make their own horchata easily from “tiger nuts¨. The nuts have a very long shelf life, but the milk just 5 days. What to do?
Please note, that “chufa” in spanish means “earth almond” or “tiger nut”, which is a super nutritious ancient seed (herbaceous rizhome) that in Europe is only grown in Valencia , Spain, botanically named as “Cyperus esculentus”.

So, the inspiring idea of Chufamix Vegan Milker emerged in the 5th of January 2012, in a small village in the middle of nowhere, which I adore, named Cascante del Río (Teruel, Spain).
My friend, Itziar, who is a lover of organic fruit and vegetables (which she grows in our garden) was making a vegetable puree with an electric hand mixer, while I was pondering possible solutions to the challenge at hand.
Suddenly, the image of our artisan factory of “horchata” (tigernut milk) in Valencia came to mind, together with the sound of Itziar in the background working with the electric hand mixer , then everything magically came together in my mind like pieces of a jig saw puzzle:
What would happen if we could reduce this massive filtering system into a “mini” size for home use, and swap the grounding mill for a domestic hand blender..? Voilá…the ¨something¨ appeared to me like a vision.
I quickly captured my thoughts on paper, and 3 months later we had the first protototype.

With the apprehension but excitement of a child, we took our prototype and tested it with chufa nuts and water. To our delight our invention worked and the “horchata” was as beautiful as any I had tasted, and we made it at home!!
Then Itziar told me, “What if instead of tiger nuts we used almonds, soy or oats inside the filter? Well the answer to this and many other questions, you have on this blog.
At this point we decided to embark on this adventure, that we now know as Chufamix Vegan Milker, in honor of the nuts that gave us the inspiration. So with no parachute and no government support we decided to start this crazy journey to fulfill our dreams.
Chufamix Vegan Milker has taken us on an exciting journey into the world of plant milks that stretch back to the history of mankind. We have been constantly surprised and made several interesting discoveries that we will share with you in the coming months on the blog.
In just two years, it has been a pleasure to be present with Chufamix Vegan Milker in the most important international organic fairs in Paris, London, Bologna, Stockholm, Melbourne … people fall in love with our beloved invention, which now is not “ours” but is part of an international “Chufamix Community” that we are extremely fortunate to call our FRIENDS.

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