Plant-based protein spread. Organic. Ethical. Nut-free. Vegan.
Built from first principles in a Colorado kitchen.
All Nooch ingredients are organic and ethically sourced. This applies to every ingredient in every recipe, every test batch, and every future product. If it can't be sourced organic and ethical, it doesn't go in.
Nooch is a high-protein, nut-free, vegan spread. Eight ingredients. No major allergens. Complete protein. The kind of thing that doesn't exist on shelves yet — because the food science to make it work is the hard part.
Nooch works like a composite material. Three layers, each doing a different job. The breakthrough was understanding that nutritional yeast protein is fully denatured — it can't build structure. So the architecture has to come from somewhere else.
The aquafaba — bean water — is the glue. Its saponins and soluble proteins bridge the protein and starch phases. Concentration is the control variable. A Brix refractometer will give us the number to make it repeatable.
First dedicated aquafaba batch using whole kidney beans and a higher water ratio. The goal: produce clean aquafaba for the interface layer, plus cooked beans for Nooch production. One cook, two outputs.
Key insight: whole beans at a 1:5 water ratio need roughly 4x the cook time of ground beans. The roadmap assumed a pre-soak. Next test: soak overnight, drop the ratio to 1:3, and measure with the refractometer.