Six years later, Faumuina is being interviewed by the Herald on Sunday from a driverless Waymo taxi in LA. It’s 27C outside but, after living in Mexico, she finds the temperature balmy; the bright skies and palm trees of California are just visible in the corner window of her taxi.

The 30-year-old, with Samoan and Māori heritage, is launching her hemp milk brand, Dulve, with the first batch of bottles being filled to sell online to a United States customer base.

“It’s been the hardest, hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” Faumuina says.

“The business environment here in America is so cut-throat. We’ve had a lot of setbacks; they pushed us off the manufacturing line a few times. That’s what I miss about New Zealand, because back home everyone is very friendly, and they’ll try their best to help you.”

Faumuina’s company employs Kiwis, most of them are her family and friends, and initially she wanted the business to be set up in New Zealand and sold to a local market.

However, she encountered difficulties in gaining support in the business community and applying for grants and government funding for her business.

The hemp industry in New Zealand has been fettered by strict regulations on industrial hemp growers, slowing the marketing of products like hemp milk. In general, hemp milk is not widely available in Kiwi supermarkets.

Products such as hemp protein and hemp milk contain negligible amounts of THC which is the chemical component in marijuana that makes people high and induces psychoactive effects. Food processors of hemp have been stifled by regulations that saw industrial hemp classified as a Class C controlled drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act.

In December, Minister for Regulation David Seymour announced a reform of the regulations surrounding the industrial hemp sector that included scrapping the current licensing regime. But the news came too late for Faumuina’s business.

“It’s such a sustainable and environmentally friendly crop that it just confuses me that there’s restrictions on it,” Faumuina says.

“I think in New Zealand, although we’re all very supportive of each other in a lot of ways, I think in terms of official support from the government or funding, people don’t like to invest in businesses that are unique or out of the box.”

Only through the Oyster Workshop, a Pacific and Māori cultural business support group, did Faumuina find a source of help and guidance for her start-up.

Part of the reason she shifted from living in New York to Mexico was the cheaper cost of living which has helped her to invest her savings from superyacht work into her hemp milk brand.

In Mexico, Faumuina has been living in the sleepy little surf town of Punta Mita, where life moves at a slower pace.

“It’s been a really good pause in the sense of going from New York to Mexico and just being able to have some calm and peace in my life,” she says.

“I couldn’t afford to live by myself in New York; I was just living with two other roommates in a shoebox.”

The business is backed by investors who are family friends Faumuina has worked hard to sell her vision to, and she’s had to scrape together money to keep funding the company. She hopes hemp milk will appeal to people interested in cultivating a clean-living lifestyle and who are committed to perfecting the ritual of coffee drinking.

“People who have tried it, they love it. They say it tastes like a frosty,” she says.

Faumuina has an intolerance to lactose and found through research that this is a common genetic trait in many Pacific Islanders because of a higher consumption of coconut milk compared to dairy milk historically.

Her grandmother, Selau Faumuina, grew up in Samoa and has an extensive knowledge of plants that influenced her granddaughter’s upbringing and cultivated her strong interest in cooking with ingredients sourced from the land.

“My nana was always very much into plants. She grew up on the island, and knows every single plant there is,” she says.

On the other side of her family, Faumuina’s great-grandmother was a Māori healer in the Taiamai region and possessed a rich knowledge of alternative medicine to treat illnesses. Both influences in Faumuina’s life were part of what motivated her to develop her own unique milk.

The rich culture of Mexico is also a source of inspiration for Faumuina. Building the branding for Dulve has involved her sifting through flea markets in Mexico City and Guadalajara to find material for photoshoots.

“It’s not like Dulve is a job for me, it’s my life. I never do switch off.”

The alternative milks debate

As more alternative milks enter the food market, it’s become increasingly important for consumers to evaluate the advertised benefits of plant-based products.

Auckland University registered dietitian and senior lecturer Sue MacDonell says, generally speaking, plant-based alternatives do not offer as beneficial a source of protein or calcium as dairy milk.

“There’s not a lot of hemp milk on the market in New Zealand so it’s hard to get a very clear nutritional analysis,” MacDonell says.

“But if you compare the content of plant-based alternatives to cow’s milk in their natural form they are low in protein.

“Also, to get a calcium-rich plant alternative you have to have a drink that says it is calcium-fortified where they add the calcium into the milk.”

When asked to rank plant-based alternatives, MacDonell says almond milk and oat milk are very similar in offering low nutritional value, but soy-based milk would be her top recommendation for people needing to drink plant-based milks because of a dairy intolerance or ethical reasons.

“Plant-based milks have a role to play I would say only when there are very specific health needs that indicate no dairy or a strong ethos around not having animal foods,” she says.

“For most of us, it’s an expensive way to have a creamy coffee.”

However, plant-based milks do offer a lower saturated fat content than dairy milk and this is a positive as a diet high in saturated fats can contribute to raised cholesterol and heart disease, she says.

In Faumuina’s view, hemp milk is a good choice because hemp is a sustainable, fast-growing crop that uses minimal water. Overall, she argues, hemp milk has a lower carbon footprint per litre of milk than almond or dairy. It also needs minimal pesticides and the size of hemp roots can support soil health and regenerative agriculture, she says.

MacDonell recommends that individuals drinking dairy alternatives make sure they are getting enough protein from other food sources such as meat, chicken, fish, eggs and nuts.

She recommends focusing on adding the wholefood form of these milks to a healthy diet, such as eating hemp seeds, almonds or oats daily, rather than switching to plant-based alternatives.

Faumuina is ready to ride the wave of hemp’s growing demand internationally.

“New Zealand could really lead the way in hemp. I mean, everywhere else in the world there is now starting to be investment in hemp because people are using hemp protein and the demand has skyrocketed,” she says.

She believes hemp milk will become as popular as almond and oat milk.

Eva de Jong is a reporter covering general news for the New Zealand Herald, Weekend Herald and Herald on Sunday. She was previously a multimedia journalist for the Whanganui Chronicle, covering health stories and general news.

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