About OBEX

We wanted alginate to taste like dessert.

OBEX is a thick, spoonable alginate blend made in Hamilton, Ontario. It comes in four dessert flavours, and one serving is a teaspoon.

  • 5 mL per serving
  • 4 calories
  • 20 servings per tube
A tube of OBEX Canadian Maple beside a spoonful of the blend, with maple leaves and vanilla pods
Canadian Maple, with a teaspoon of the blend.

Why we started

Alginate has been part of reflux products since the 1970s. In Canada, though, the choice was small.

The products we found on shelves tasted chalky or medicinal to us. The dessert-style alginate brands sold in the US and UK were hard to get here.

So we made our own. We wanted a texture closer to pudding than to a liquid, flavours you'd expect on a dessert menu, and a product made and sold in Canada.

You've probably eaten alginate already

Alginate comes from brown seaweed. Food makers have used it for decades to thicken foods, keep them smooth and set them into gels, usually at well under one percent of the recipe.

  • Propylene glycol alginate

    Salad dressing

    Thickens bottled dressings, including creamy and vinegar-based ones. It holds up in acid better than many other thickeners.

  • Sodium alginate

    Ice cream

    Keeps ice crystals small so the texture stays smooth. It's also used in sherbet and soft-serve mixes.

  • Alginate + calcium

    Stuffed green olives

    In many jarred olives, the red filling is pimento paste set into a gel with alginate and calcium, then cut and machine-stuffed.

  • Sodium alginate

    Pastry fillings

    Keeps fruit and cream fillings from running in the oven, in toaster pastries, danishes and filled doughnuts.

  • Alginate + calcium

    Popping boba

    The thin skin on the juice-filled pearls in bubble tea is alginate set with calcium. Chefs use the same method to make small fruit pearls that burst in the mouth.

  • Propylene glycol alginate

    Beer foam

    Some mass-market beers add it to keep the head from collapsing.

OBEX is made with sodium alginate, the same ingredient used in many of these foods, at a much higher amount. That's where its thick, spoonable texture comes from.

What's in it

Every tube

Ingredients
Sodium alginate and sodium bicarbonate, with water, sugar, natural flavour and epsilon-polylysine
Serving
5 mL (1 teaspoon)
Calories per serving
4
Tube
100 mL, about 20 servings
Free from
Calcium carbonate, aluminum

Sodium bicarbonate is baking soda. Epsilon-polylysine is a preservative made by fermentation.

  • Smooth Mint

    Crisp and cooling.

  • Lemon Meringue

    Tart lemon and sweet meringue.

  • Orange Cream

    Bright orange over creamy vanilla.

  • Canadian Maple

    Warm, golden maple.

Who makes it

OBEX is a small company in Hamilton, Ontario.

A chef developed the flavours. A food scientist worked out the formula and how to keep its texture stable on the shelf. We make it in Hamilton and ship it across Canada.

The name comes from obex, the Latin word for a bolt or bar across a door.

Where to find OBEX

Order online and we'll ship it anywhere in Canada. You can also pick it up at independent pharmacies and wellness stores.

Shop the flavoursFind a retailer

Questions? Email [email protected]