A series of plate impact experiments has been performed to determine the shock loading behavior of cement paste (grout) with water to cement ratio of 0.35 by weight and no aggregates. Hugoniot stress data were collected by means of embedded manganin gauges up to 5 GPa. Results are then compared to those obtained in previous studies on concrete varied on aggregate size using a plate reverberation technique and velocity interferometry. Results indicate that the average loading of cement and concrete are comparable. In addition, the in-material gauge technique has the advantage of estimating the cement Hugoniot directly and provides a measurement of the rise times, which were found to be inversely related to impact stresses. ©2000 American Institute of Physics.