coconut milk
- Very smooth and satisfying
- <=1 g natural sugars so basically carb-free
- amazing replacement for milk in cereal and smoothies
Pea milk. It has a good taste and I like the consistency. Most other milk alternatives are too watery.
Water
Unsweetened almond milk, unsweetened oat milk is second
You’re not going to get carb free, but low sugar.
Oat milk in coffee is delightful. I find almond milk a bit too “non-present” I can’t think of a better word
oat milk for everything
Yes
Coconut milk is the closest to the real deal, it’s creamy, you can make a whipped cream or friggin butter with it easily and it’s white AF
Oat milk followed by homemade cashew milk. I found coconut milk and almond milk both to be too watery tasting.
Edit: Here is my recipe for nut/seed milk. This works for cashews, sunflower seeds, hemp seeds, and pepitas. I haven’t tried it with other nuts or seeds.
- 1/3c nuts or seeds
- 4c water
- Sweetener of choice (I just use 2 Splenda packets but I’ve also used agave and pitted dates)
- 1/8tsp salt
- 1/8tsp xanthan gum (can be ommitted but it helps the texture IMHO)
- 1/2tsp vanilla (optional)
Blend seeds or nuts with water, salt, and sweetener in a high speed blender. Strain through a nut milk bag. Add xanthan gum and re-blend. Stays good for a week or more.
Soy milk is the only non-dairy alternative I’ve tried that actually tastes good and also still goes with cereal. I’ve had a few kinds of nut milk, but I don’t like the taste or consistency of 'em. Though that isn’t to say they taste awful; I just don’t want the extreme taste of almonds or cashews when I am wanting milk. Soy milk actually comes pretty close to just regular milk.
I also would like to say this is only for use as a beverage (or for cereal). Trying to use any of these as a substitute for milk in cooking DOES. NOT. WORK. There’s a chemical process going on in most recipes that simply doesn’t happen with non-dairy alternatives.
I don’t know whether anything changed or it’s down to brand but I have no issues baking strudels and other pastry with similar dough from soy milk, including doing some simple buns from dry yeast, but obviously that lacked the sourdough taste, which I’d like to try replicate with use of some acids next (e.g. vinegar). Don’t really do much else though, so can’t confirm for other uses.
We specifically buy Kirkland brand (cheapest alternative) and more recently actually started grabbing the vanilla soy milk from US instead of local. I used to hate sweetened soy milk some 5+years ago, but this is somehow different. And it works great for crepes as well - actually better than regular milk IMO.
Agree about soy. I’ve tried and liked rice milk on cereal, but it wasn’t as good as a milk substitute in hot drinks. Since I prefer not to buy a bunch of different things for both simplicity and storage reasons, I switched everything to soy.
That doesn’t mean that the different brands of soy milk are all the same though. Luckily I’ve found one that works for me.
NOT Not Milk — unless I want a 2-day stomach ache Tastes dece tho
We rotate between Almond and Coconut. Almond for stuff where the milk needs to be more neutral tasting. Coconut if we want a more creamy texture. We used to also like Oat (least wasteful on water during production vs almond), but it’s high in carbs so we avoid it now. Also, we actually use 0% fat lactose-free milk as well for coffee because it just tastes better than the alternatives for coffee.
If you can ever find it, try the Vita-Coco original no sugar added 1L carton that has around 5g of carbs, its really incredible super coconut milk that beats all for cereal. Its a little pricier but its amazing stuff.
Depends on what I am using it for. I quite like oat milk in my coffee drinks. I feel like it is nice to have the oaty flavor paired with the coffee taste.
Oat milk. I can make it at home and customize it for 1/10th the price.
Now this I have to try! Could you talk me through how you do this? Just read a quick article on it: you only blend oats and water, then strain it? Would coffee filters be good for straining?
I use a metal strainer.
I had to try out a couple of recipes in order to get one that works well.
My recipe:
Oat Milk:
-
1 cup oats
-
6 cups water (chilled)
-
1 tsp vanilla
- Add all to blender and blend on high for 30-40 seconds
- Strain with strainer 2x
- Add maple syrup for flavoring (and/or honey) 3 tbsp
Keeps for about a week.
Theres some other similar ones like: https://www.loveandlemons.com/oat-milk/ that work out well and may keep for longer (salt).
I’ve never been able to make non-slimy oat milk. I’ll give this a recipe a try.
Do you try cooking the oats, or just cold soak?
I think its quick oats? It just said oats when I bought them but I get them in bulk food or 25 pound bags once a year-ish.
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It’s also near the bottom for CO2 emissions as well.
neat!
Mountain Dew
I always felt like it tasted like already flat soda
You gotta get it straight from the Mountain cow. It’s never quite as good once it’s bottled.
I always felt it tasted like pine-scented dish soap.
I found almond milk to be a great substitute a couple of years ago when I was dieting. Particularly the ‘unsweetened, vanilla’ variety from Almond Breeze.
As an added bonus, it also has a much longer shelf life than regular milk.
For information, almond milk is by far the least environmentally sustainable milk substitute. Almond farming is extremely water-intensive.
Ah damn, and it looks like almonds are grown mostly in California. Adding insult to injury.
California-grown almonds account for 80 per cent of the world’s commercial almond production.
(From https://davidsuzuki.org/living-green/the-best-plant-based-milks-for-the-planet/)
I can’t stand the sugary versions of any of them, unsweetened with/without vanilla is all the flavor needed haha
Oat for lattes, rice for drinking straight, coconut for smoothies, almond for cereal
Nice call out on rice milk straight. I do think it has a nice subtle sweetness to it the others don’t.
Unsweetened almond milk, then oat milk, then coconut. Last resort is soy because I can ALWAYS taste some sort of soy-ness flavor, the same way I can taste a hint of coconut with coconut milk, and that soy taste is just weird.
