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Used to think only cows milk was the real thing, the idea of anything else ..... blegh! Then I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and had to change things, tried rice milk on cereals and really didn't notice any difference, not great in tea and coffee though.
Malvern Rider thanks for posting vid on previous page, have watched it but there's no mention of the quantity made. Does it follow that if you add 1 litre of water it will make 1 litre of oat milk?
environmental reasons
Isn't almond milk really really bad for the environment? takes a zillion gallons of water to produce each teaspoon of milk>
Does it follow that if you add 1 litre of water it will make 1 litre of oat milk?
Have not made any as yet of any recipe, but it’s in the pipeline. Assuming 1 x litre of water blended with ? (volume of oats) would roughly equate to 1 litre + ? (volume of oats) minus the absorption. I’m going with ‘roughly just over a litre’ but don’t blame me for the mess!
Almond and soya ain't wonderful for environment due to soya growth and the number of almonds required to make milk.
It’s up to all of us to decide which compromises to make. I don’t buy almond milk, but I can understand someone who buys it rather than purchasing from a large dairy corp .
Here’s a decent (AFAIK) dissection of the scare headlines
https://treadingmyownpath.com/2017/04/20/is-almond-milk-bad-for-the-planet/
Take home comparison No 1.
:
A litre of cow’s milk requires 1016 litres of water to produce.
Almond milk requires 384 litres of water per litre, and cow’s milk requires 1016 litres of water to produce, which is 2.5x more water. Almond milk is less water intensive than dairy milk.
Take home comparison No 2.
Talking about the environmental impact of almonds based solely on water usage is only part of the story. What about the fact that almonds grow on trees, which stabilise soil, add oxygen to the atmosphere and decrease soil erosion?
Compare this with dairy cows, which are big contributors to greenhouse gas emissions (methane), require huge swathes of land to produce feed, and contribute to soil erosion and waterways pollution.
Animal welfare and ethical issues aside, growing trees seems the more environmental choice over raising cows.
One of the great thing about plant-based ‘milks’ is surely the variety and diversity. I also now find it unfathomable how much (dairy) milk I used to drink. 1-2 pints a day. I now drink about 1 - 1.5litre of plant milk a week.
Have not made any as yet of any recipe, but it’s in the pipeline. Assuming 1 x litre of water blended with ? (volume of oats) would roughly equate to 1 litre + ? (volume of oats) minus the absorption. I’m going with ‘roughly just over a litre’ but don’t blame me for the mess!
Was assuming you were an expert and had some q's to ask but thanks anyway! OK am keen to give this a go but am concerned about what brand of oats to use. Currently using Aldi oats in my porridge and they aren't nice so maybe Scott's porage oats would be best.
Oatly all day long in coffee.
+1000 to that! Makes an awesome cappuccino. Nice on cereals too.
I can understand someone who buys it rather than purchasing from a large dairy corp
Often the same dairy corp owns the plant milk brand. Certainly here (Spain) the big brands are owned by leches pascual, kaiku, Danone bought Alpro didn't they? Provemel too iirc.
And then they get uppity about calling it milk. Washes down that cake they're having and eating I suppose.
Best one I've had (and I don't like them as a rule) is Borges Walnut milk. Insanely calorific, nothing better for porridge or weetabix. Bonsoy for a decent stretched microfoam if you've got a good steam wand on your coffee machine (4eur a litre here so I put up with collapsing foam).
I went on Almond some years ago then went to coconut but found that too sweet and now have a carton of oat milk a week.
Have tea & coffee black so it only gets used in smoothies or cereal.
my diary milk use is pretty much just coffee and porridge, so oat alternative sounds just the thing.
Does that take into account where the almonds grow Malvern rider ? The fact that the water required in those regions drives thuue people of the region into drought ?
A large amount of UK commercial soya is now coming out of the South American rainforests
Not that I'm pushing dairy just that the ecological choice isn't always clear.
But then I live in a place where water is plentiful. But almond trees won't grow.
Jnr is diary and soy allergic so its blue diamond almond breeze here.
Oat milk for me. Preferably Oatly. Use it for cereals, tea and coffee. If you get the non chilled stuff, next to the UHT milk at the co-op, it costs £1.50 for a litre. Not bad value to my mind.
Not had cow juice for over a year now, don't miss it.
I understand oatly comes from Wweden Alpro oat from UK.
Current 1L prices: Oatly £1.40 / £1.80, Alpro £1.00
Oatly is much nicer, creamier.
I used to go through quite a lot of cows milk, mostly on cereal. After trying quite a few I switched to oat milk about 3 or 4 years ago. Current go to is asda's own.
However, this is just for cereals, not coffee.
Coffee wise I have skimmed latte's. americano's with milk doesn't quite cut it, and whole milk latte's I find a bit chewy.
would like to find a replacement though.
I've tried
soya - tastes like cardboard
cashew - i have a sensitiity to concentrated cashews!
almond - same as cashews
oat - tastes odd.
oatily barista - chewy texture
hazenut - too nutty
hemp - not bad, but not great.
kids soya milk - bit vanilla flavoured, but better than soya, not too chewy.
rice milk - watery and rice pudding-y eww.
coconut - too coconutty, PTSD from a mispent youth and a mates parents malibu.
Rebel Mylk - semi skimmed version is chewy and a bit coconutty. skimmed is less chewy and less coconutty. probably the best out of the lot, but hard to find skimmed version.
🙂
I love koko unsweetned coconut milk. I used it everyday in my breakfast smoothie.
Her indoors loves lidls organic oat milk.
The key is to get unsweetned as the companies pump a lot of sugar into the other stuff.
Hi OP
My dad has a very severe dairy intolerance. I also suffer with milk in an unprocessed form and with yoghurt, oddly cheese and milk in coffee and tea and butter on toast have no impact unless I really overdo it.
With that background our choices are...
Dad - has replaced everything with goat milk products (it doesn't have the protein that he has an issue with). That includes milk, yoghurt, cream, butter and cheese all used just like cows milk. It's a bit richer in taste but fine for all sorts.
After a biblically bad dose of food poisoning I spent three weeks avoiding cows milk and exclusively on goat products. After a few days barely noticed the difference.
Me - I'm not as severe but I tend to have a couple of litres of UHT Koko which is a coconut based milk substitute that I use on cereal. Benefit is it keeps longer than goat milk and I'm not a regular cereal eater so it needs to have a week of usable life when opened.
We also take it camping as it seems fairly tolerant to bad storage and for that it gets used in tea, coffee, cereal etc without complaint even from my rather particular wife (who is still distrustful of my tea making skills after 13 years).
The Mrs has almond milk for environmental reasons in their non recyclable cartons.
OK a wee update ... followed recipe from @Malvern Rider's link (4 cups water, 1 cup oats and 1/4 cup cashew nuts) and it's turned out pretty well. It is a different taste for sure and wouldn't want it without cashew nuts.
Another successful recipe from MR 🙂 (I use his bean casserole one all the time)
I've gone almost entirely to Oat milk and enjoying it.
I’m dairy intolerant, over the last few years I’ve tried most substitutes coconut, almond, soya, hazelnut, etc etc. I continually return to soya milk as the best all round option, for both drinking and cooking.
nickc - successful? Um, yes and no really as it doesn't work in tea. Tastes fine to drink on its own though. I'd reverted to lactose-free after a period with raw Jersey milk which incidentally was also awful in tea!
Do you buy oat milk or make your own?
Make porridge with water!!!!
Make porridge with water!!!!
No, why should I? next you'll be telling me I need to stand in the rain with a sour look on my face while eating it otherwise I'm not doing it right.
CG, buying it at the moment, might try to make some though. looks simple enough.
Wouldn’t making porridge with oat milk be like making a ham sandwich between two slices of Spam?
CG that’s great, still not gotten aroundtoit myself. Maybe needs an emulsifier, oil etc to blend with tea?
Nick glad you like the casserole, must make one myself again if I can find the recipe 🤣. There’s a good veggie recipe thread on the forum atm.
I’m still enjoying Lidls own sweetened soy milk, 59p or something a litre. Mostly in tea. Also occasional glass cold with a biscuit. Tend to make porridge with water,salt honey and apple chips 😬
Checked today to see if the soy milk was rammed with sugar and other chemical soup TM and it seems ok? just apple extract and also B12 which can’t be bad. Someone may soon be along to disabuse me of my ignorance for which I’d be most grateful and more inclined to get busy with oats!
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Oh yeah - my non-dairy rice pud. Short grain rice, lidl sweetened soy milk, half a can coconut milk/cream, brown sugar, zest of orange, pinch salt, pinch or two nutmeg. Cook in pan or oven. Omnom. Substitute coconut milk with Oatly Cream Oat if you like. Or pour some on top once served. Omnomx2. For variety cook with a teaspoon of almond essence as well as the zest.
See any regular rice pud recipe for rice/liquid/sugar ratios.
Wouldn’t making porridge with oat milk be like making a ham sandwich between two slices of Spam?
You would imagine so!! Porridge really doesnt need milk of any sort. Just make it a bit slower and stir it a bit.
No, why should I?
Because you said you wanted to cut down on dairy?
I'm making it with the oat milk, it's lovely actually, so no dairies are harmed during the making of my breakfast. I don't like how porridge made with water tastes. Although I suspect by using oat milk, that is effectively what I'm doing anyway.
oh, rice pudding, you say? will try that one out!
I switched to Oat Milk about 18 months ago when I started trying to cut down on the amount of meat/dairy I was consuming.
I started out with Oatly following a recommendation from a work colleague. I stuck with it for a while, but found it had two limitations - it separated in the carton (I forgot to shake a couple of times when having breakfast) and displayed similar behaviour in tea/coffee.
So I tried the Alpro Oat Milk which is much better - I've gone to the unsweetened version now and it's decent stuff. It doesn't have the same problem as Oatly.
The only other thing I've tried is the Oatly single cream replacement, which I actually prefer to normal cream as it tastes lighter to me.
I've been using Oatly and Oatly Barista for a while. This week my regular supplier was out of the barista, so I picked up the Rude Health Barista oat milk instead. Big mistake. It's even more expensive, doesn't froth well for a cappuccino, has a weird saccharin-like aftertaste, and doesn't have any calcium in it. Avoid.
As some have said above, you need to find the right replacement for the job. I currently use Yosoy coconut (no idea if you can get that in the UK) for cereal but don't really use milk or its alternatives for anything else.
Milk intolerant for 3 years now. I tend to get the Aldi unsweetened Soya Milk for the Mrs, shes not fussy and I get the Aldi Lactose free milk which is perfect for me, tastes nice, doesn't split in coffee and goes well with morning porridge plus its cheapish, think its about £1 per litre. Cant stand the taste of Soya milk at all, its not nice in tea and it splits in coffee, its just gross and leaves a film at the bottom.
Malvern Rider yes, feels as though something else is needed although have been pontificating about water to oat ratios. Other recipes have stated 3:1 whereas mine used 4:1 along with cashews.
May well buy a carton of Oatly (last used some 25 years ago and stopped due to difficulty sourcing) and see how that goes.
All interesting stuff in this thread!
Goat milk for me and been doing so for the last 4 years or so.
Cow juice and associated products cause my psoriasis to flare up. Goat milk makes it go away, simple choice really.
Local Waitrose having a sale today on these two Swedish plant milks, £1.25
Never tried either so went mad and bought one of each
First, the pea milk - wasn’t sure what to expect. It’s a bit of a ‘ thats different’ moment. Had a cool glass of it to try. I like it somewhat, certainly more ‘dairyish’ than nut, oat or soy milks I’ve tried, in that it has that very slightly ‘acidic’ quality that cow’s milk has. Not unpleasant, surprising, probably good on cereal. Slight hint of a dry aftertaste as a standalone drink.
The Oatly Barista OTOH was immediately more-ish to my tastebuds. Could have sank the whole carton. Sproud also do a barista version, haven't tried that.
This has renewed my resolve to DIY some oat milk. (Finbarrrristaaa! *snek*!)
Sticking with Lidl soy drink at the price, for adding to tea. Will make oat milk for drinks, cooking and cereals.
Oatly Barista ftw today.
*Oatly Barista in coffee hits the spot IMO. Well chuffed. Probably like it more than the Oatly Creamy Oat I recommended upthread, which can get a bit much if enjoyed too often, same as with dairy cream . This stuff will work out better for the budget too. 👍🏼
Oatly Barista ftw today.
It's become my "go to".
Thanks for the update MR and glad you've found something that's palatable. If only there was one product that worked in porridge, coffee, tea and wasn't silly money!
I got oat milk in my coffee by mistake (asked for "ordinary" milk) - bleurghhh!!! horrible!!! like drinking ovaltine 🙁 Needed a double espresso to take the taste away!
^unbelievable. No accounting for taste or poncense 😋
Update: We tried Sproud Barista (still on offer) in 3 ways
1. In glass as a drink - like a ‘dry’ dairy milk taste (more acidic than oat or soy) with a tiny hint of what I describe as ‘liqueur’ and Mrs Rider describes as ‘BleRGH NaIL POLISH REMOVER!’. Disclaimer - she hates dairy milk as it ‘tastes like gak and acid’
2. In coffee - Tastes pretty much the same as dairy milk IME.
3. On a bowl of shreddies - Again, slightly dry and slightly acidic, like a (albeit less-sweet) dairy milk taste, but definitely takes some getting used to. I prefer the oatly by far as a drink. In coffee I like both. Mileages obviously vary enormously.
Our local Sainsbury's seem to have been having some supply/stocking issues with Oatly (maybe as a result of all the endorsements by the influencers of STW). So I picked up some M&S Oat milk. I was quite hopeful about this - said all the right things on the pack, contained calcium...
But it's not great. Tastes cardboardy, useless in cappuccinos. I shall just have to keep a larger buffer stock of Oatly to mitigate Sainsbury's supply issues.
Our local Sainsbury’s seem to have been having some supply/stocking issues with Oatly (maybe as a result of all the endorsements by the influencers of STW).
Only bought one carton of Oatly from my local Sainsbo but the poncey Barista was nowhere to be seen. Made porridge with it, as opposed to pouring it on after microwaving, and found it lacking in the taste department. Haven't tried it with coffee or milk I must confess.
Still want to give up cows milk but until such time as there's a decent tasting alternative that doesn't cost as much as a pint of beer then lactose-free consumption will continue.
Anyway @Malvern Rider have you made any oat milk yet?
So, how long do all these different options keep in the fridge relative to regular milk?
Its just what you are used to. If you want to give up dairy, just do it. Cows milk will taste horrible if you've not had any for a while.
They usually keep fresh for a bit longer. Up to about a week in the fridge after opening.
Most brands are actually long life, even if the supermarket sells them in the chiller. So can keep for months before you open the carton.
Anyway @Malvern Rider have you made any oat milk yet?
No! Lazyarsed because of sale prices on various Oatly drinks last week. They seem to last many days in fridge. Tastes amazing in tea. I like Roobois Early Grey with sugar. Delicious cuppa, yet seems somehow to trigger tea snobs if they catch you drinking it 🧐
Did you experiment further?
PS OAT base (water, oats 10 %), rapeseed oil, acidity regulator (dipotassium phosphate), calcium carbonate, calcium phosphates, iodised salt, vitamins (D2, riboflavin and B12)
dipotassium phosphate is to stop it ‘splitting’
https://www.oatly.com/uk/healthcareprofessionals/faq/dipotassium-phosphate