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enismirdalAs I mentioned in this post, I decided to try out various different non-dairy milks to see how I felt about them. I'm already well-versed in goat's milk in numerous forms, so hit the vegetable-related ones. Quite a lot of kinds are relatively easily available, but my explorations were somewhat disrupted by moving out of London - where you can get ANYTHING - to Kent, where you can only get most things. Thus, I haven't had the opportunity to try hemp milk yet, but when I get my paws on some I'll add it to the list.
Disclaimer: As far as I am aware, all of the milks below are suitable for people with lactose intolerance and/or a dairy allergy. However, I cannot guarantee that any of them are suitable for people with other dietary needs. Please read the label and check first before feeding any of these to someone who doesn't agree with some foods (especially gluten and nuts).
Colourwise, most of these milks look rather funky. If you are expecting normal milk and saw these, you'd jump to conclusions and probably assume it should be poured down the sink chop-chop. However, they're meant to be other colours so try not to judge! ;)
Please note that the hot chocolate mix I use is Galaxy Bliss, which has real milk chocolate and milk solids in, so is not dairy-free and may potentially en-milken the flavour of the hot chocolate regardless of the milk substitute used.
To the milks...!
Soy milk (unsweetened)
NB: Soy milk comes in various forms: sweetened and unsweetened, and also flavoured. Sweetened-vanilla seems popular. I decided to go with the plainest possible as no way do I want my milk sweetened-vanilla flavoured!
Price: Cheap - UHT stuff is similar in price to fresh milk (~90p per litre).
Colour: Slightly yellow off-white, a bit yellower than Jersey milk.
Tastes like milk?: Not remotely.
Tasting notes: The flavour isn't unpleasant - it's kind of like a cross between butterbeans, fresh turnip and water, but not creamy like milk. Not as sweet as milk, but also not bitter or rough or anything. Quite refreshing.
Use in tea: Works a bit like skimmed milk - imparts appropriate colour, but rather too watery to really "creamify" the tea flavour.
Other uses: OK on cereal, a bit thin, gives cereal a slightly butterbean-like flavour but not objectionably so. My cereal is unsweetened - if your cereal is sweeter, you may need to buy sweeter soy milk to go with the cereal better.
Nice in hot chocolate - a bit thin, so hot chocolate tastes less creamy than I like it, but doesn't taste vegetably or anything like that. Probably a bit like making up hot chocolate in skimmed milk.*
Verdict: 7/10
Would buy again?: I've bought it since, to drink neat in summer now and again, but wouldn't make a habit of it - I still like whole bovine milk on hand for breakfast as well.
Oat milk
NB: Needs to be shaken before use or you only get the watery top and then a rather grainey deposit at the bottom, but in suspension it's fine.
Price: Cheapish - just over £1 per litre.
Colour: Yellowish-white, not pretty, but not surprising for something from oats really.
Tastes like milk?: Vaguely - has a comparable level of sweetness and creamy aftertaste. Less fatty than milk, so much more refreshing and less overwhelmingly milky.
Tasting notes: I really like the flavour - it's got a milk, nutty flavour, and as mentioned above, tastes really quite creamy as you swallow. The sweetness is similar to regular milk. I think if milk suddenly started tasting like this all the time I wouldn't really mind.
Use in tea: Poor, unfortunately - the carbohydrates seem to get knocked out of suspension by the temperature, so it doesn't whiten the tea adequately or make it taste truly milky, and the last gulp is a little bit oaty-flavoured. Wouldn't recommend.
Other uses: Good on cereal, doesn't interfere with the cereal taste (being, as it is, a cereal itself, I suppose!). Hot chocolate more or less indistinguishable from hot chocolate made with semi skimmed.
Verdict: 8/10
Would buy again?: Definitely! I have, in fact, done so - I'm keeping a carton in the fridge to drink neat on hot days. If it weren't for the trouble with tea I actually wouldn't mind switching away from bovine milk entirely.
Rice milk
Price: Cheapish - just over £1 per litre.**
Colour: Thin, off-white. Looks a bit like a slightly yellowish skimmed milk.
Tastes like milk?: Not at all, but there is a vague creaminess in the aftertaste.
Tasting notes: Pleasant enough, but sweet. Almost vanilla-ish flavour. Reminds me a bit of home-made malabi (which is a kind of flan thing made with rice flour). Very sweet flavour despite not having much more sugar than normal milk, and therefore does rather overpower everything else! Not convinced about the rather ricey aftertaste though.
Use in tea: Makes the tea taste interestingly sweet/ricey/vanilla-y. Not unpleasant, but works better with teas that are meant to be sweeter (e.g. chai) than with ones where you want a fractionally bitter taste.
Other uses: I didn't try it in hot chocolate, but it makes a good latte if you like your lattes sweet - I didn't need to add any sugar, just hot rice milk, and it was yummy.
Verdict: 6.5/10
Would buy again?: Not as a milk substitute. It's too sweet for me to take seriously. But the flavour would be good for milkshakes and blended into desserts and things.
Almond milk
Price: Expensive - around £3 per litre.***
Colour: Slightly off-white; fairly convincingly milk-coloured.
Tastes like milk?: Kind of, but almondy...
Tasting notes: Has a creamy, sweetish, nutty flavour and that wonderful cyanidey flavour that anything almond-based contains.
Use in tea: Good. A bit sweet/nutty so you can tell it's not real milk, but it doesn't ruin the flavour or anything, and it makes the tea go white-tea-coloured fairly reasonably (though is a bit thinner than bovine milk).
Other uses: Very nice in coffee, not too strongly almond. Adds a nice flavour to custard if you make custard with 25% almond milk, 75% bovine milk. One evening I was too lazy to make custard so I just put hot almond milk on my pudding and that was really nice.
Verdict: 8/10
Would buy again?: Possibly, if I wanted nutty-flavoured milk substitute and couldn't get hazelnut milk - at the price, I rather prefer hazelnut, but I did enjoy this, and the flavour is milder.
Hemp milk
Price: Expensive - around £3 per litre.
Hazelnut milk
Price: Very expensive - over £3 per litre.
Colour: White. Like milk. Actually like milk.
Tastes like milk?: Actually, yes...but with a lot of hazelnut flavour over the top. Sort of like milk with hazelnut essence added. It's properly creamy and not watery like some of the other milk substitutes.
Tasting notes: Very strongly hazelnutty, including the slight bitterness of the brown skin stuff around the outside. It's a pleasant, nutty flavour with a good balance of sweetness (similar to normal milk) that would be excellent in any drink where a hazelnut flavour is OK, but if hazelnut flavour would ruin it...don't use hazelnut milk!
Use in tea: Less overpowering than I expected. Didn't cream up the tea quite as much as I'd expect but certainly made it perfectly palatable.
Other uses: This is the best thing EVER in coffee. Seriously, I like it better than normal milk in coffee. It adds a nice nutty flavour. I was saving it for coffee so didn't actually try it in anything else - I think a 50/50 split with regular milk in hot chocolate would be divine, but it's a bit strongly hazelnutty to do it with pure hazelnut milk. I actually diluted it down by 50% experimentally just to drink neat and it still tasted creamy and nutty.
Verdict: 8.5/10
Would buy again?: Yes...if I could afford to spend 3.5 times the normal price on milk! As a treat now and again I'll definitely be getting it. I've been looking for hazelnut essence for YEARS (friends will testify), to try and get a non-sweetened hazelnut coffee. Coffee with hazelnut milk is perfect for those moments when that's what I'm craving!
Quinoa milk
Price: Most expensive - I think it was considerably over £3 per litre, but less than £4 (didn't get a recipt from the shop!).
Colour: Creamy-white, a lot like Jersey milk really.
Tastes like milk?: Um...no. Well, sort of a bit like evaporated milk.
Tasting notes: This is seriously weird. I'm not sure what to make of it. The flavour is kind of like a cross between...evaporated milk, with an undertone of Bailey's and a hint of malt extract. Or at least...that's the closest approximation I can come up with. See, weird? The smell is fairly awful. The taste isn't too bad, but I find evaporated milk tastes too much like sour regular milk for my tastes really. It's nice and creamy, though. Perhaps fractionally sweeter than normal milk but not too bad.
Use in tea: A bit like what you'd expect - makes it a bit too weirdly malty/sour milk flavoured to really be nice. Just about passable in spiced chai.
Other uses: Makes the weirdest hot chocolate I've ever tasted. It's not...bad...as such...but it's very...grain-flavoured. I spent the first half of the mug debating whether I liked it or not, but then decided I didn't really. Though it wasn't too bad to finish or anything like that. Ultimately, I gave up with the carton and tipped the last 100ml of it down the sink as I was sick of trying to think up ways to make it more than "tolerable".
Verdict: 4/10
Would buy again?: No. Not convinced about the taste - it's just too weird, and at that price, I'd hope for better.
Conclusions: Hazelnut milk as the winner, oat milk as a close second for tighter budgets!
*I have never tried this.
**This may be different in the USA - as I understand it, in the USA, home-grown rice is heavily government-subsidised and imported rice is heavily taxed so prices are therefore rather high, so I'm not sure how much this impacts on rice milk prices.
***By contrast, this may be cheaper in the USA since the USA has lots of big almond plantations!
Disclaimer: As far as I am aware, all of the milks below are suitable for people with lactose intolerance and/or a dairy allergy. However, I cannot guarantee that any of them are suitable for people with other dietary needs. Please read the label and check first before feeding any of these to someone who doesn't agree with some foods (especially gluten and nuts).
Colourwise, most of these milks look rather funky. If you are expecting normal milk and saw these, you'd jump to conclusions and probably assume it should be poured down the sink chop-chop. However, they're meant to be other colours so try not to judge! ;)
Please note that the hot chocolate mix I use is Galaxy Bliss, which has real milk chocolate and milk solids in, so is not dairy-free and may potentially en-milken the flavour of the hot chocolate regardless of the milk substitute used.
To the milks...!
Soy milk (unsweetened)
NB: Soy milk comes in various forms: sweetened and unsweetened, and also flavoured. Sweetened-vanilla seems popular. I decided to go with the plainest possible as no way do I want my milk sweetened-vanilla flavoured!
Price: Cheap - UHT stuff is similar in price to fresh milk (~90p per litre).
Colour: Slightly yellow off-white, a bit yellower than Jersey milk.
Tastes like milk?: Not remotely.
Tasting notes: The flavour isn't unpleasant - it's kind of like a cross between butterbeans, fresh turnip and water, but not creamy like milk. Not as sweet as milk, but also not bitter or rough or anything. Quite refreshing.
Use in tea: Works a bit like skimmed milk - imparts appropriate colour, but rather too watery to really "creamify" the tea flavour.
Other uses: OK on cereal, a bit thin, gives cereal a slightly butterbean-like flavour but not objectionably so. My cereal is unsweetened - if your cereal is sweeter, you may need to buy sweeter soy milk to go with the cereal better.
Nice in hot chocolate - a bit thin, so hot chocolate tastes less creamy than I like it, but doesn't taste vegetably or anything like that. Probably a bit like making up hot chocolate in skimmed milk.*
Verdict: 7/10
Would buy again?: I've bought it since, to drink neat in summer now and again, but wouldn't make a habit of it - I still like whole bovine milk on hand for breakfast as well.
Oat milk
NB: Needs to be shaken before use or you only get the watery top and then a rather grainey deposit at the bottom, but in suspension it's fine.
Price: Cheapish - just over £1 per litre.
Colour: Yellowish-white, not pretty, but not surprising for something from oats really.
Tastes like milk?: Vaguely - has a comparable level of sweetness and creamy aftertaste. Less fatty than milk, so much more refreshing and less overwhelmingly milky.
Tasting notes: I really like the flavour - it's got a milk, nutty flavour, and as mentioned above, tastes really quite creamy as you swallow. The sweetness is similar to regular milk. I think if milk suddenly started tasting like this all the time I wouldn't really mind.
Use in tea: Poor, unfortunately - the carbohydrates seem to get knocked out of suspension by the temperature, so it doesn't whiten the tea adequately or make it taste truly milky, and the last gulp is a little bit oaty-flavoured. Wouldn't recommend.
Other uses: Good on cereal, doesn't interfere with the cereal taste (being, as it is, a cereal itself, I suppose!). Hot chocolate more or less indistinguishable from hot chocolate made with semi skimmed.
Verdict: 8/10
Would buy again?: Definitely! I have, in fact, done so - I'm keeping a carton in the fridge to drink neat on hot days. If it weren't for the trouble with tea I actually wouldn't mind switching away from bovine milk entirely.
Rice milk
Price: Cheapish - just over £1 per litre.**
Colour: Thin, off-white. Looks a bit like a slightly yellowish skimmed milk.
Tastes like milk?: Not at all, but there is a vague creaminess in the aftertaste.
Tasting notes: Pleasant enough, but sweet. Almost vanilla-ish flavour. Reminds me a bit of home-made malabi (which is a kind of flan thing made with rice flour). Very sweet flavour despite not having much more sugar than normal milk, and therefore does rather overpower everything else! Not convinced about the rather ricey aftertaste though.
Use in tea: Makes the tea taste interestingly sweet/ricey/vanilla-y. Not unpleasant, but works better with teas that are meant to be sweeter (e.g. chai) than with ones where you want a fractionally bitter taste.
Other uses: I didn't try it in hot chocolate, but it makes a good latte if you like your lattes sweet - I didn't need to add any sugar, just hot rice milk, and it was yummy.
Verdict: 6.5/10
Would buy again?: Not as a milk substitute. It's too sweet for me to take seriously. But the flavour would be good for milkshakes and blended into desserts and things.
Almond milk
Price: Expensive - around £3 per litre.***
Colour: Slightly off-white; fairly convincingly milk-coloured.
Tastes like milk?: Kind of, but almondy...
Tasting notes: Has a creamy, sweetish, nutty flavour and that wonderful cyanidey flavour that anything almond-based contains.
Use in tea: Good. A bit sweet/nutty so you can tell it's not real milk, but it doesn't ruin the flavour or anything, and it makes the tea go white-tea-coloured fairly reasonably (though is a bit thinner than bovine milk).
Other uses: Very nice in coffee, not too strongly almond. Adds a nice flavour to custard if you make custard with 25% almond milk, 75% bovine milk. One evening I was too lazy to make custard so I just put hot almond milk on my pudding and that was really nice.
Verdict: 8/10
Would buy again?: Possibly, if I wanted nutty-flavoured milk substitute and couldn't get hazelnut milk - at the price, I rather prefer hazelnut, but I did enjoy this, and the flavour is milder.
Hemp milk
Price: Expensive - around £3 per litre.
Hazelnut milk
Price: Very expensive - over £3 per litre.
Colour: White. Like milk. Actually like milk.
Tastes like milk?: Actually, yes...but with a lot of hazelnut flavour over the top. Sort of like milk with hazelnut essence added. It's properly creamy and not watery like some of the other milk substitutes.
Tasting notes: Very strongly hazelnutty, including the slight bitterness of the brown skin stuff around the outside. It's a pleasant, nutty flavour with a good balance of sweetness (similar to normal milk) that would be excellent in any drink where a hazelnut flavour is OK, but if hazelnut flavour would ruin it...don't use hazelnut milk!
Use in tea: Less overpowering than I expected. Didn't cream up the tea quite as much as I'd expect but certainly made it perfectly palatable.
Other uses: This is the best thing EVER in coffee. Seriously, I like it better than normal milk in coffee. It adds a nice nutty flavour. I was saving it for coffee so didn't actually try it in anything else - I think a 50/50 split with regular milk in hot chocolate would be divine, but it's a bit strongly hazelnutty to do it with pure hazelnut milk. I actually diluted it down by 50% experimentally just to drink neat and it still tasted creamy and nutty.
Verdict: 8.5/10
Would buy again?: Yes...if I could afford to spend 3.5 times the normal price on milk! As a treat now and again I'll definitely be getting it. I've been looking for hazelnut essence for YEARS (friends will testify), to try and get a non-sweetened hazelnut coffee. Coffee with hazelnut milk is perfect for those moments when that's what I'm craving!
Quinoa milk
Price: Most expensive - I think it was considerably over £3 per litre, but less than £4 (didn't get a recipt from the shop!).
Colour: Creamy-white, a lot like Jersey milk really.
Tastes like milk?: Um...no. Well, sort of a bit like evaporated milk.
Tasting notes: This is seriously weird. I'm not sure what to make of it. The flavour is kind of like a cross between...evaporated milk, with an undertone of Bailey's and a hint of malt extract. Or at least...that's the closest approximation I can come up with. See, weird? The smell is fairly awful. The taste isn't too bad, but I find evaporated milk tastes too much like sour regular milk for my tastes really. It's nice and creamy, though. Perhaps fractionally sweeter than normal milk but not too bad.
Use in tea: A bit like what you'd expect - makes it a bit too weirdly malty/sour milk flavoured to really be nice. Just about passable in spiced chai.
Other uses: Makes the weirdest hot chocolate I've ever tasted. It's not...bad...as such...but it's very...grain-flavoured. I spent the first half of the mug debating whether I liked it or not, but then decided I didn't really. Though it wasn't too bad to finish or anything like that. Ultimately, I gave up with the carton and tipped the last 100ml of it down the sink as I was sick of trying to think up ways to make it more than "tolerable".
Verdict: 4/10
Would buy again?: No. Not convinced about the taste - it's just too weird, and at that price, I'd hope for better.
Conclusions: Hazelnut milk as the winner, oat milk as a close second for tighter budgets!
*I have never tried this.
**This may be different in the USA - as I understand it, in the USA, home-grown rice is heavily government-subsidised and imported rice is heavily taxed so prices are therefore rather high, so I'm not sure how much this impacts on rice milk prices.
***By contrast, this may be cheaper in the USA since the USA has lots of big almond plantations!
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no subject
Date: 11 Jul 2010 14:05 (UTC)Oat milk is sounding quite appealling, especially since I don't drink tea anyway. I might have to try that.
Did you not try the hemp milk, put off by the price? It sounds intriguing, but I really can't begin to imagine what hemp milk would taste like.
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Date: 11 Jul 2010 14:08 (UTC)I'll keep an eye out for it, though - I want to see what it's like as well!
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Date: 11 Jul 2010 14:39 (UTC)no subject
Date: 11 Jul 2010 14:09 (UTC)no subject
Date: 11 Jul 2010 15:18 (UTC)no subject
Date: 11 Jul 2010 16:17 (UTC)no subject
Date: 12 Jul 2010 09:54 (UTC)