Title - I’m using lactose free milk right now, but I’m wondering if there are any good milk-free alternatives? I tried using Silk’s barista almond milk, but it’s sour after being frothed?
Edit: I guess I’ll have to try some oat-based alternatives, maybe the problem is with the almond milk.
Oat milk has been our favorite hands down. We keep Oatly Barista stocked for lattes, its taste and texture are spot on. Even does latte art pretty well, though mine often looks more like abstract art…
I can’t do latte art, I call mine “the blob” or “polarbear in a snowstorm” lol
Those are the hardest to master
Art is in the eye of the latte drinker.
I use Oatly at home. The barista version makes better foam, but I purchase the full fat (dark blue carton) Oatly because it’s cheaper and the foam is 90% as good.
We use Oat milk at home (partner is dairy free), and both Oatly Barista and Califia Barista oat milks and they’re fantastic. We steam at ~130*C. It frothes well, tastes good, has some body to it. Highly recommend
Oatly tastes best (a little sweet, kinda oaty), Califa is best for art, Minor Figures is also good, maybe most neutral. IMO.
I use the Califia Farms barista oat milk and it’s been my favorite so far. It has a thicker texture and foams nicely. No weird after taste to me.
I’ve had pretty good results from this one, too. I’m not dairy-free (though I should be), but this has been my go-to for dairy-free milk used in a latte / cappuccino for several years now.
I like califia for the taste but I find it always leaves a powdery bottom which I don’t like to finish.
If rebel mylk wasn’t so expensive I’d probably go for that, otherwise I enjoy the fullness of oatly barista especially since I can get it for free.
Oatmilk is easily the best alternative imo. It can be frothed pretty well too.
I don’t use milk in coffee, but for I’ve been dairy free for a few years and have settled on oat milk too.
I like Chobani extra creamy oat milk, but I don’t do latte art so I don’t know how it is for that.
Earth’s own has a good barista oat milk for lattes, but Chobani is hands down the best non-dairy milk alternative taste and texture-wise imo.
I’m going to go against the trend here and say soy. We get one here called happy happy soy boy and it’s excellent for milk coffee.
I personally prefer the taste of soy in coffee to oat, I find oat slightly too thin.
Almond is the worst, I believe there’s a technical explanation for this, something about the oils, but I can’t recall the details.
Anyway I recommend finding a high quality soy and giving that a go.
I’ve tried a lot and always came back to oatly barista. Pea is by far the worst I’ve ever tried. Soy is ok, almond is meh. Cashew can be pretty good and creamy, but it’s expensive.
Pea is the only I’ve just thrown out. I’ve tried multiple brands but they were all disgusting.
… pea milk? Yeah… no thanks
That’s about what I’ve found too, though I haven’t tried Cashew. Knowing how expensive those are without all the additional processing, I’m not surprised.
I like peas. They’re fine in a lot of things. Not in coffee.
Agreed, nothing wrong with peas in general, just… pea milk? Nahhhh…
I wanted to try. It tasted like… hard to explain. Cardboard that contained dried yellow peas once, but then it got wet and they decided to make the best of it and pressed it for milk. Some peas made it into the pulp and it didn’t help the taste at all.
Wow, that sounds absolutely disguesting
They’re coarse and they get anywhere
I’ve had Ripple brand pea milk with drip coffee and it was okay, I can see how the taste might be off-putting for some people though. For espresso I will pretty much stick to oat milk (Oatly Barista, Califia Farms).
Oatly barista is the best I’ve tried but it’s just nothing like using whole milk. I suppose it depends on the coffee as well, some just don’t go well with oat flavors and others may be better that way
I’m good with most kinds of oat milk (and I live in a country where there are plenty). My wife, who’s much more of a coffee snob, only drinks Oatly’s dedicated coffee milk (which is probably called Oatly Barista where you live).
I think folks are right about Oat-based milks, but I’ll through out one I haven’t seen: Fairlife. My diet is higher in protein, so I tend to gravitate toward Fairlife anyway, but I’ve found the ones with a little more fat steam well.
Edit: The filtration process they use removes lactose.
I haven’t found any alternative milks that froth particularly well, but the best I’ve had for taste and texture are oat (Oatly barista) and soy. “NOTMilk” did alright too, but it contains pineapple for some odd reason, and you can taste it. All the nut milks I’ve tried are too watery. Whatever you go for, non-/low-fat will generally be worse than the full unhealthy goodness.
The consistency of oat milk is more like evaporated milk so could be better for some coffee beverages. There are some brands of almond milk I don’t like (i.e. Target brand) that have a curdled appearance but I’ve never had that issue with Blue Diamond. Califia Farms adds thickening agents to their products and it gives them all a play-doh taste.
Yeah, I think I’m going to stay away from almond-based alternatives in the future, haven’t found any I like
IMO Oat is better for coffee and Soy is better for baking. Soy can also have a strong flavor. Silk is pretty watered down, which why they add the thickener. The big thing like I’ve seen others mentioned is the thickeners when heated has weird consistency and flavor.
Sounds kinda strange but I once used potato milk and really liked it
