Walk into your local grocery store and you will be greeted by a wall of fridges offering a range of delicious plant-based milks. What a time to be alive!
But with choice inevitably comes confusion. What milk is the best for your health? What about the environment? And what about coffee?!
In this guide, we attempt to unravel these questions and lay out the options for the best plant-based milks to suit every desire.
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Table of contents
Which Vegan Milk Tastes Like Milk?
The joy of plant-based milks is that you aren’t just limited to the taste of what is squeezed from bovine mammary glands.
There’s a wide range of natural vegan milk flavors; some subtle, some nutty, some sweet. They all have different uses and will appeal to different people.
It’s always wise to try new flavors, but if you are transitioning from dairy, you may just want something that tastes like cow’s milk for familiarity.
In that case, we suggest oat milk.
Oat milk provides a creamy texture akin to cow’s milk, while tasting quite neutral – there’s no nutty flavor and it’s not overly sweet. Try a cappuccino made with oat milk and it’s hard to notice much of a difference from dairy!
Our favorite oat milk brands are Elmhurst Oat Milk and Califia Farms Extra Creamy Oat Milk.
If you’re more of a chocolate milk person, try Elmhurst Chocolate Oat Milk!
Which Vegan Milk Has the Most Protein?
While each brand varies, it’s a joint decision: both pea milk and soy milk have the most plant-based protein, at around 8g of protein per cup. This is comparable to dairy milk, which also has around 8g per cup.
Both pea and soy are relatively neutral in taste, making them ideal additions to your post-workout smoothies.
If you want a bigger protein hit, then some varieties – such as Silk Ultra – have a boosted protein content, offering a huge 20g of protein per cup. Your breakfast cappuccino never had so much muscle-building potential!
The rest of the plant-based milks may taste great, but tend to offer around 0g to 3g of protein per cup. So, if protein is your aim, go for pea or soy.
Our favorite soy milk brands are: Pacific Foods Organic Soy Milk and Unsweetened EdenSoy Milk.
Our favorite pea milk brands are: Ripple Unsweetened Original Pea Milk and Ripple Chocolate Pea Milk.
Which Vegan Milk is Best for Coffee?
You may have heard of a soy latte, and for good reason – soy milk goes very well with coffee.
In fact, most plant-based milks are good with coffee, including coconut, hazelnut, cashew, and almond milk. These all offer their own subtle taste variations, and can turn a good coffee into a great coffee!
However, generally speaking, we would say that oat milk is the best vegan milk for coffee.
It has a distinctive creaminess that makes it ideal for frothy coffees like lattes and cappuccino, and it won’t separate when you pour it into a hot cup of drip coffee. Oat milk is also very neutral in taste, so it allows the flavor of your coffee to shine through.
Our favorite oat milk brands for coffee are Elmhurst Oat Barista Edition and Califia Farms Oat Barista Blend.
If you prefer the flavor of almond milk, we recommend Elmhurst Almond Barista Edition, Califia Farms Almond Barista Blend, Califia Farms Almond Milk Creamer, and Califia Farms Better Half Coconut Cream & Almond Milk.
Elmhurst also has a line of delicious oat-based creamers for coffee, including: Unsweetened Oat Creamer, Hazelnut Creamer, French Vanilla Creamer, and Chai Spice Creamer.
Which Vegan Milk is Best for Tea?
Tea is traditionally a subtler drink than coffee. While coconut or hazelnut flavors may go well in a cappuccino, these milks often won’t please tea drinkers.
Luckily, there are a few good options for tea. Oat milk is once again a very good contender because it doesn’t split at higher temperatures and has an inconspicuous flavor.
If you want to try something different to oat, then cashew milk has grown in popularity for use in tea due to its neutral flavor and creamy profile.
Meanwhile, some brands (especially those in the United Kingdom) have developed milks specifically for use in tea, such as Alpro’s My Cuppa. Go see what you can find!
Which Vegan Milk is Best for the Environment?
We all know that dairy isn’t great for the environment, so any plant-based milk is automatically a better choice.
However, some are better than others. When it comes to the best plant-based milk for the environment, the winner is once again oat milk.
In general, growing oats takes considerably less water, less energy, and less greenhouse gas emissions than many other ingredients used for vegan milks. Additionally, oats tend to be grown in countries with cooler climates, so they are not associated with deforestation.
As mentioned above, our favorite oat milk brands are Elmhurst Oat Milk and Califia Farms Extra Creamy Oat Milk, and if you’re more of a chocolate milk person, try Elmhurst Chocolate Oat Milk!
What is the Best Gluten-Free Non-Dairy Milk?
The answer to this question is: take your pick! The vast majority of plant-based milks are naturally gluten-free, although be sure to check the label as some manufacturers differ.
The only vegan milk to consider avoiding if you want to steer clear of gluten is oat milk. While oats are a naturally gluten-free grain, they often become cross-contaminated with wheat or rye in processing factories.
Therefore, either check the label to ensure it is certified gluten-free, or go for any of the other plant-based milks, from almond, hazelnut, and soy, to pea and macadamia milks!
Which is the Healthiest Plant-Based Milk?
All plant-based milks are healthier than dairy, with none of the cruelty, saturated fat, or hormones attached. Plus, it was way more fiber and nutrients.
Each plant-based milk has its own nutrient profile and benefits. For example, almond and cashew milks are high in vitamin E, and hazelnut milk is high in folate (vitamin B9).
Of all the vegan milks, soy milk is usually seen as the healthiest. It has the same protein content as dairy milk, along with anti-carcinogenic and cardio-protective properties. Soy milk has also been linked to lower blood pressure and reduced bad cholesterol.
Whichever milk you choose, though, the important thing is to look for those with minimal ingredients… brands like Elmhurst! Some manufacturers will use things like gums, oils, and sweeteners. These are usually fine in small doses, but the fewer ingredients, the better.
Opting for a non-GMO and organic version will usually give you even better health benefits.
Which Vegan Milk is Best?
It’s difficult to declare one milk ‘the best’, although if we could only drink one milk for the rest of our lives, it would probably be oat milk.
As you have seen through this article, oat milk mixes well at higher temperatures, it has a neutral flavor, it’s nice and creamy, and it is the most environmentally friendly of the plant milks.
But we also like soy, coconut, almond, cashew, hazelnut, pea… the list goes on!
While we do love some store-bought brands, we personally much prefer making our own plant-based milk at home. But who has time for nut milk bags and messy cleanup?
If you’re interested in making your own milk at home, check out Everything You Need To Know About The Almond Cow – the best plant-based milk-making machine!
It’s how we make our own plant-based milks at home. Not only do we not have to worry about all the additives and yucky stuff in many store-bought milks, but it ends up costing less in the long run, AND it’s super easy to use.
What’s your favorite plant-based milk?