[Closed] Have you changed to non diary milk? which one, how's it going?

Human Breast Milk. It's the natural choice.

It's very sweet though.

Does that follow a cycle according to the month perchy?

My wife drinks the Alpro lacto-free stuff, not sure if that's what you're after (think it still comes from cows) but it's relatively indistinguishable from cow's milk, no disaster if I have to use it for my morning weetabix etc. My wife uses it for porridge with no complaints.

Think I accidentally used some almond milk or similar in my breakfast, wasn't unpleasant but gave me a pause when I first tasted it, sort of sweeter and thicker than normal.

Alpro unsweetened almond milk here. My wife is happy as I no longer trump explosive milk fuelled gas bombs.  I miss them a little but yes I feel better for it.  Great for porridge yes. Coffee, dunno.

changed mainly for health and to a lesser extent environmental reasons (oat milk is the best for that, but I think it's rubbish 🙂 )

I've only tried Almond milk so far for coffee / tea. It didn't taste great and was a pain as it 'curdled' easily if you didn't take your time pouring in the hot water.

I use Soya milk which is good in tea, on cereal etc,. Doesn't work with coffee but you should really just drink that without milk anyway so do that at the same time as switching.

Always have a mixture of soy, coconut and oat milk in the fridge.
I've been veggie for years, not quite given up cow milk as I'll still have it in tea at friend's houses occasionally. Found a lovely coconut milk ice-cream (which I think I would often choose in preference to a cow one purely on taste, it's really good) Had some very, very nice vegan cakes too, again would probably choose in preference to ones made with eggs based purely on taste.
So why aren't I vegan? Cheese. Never found a good vegan cheese, and I do like cheese.
Anyway, milk. Soy is good for porridge and tea (no idea about coffee, I don't drink that) Oat milk doesn't taste of much but the wife likes it, really just seems to colour the tea and cool it down a bit. Coconut is really nice on cereals and porridge but makes tea taste funny.

Oat milk for coffee(oatly specifically, doesn't seem to split) and almond milk for cereal etc.

Soya/Almond milk for cups of tea
Coconut milk for coffee (buy the name brands as cheaper coconut milks can separate)
Oat milk for cereals/smoothies/porridge.

Thats the general rule of thumb I work with I guess.

Ash.

If you are male soya milk it will make you put weight on. It makes you produce more ostragen ( female hormone )

it ‘curdled’ easily if you didn’t take your time pouring in the hot water.

P'raps you might try putting the milk in last, as it SHOULD BE DONE! (separate thread I think...)

there is a really good coconut milk yoghurt too, can't remember the name. it's gorgeous!

We have coconut milk almond milk and oat milk dependant on what we are eating or making..... Still go through alot of dairy as well.

I find soya milk revolting

I like oat milk on the rare occasion I take a recovery shake without water

They all come with their own eco issues.

Not sure what the documentaries you have been watching are but do bare in mind that everything is bad for you.

Moderation is key.

Oatly all day long in coffee.

Yes, inasmuch as I don’t drink dairy milk now. I used to drink a pint a day (70s kid, up until my 30s 🤣) as the Milk Marketing Board or whatever it was convinced us all that we’d die of skeletorism without gallons of cow’s milk as a ‘staple’.

Now it’s soy in tea, oat cream in the odd coffee when I fancy a change from black. Regular soft drink is black coffee or water. I make porridge with water and sweeten with apple slices. Don’t eat wheat cereals anymore.

Very ocassionally will fancy a glass of cold ‘milk’ with a biscuit. A sweetened soy milk I find is most enjoyable for this purpose. Taste and quality varies between brand. The regular Lidl one tastes great imo. Oat milk too, but it’s expensive iirc

Looking to make my own oat drink.

I don’t like or support intensive dairy farming at all for, a number of reasons, so what I buy or don’t buy is more about that than my health. Still, I’m a fat knacker who gorged on beige and dairy for 40 odd years of his life until recently. Actually...side benefits and all that...

One of the kids has a dairy intolerance so we've tried all of them.

Oatly seems to be the most all round pleasant as substiture for cows milk, and they do a 4% fat version that actually tastes OK in coffee etc. It's not the cheapest though, but IMO probably worth it.

Some of the others IME are good for specific things, if you want that flavour in it. So hot chocolate, cakes, pancakes, rice pudding, custard etc made with almond or coconut milk ca actually be nicer than if made with dairy.

Soy based milks can GTF. Bleurgh.

+1 Soyboy here. I actually prefer the taste of my coffee with soya milk in it.

No new breasts or any negative side effects to report.

How do you get lacteal secretions from plant products?

How do you get lacteal secretions from plant products?

Dunno, but i've heard that you can get them from some kinds of bees.

I tried it for a few months, made absolutely no difference health wise, but the alternatives are more expensive. Back to using dairy now, the only stipulation I do have is organic, a lot of the hormones they pump into dairy cows are transferred into milk.

92% of northern Europeans are absolutely fine with drinking cows milk, it is a genetic mutation that creates the enzime that breaks down lactose that gave an evolutionary advantage and therefore became dominant. Where as in lots of asia where dairy farming was not common, intolerance is at nearly 100%.

I understand that for some as they enter old age then those enzymes can decrease and some signs of intolerance can start.

Definitely oat milk for everything, especially porridge. It’s like a mega oat hit. Stir it with a flapjack.

How do you get lacteal secretions from plant products?

How do you get nut-cream from a lovely bunch of coconuts?

Cashew here , IMO it's the best tasting of all non dairy milk . As for Soya giving you breasts I would take that if I could get a payout like this .
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49982237

I tried it for a few months, made absolutely no difference health wise

Science ftw

but the alternatives are more expensive

Dairy is heavily subsidised because of demand because of subsidies because of demand because of subsidies.

You might not believe how cheap it is to make oat or soy milk at home vs buying dairy. I offer this for balance of the discussion, not to suggest everyone immediately becomes more self-sufficient and less-supporting of Cow Corp TM.

I was going to suggest date milk, but you asked for non diary recommendations.

here's a more balanced report than my statement. All i know I drank quite abit of it over a couple of weeks and gained a few pounds. A body builder friend told me about it also.

livestrong

I gave up cows milk about 18 months ago, tried all sorts of non dairy and my favourite is oatly, it’s the closest in taste and texture to milk although I do like Alpro hazelnut in my porridge every now and again.

For coffee I use oatly barista, it seems a bit thicker than the standard stuff but it is expensive.

Ashweee - Tried Oatly Creamy Oat in coffee? It comes up on offer regularly we usually buy two or three 250ml cartons and refrigerate.

Doesn’t work with coffee but you should really just drink that without milk anyway

Thanks, don't like black coffee.

MSP, it's not my health primarily, but animal welfare I'm interested in, I'm one of those hypocritical veggies that still eats diary It's time I did something to reduce that consumption.

I'm trying to use less cow juice for environmental and ethical reasons - I've been veggie for more than 30 years. It seems that oat milk has the lowest environmental damage quotient, so I'm using Oatly, regular for most uses and the barista edition for my cappuccinos and flat whites. I don't much like it, but I'm persevering in the hope I get used to it. As a side effect, it contains calcium carbonate (chalk, and the major ingredient of Rennies), which seems to help with the heartburn I've recently started suffering from.

nickc I never used to like black coffee. But personal tastes change over time if you stick with it. What I discovered was that I didn’t like rank coffee without milk, but decent coffee doesn’t require milk. I still like a hit of cream once in a while, so go with Oatly Creamy Oat as mentioned.

I remember the first time drinking UHT soy milk circa 1980s I was going boik wtf. Didn't try in vain again until a few years back. Now I actually prefer a decent soy drink to what I over time came to find the slightly sour gakky taste of dairy milk, that same thing I loved for 40-odd years. I still drink less of all ‘milks’ than I used to. Hardly at all in fact. Humans and our habits are weird, and no accounting for taste etc...but it has been interesting for me to observe my once-believed ‘rigid’ tastes change.

Still ride rigid bikes the most tho.

Wife prefers Alpro Rice to all other substitutes and milk, Rice Rream splits and separates in tea where as Alpro doesn't.

I'll use it if I run out of real milk but then realise that I actually would have preferred just to use water with my cereal or coffee...

Human Breast Milk. It’s the natural choice.

Are you married to some kind of nut?

Soya milk is usually fine in coffee for me. Depends on the coffee, ie instant coffee will curdle, proper usually coffee doesn't. And depends on the soya milk, some of the cheap brands can be prone to separating, or the organic ones. Lidl own brand is fine for me. Heating the milk before adding it may help.

Malvern rider, not tried creamy oat but I will do now, thanks 👍

Better half has gone vegan in past year and so now often gets Oatly, it tastes OK but my god, it's expensive at ~£1.80+ for 1 litre compared to ~£1.10 for 2 litres of low fat milk.

it’s expensive

£8.99 for 8 x 1L Alpro Oat at Booker if you can find someone with an account.

Alpro is generally a no-go for me, knowing the brand is owned by Danone. Ethical consumers be-aware.

Lidl now have oat or almond milk, 89p per litre. Or about 60p for soya.

Interesting thread! Have often pondered this and some years ago I switched to Oatly but it became difficult to source so gave up. Had started going to a local farm for their raw Jersey milk in glass bottles and definitely enjoyed seeing the curious cows in the adjoining field. Summer arrived and no longer wanted to drink it so back to lactose-free.

As per n0tg's post, £1.80 in Tesco is a lot to pay for Oatly so back to ruminating (sorry!) this topic. Not vegan or vegetarian but concerned from both a moral and ethical position.

Lidl now have oat or almond milk, 89p per litre.

Longlife or from the chiller?

Another oat milk recipe, described as good for adding to hot drinks and works in the frother

This thread reminds me I have to buy a nutmilk bag 😂😋😬

I was going to suggest date milk, but you asked for non diary recommendations.

Underrated post

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!

[URL= https://thumbs2.imgbox.com/b7/23/jve463hJ_t.jpe g" target="_blank">https://thumbs2.imgbox.com/b7/23/jve463hJ_t.jpe g"/> [/IMG][/URL] [URL= http://imgbox.com/1ycE2kRF ]
[IMG] [/IMG][/URL]

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.