To ask which is the best alternative to milk?

[Whatsername177]

I'm a vegetarian and curious about reducing my dairy consumption. Or full disclosure, I'm not going to classify myself as vegan because I wont be. I buy eggs from a farmer who has truly free range hens and doesn't cut off their beaks etc and I plan to continue buying/eating them. I also will probably occasionally eat cheese. So not ethically vegan but curious. I'm not a fan of soya and only really have milk in tea/coffee and recipes. Which alternatives have the best/closest taste to milk?

Koko original coconut milk is the closest I've found.

Soy is about the only one I can stomach. The rest are bloody gross.

Nothing comes close to real milk though.

I've not found any that work like cows milk in hot drinks so I've just trained myself to drink them black, I actually prefer them black now.
On cereal and as a drink of cold milk, I like oatly semi best, the chilled one rather than uht.

I've tried lots, but always come back to store own-brand unsweetened soya. Great in coffee, tea, froths well, sauces, baking etc.

Cashew is pretty nice. But I find soya by far the most realistic.

Oat milk has less environmental impact than almond.

I pick morrisons or alpro when it’s on offer.

You can also make your own.

Oatly is closed for me, try Oatly Barista in coffee.

Oatly Semi (in the fridge). It's a touch less creamy than Oatly Barista (long life) and better / less porridgy in hot drinks. I use Oatly Barista for cooking though.
Oats are European grown and have a much lower carbon footprint than some of the other "milks'.

We're dairy and soya free due to baby's allergies. We use Koko coconut milk and yoghurt. It is fortified with calcium and vitamins. Works fine in tea - I don't drink coffee. Good for cooking and baking.

I haven’t purchased cow’s milk since 2014. I can taste when a drink has been made with cow’s milk and I genuinely can’t stand it. I have always disliked cow’s milk though - it just has a nasty aftertaste and always makes me cough up after.

I tried a few different ones, but almond milk is my favourite. As a heads up, it does taste different from cow’s milk so all your drinks/food will taste slightly different. The almond is strong enough that you’ll be able to taste it when mixed in hot chocolate for example. The texture is much thinner/slippery - silky almost. Cow’s milk has a more thick texture and a creamy/fatty taste to it imo.

Cow’s milk makes a drink “heavy” whereas almond milk makes a drink lighter. I bought a hot chocolate from Starbucks yesterday and could instantly taste the difference. I prefer the lighter texture of almond milk.

Don't go for almond if your reasons are environmental - it's terrible for the environment.

Flavoured tea like earl grey, lapsang or oolong are ok with oat milk but can't get used to English breakfast with oak milk. Probably because it is actually blended for the English palate with dairy milk. Lidl's own is a good cheaper version of the oatily.

Oatly barista or Oatly whole or semi fresh milks.

Koko do a "super nutrition" (long life) which is really creamy and lovely in coffee and on cereal. I don't drink milk in tea so can't really help with that.

I'm not the hugest fan if soya but can tolerate it. If you can find the alpro "professional" barista style soya that's really good in coffee too.

Macadamia is nice in milkshakes/smoothies or just for drinking. I like the Provamel one.

Not a fan of rice or almond, I find them a bit watery, and almond especially requires a shit heap of water to produce so not the most environmentally friendly.

If you have a heron foods near you they generally have a range of plant mills very cheap so you can try them out without massive expense.

I really liked oat milk but it caused havoc with my skin but some people find it too heavy and creamy.

With coffee, soya milk but it has to be heated up with the coffee so as not to curdle. Almond milk is my preference for porridge and I only use almond milk that's just almonds and not loads of other crap. For tea, I transitioned to Lady Grey or Earl Grey as tea is better without any milk imo.

DD and I use Alpro Soya Original. It is slightly sweet which is nice in coffee and tea, I'm a Milk In First so no curdling.

I don't like any nut milks they taste "off"

I tried Oat milk but it was so watery (even after shaking) I had to put the milk+water then add about 1/3rd spoon of coffee otherwise it would be too strong or too cold.

Not a fan of coconut milk but Co-Yo yoghurt is lush but ££

I really like oat milk.

Thanks everyone!

My favourite and least watery for use in home coffee is Hazelnut miilk but that isn't often available inn coffee shops .

When I get cappuccino, I alternate between almond and coconut milk. I think the coconut is more creamy and nicer but I like coconut flavour, if you don't then that would be a problem . I loathe soya milk and won't drink it. It has a rank taste IMO

meant to type unlike the tetrapaks, which aren’t recyclable.
Most councils have started to recycle Tetrapak cartons in the past few years.

Almond milk is terrible for the planet. Takes loads of water to produce almonds. Oat milk is the best, environmentally.

Depends what you mean by "best".
Best tasting? Most environmentally friendly? Most nutritious?
My teenage son is dairy allergic and from looking at the nutritional comparisons and taking advice from dieticians we use soya milk as being the one with the most appropriate nutritional profile for him. (He needs plenty of protein.) Personally I think it tastes pretty rank, but he knows no different and doesn't mind it. I think oat and rice milks are more palatable, though there is the arsenic thing to consider in rice milk and its more or less pure carbohydrate. I don't like coconut as its too sweet and we dont have nut products in the house due to DS's allergies so I've never tried any of the nut milks. As I understand it almond milk is awful from the environmental stand point so I wouldn't buy it even if we could have it.

Oatly. From an environmental point of view oat milk is better than all the other types. We use it for pretty much everything except in normal tea (but I do like oat milk in earl gray, spiced chai, etc)

We've tried Good Hemp (barista and non barista versions), Rebel Mylk, Rude Health coconut, Koko Original Coconut and Sproud (barista and non barista versions).

Sproud is our favourite for making coffee or hot chocolate (with Hotel Chocolat velvetiser). There is a pea taste drinking it by itself but it's amazing with coffee or chocolate, really creamy, very close to milk. There doesn't seem to be a difference using the barista or non-barista version.

Rude Health coconut is the nicest one to have alone or with cereal, but it tastes of coconut of course and isn't a milk dupe in that sense.

Unfortunately none of them really suit tea I think.

This article explains the problem with tetrapacks very clearly:

treadingmyownpath.com/2014/09/11/why-tetra-paks-arent-green-even-though-theyre-recyclable/