Milk alternatives

[solania]

Hello all,
While not vegan, I’m very keen to reduce my family's impact on the planet. I’m looking into more vegan cooking (though I’m also low fodmap which makes it tricky!) and less dairy, but one thing I’m really stuck on is alternative milks. I feel I can’t justify almond milk because of its water impact (and yes I know dairy is worse!!) and I can’t have soy, so I’m left with hazelnut, coconut and oat.

Really I’d like to enjoy oat milk, as I feel it's the most sustainable, but most of the time I find it utterly revolting in tea, and I can’t face life without regular tea.

Top of my ideals would be making my own oat milk that I can enjoy. Can anyone help me? What can I do to make oat milk more palatable?

Currently I’m on lactofree (lactose free due to fodmaps, but obviously it's still dairy milk), and I really want to wean myself off it and consume something else, less processed and more sustainable.

Any ideas please? Thanks so much xx

[MbatataOwl]

Have you tried putting a drop of vanilla in the oat milk?

[NannyR]

I had a similar dilemma, I haven't found a milk alternative that I like in tea. I'm happy to drink my coffee black and I've trained myself to enjoy fruit and herb teas and redbush tea and I use oat milk for cereal, cooking etc, but I do buy a pint of organic dairy milk for tea. I only have a splash in my tea so it lasts for ages and if people come round for tea or coffee they generally prefer dairy in hot drinks.
In the future I might get used to drinking black tea, but I'm happy that I've reduced the amount of dairy I drink/eat by quite a bit in other ways so the odd splash of milk is OK for me at the moment.
I suppose what I'm saying after that big essay is maybe try other hot drinks that don't need milk and don't feel guilty about the odd cup of milky tea if you are cutting down in other ways.

[GrimmTales]

Rice milk? That’s very obtainable. We have a mixture of oat milk, soya milk and rice milk. Rice milk in tea, but oat milk in coffee. Oat milk in tea isn’t very nice.

[solania]

@NannyR I agree 109% with what you’re saying…and if I could drink lactose milk I would probably do what you do. Unfortunately lactose in milk triggers my IBS (not in cheese or yoghurt, though 🤷‍♀️) hence the Lactofree dairy milk. Arla is pretty bad in terms of welfare and sustainability, I think I’ve read, but I have never seen any organic/high welfare lactose free dairy milk anywhere! So really, I’d love to find an alternative that is tolerable in tea!

[solania]

@GrimmTales

Rice milk? That’s very obtainable. We have a mixture of oat milk, soya milk and rice milk. Rice milk in tea, but oat milk in coffee. Oat milk in tea isn’t very nice.

This sounds interesting, thank you. I haven’t tried rice milk - will investigate!

[NannyR]

Ah, I can see why the lactose free thing is a problem.

[Justcannot]

I went through all of them several times trying to find the best for us. Turns out, you need several. We now keep a supply of almond milk for my tea, wanky barista style oat milk for my husbands tea as hes allergic to almond, I make our own oat milk for cereals etc, and we have soy milk for anything which needs cooking with milk, like pancakes. I can now enjoy the oat milk in my tea so am moving to that instead of almond due to the water impact. So it does sometimes take a while to get used to it.

[lilroo87]

We have Oatly Barista and we really like it. My DP is lactose intolerant and he loves it. He used to drink glasses of milk but now he can't even stand the taste of it in tea or coffee and much prefers Oatly.
We have tried a few but the barista one is by far the best.
We've tried other brand barista ones but they're not as good

[solania]

I’ve heard good things about the barista brand one. I did once have a nice cup of oat milk tea and I think that was the milk they used!

I will try that, and I’m going to have another try at making oat milk with a dash of vanilla as @MbatataOwl suggested and see whether that makes enough of a difference!

[Moonlaserbearwolf]

I have Oatly Barista in tea and it took a few weeks to get used to it, but now I really like it. For me it's the best non-dairy option.

[Suzi888]

I love Alpro ‘my cuppa’. Makes proper builders tea and I have it in cereal. I can’t tell the difference.

[cushioncovers]

Oatly barista has replaced cows milk completely in our house. If I'm out ordering a coffee out I prefer coconut milk for my flat whites etc as I find it's creamier.