Oat Milk

Tasters loved this mellow oat milk’s “very faint nuttiness” and “slight oat” flavor. With 7 grams of sugar per serving, it was “not too sweet.” It was “supersmooth in coffee,” in part because of the addition of rapeseed oil, gellan gum, and phosphates. It also produced tender, delicious results when we subbed it for coconut milk in vegan biscuits. One taster said it “seems like a pretty unobtrusive replacement for cow’s milk” and another said “I'd keep this in my milk rotation.”

This oat milk tasted “pleasant,” with a “perfectly reasonable sweetness.” Tasters liked this milk but found it “a little on the thin side,” perhaps because it contains phosphates and gums but not oil. “As an avid milk drinker, I would use this as an alternative,” said a taster.

Our tasters praised this “smooth,” “silky,” and “creamy” oat milk, noting that it had “a bit more body” than some other samples and that it “added a nice creaminess to the coffee.” As for flavor, it had a “pleasant sweetness on the finish.” However, it tasted more strongly of oats than many of the other samples in our lineup, and several tasters said it was “too much oat.”

“This screams ‘I’m made from oats,’” noted one taster. Some people liked its bold oat flavor, but one taster noted, “It's a little strong for me.” This sample was incredibly smooth, and it was on the thicker side. Tasters liked this oat milk plain and in coffee, but when we used it as a replacement for coconut milk in our biscuit recipe, we found the oat flavor overpowering. We suggest choosing a less intense oat milk for baking and cooking, so the oat flavor doesn’t interfere with or dominate the other ingredients’ flavors.

This oat milk had an “enjoyable amount of oat flavor.” However, without any emulsifiers or oils to help improve its drinkability, this sample was deemed “thin,” “watery,” and “a little chalky.” One taster noted that they detected “a little sediment” on their tongue. Tasters also picked up on a sour note, most likely from the extended UHT processing time required for this shelf-stable product.

With 17 grams of sugar per serving—more than double the amount in our favorite oat milk—there was an “overpowering sweetness” that one taster deemed a “true deal breaker.” Most companies remove oat bran during processing, but not this one; the oat bran is added back to this milk for extra fiber. The addition of oat bran gave it an unmistakable “chalkiness.” Although this product includes gellan gum and tricalcium phosphate to help improve texture, it didn’t include any oil, so it was a bit too thin. It’s a shelf-stable product, so it was likely processed longer, which can cause proteins to break down and create the “sour” flavor that tasters noticed.