I’ve just had a week of drinking artificial milk, experimenting with unsweetened soya milk and oat milk. I wasn’t looking to beat the taste/texture of cows’ milk, but for an alternative, which merely had to taste acceptable.
Either milk was acceptable.
I followed Charmer’s advice and bought chilled. Each one was good for about 10 days, five once opened. Neither could be frozen. But the “fresh” lifespan was perfect for me anyhow.
Do you remember those little UHT pots of creamy-white-stuff you used to get to put in coffee? Catered coffee? It was supposed to be a cream substitute, but UHT. Long life. You would open one of these pots, pour the entire contents into your cup of coffee, and end up with a whitened, creamy drink? Allegedly.
Do you remember how wrong those little pots used to taste, if you used them in tea? Because you just didn’t want that level of creaminess?
I found oat milk to be the same. For that reason, I had a preference for soya milk. A tiny shame, since I’m happier consuming oats than soya. A lot of forests are being destroyed to make way for soya. But I’m happy that either of these is less of a footprint than drinking cows’ milk. Cows are commonly fed on soya anyway, so I’m at least cutting out an inefficient bovine middleman.
Soya milk comes is all sorts of different styles. For a start, there is sweetened or unsweetened. As a diabetic, I figured unsweetened was the way to go.
Soya milk comes in different flavours. Dave Williams suggested vanilla. The trouble is, the price. Vanilla was about 50% more expensive than the regular milk. The one I tried was only slightly dearer than cows’ milk (89p versus 95p versus 150p for vanilla). I was certainly conscious of cost – ideally I didn’t want to spend a lot more than I’m already spending. Both oat and soya were the same price – there might have been 5p in it.
So, this week’s supermarket order will be soya milk (which happens to be vegan) and that, barring disasters, is what I will select going forward. I don’t intend becoming zealous over this. The goal is to consume less carbon, which I’ll be doing by consuming this milk at home. I’m sure I’ll still enjoy drinks at the local cafe, in the same way as I enjoy an occasional bacon sandwich from them.
On a separate note, we lost one of the chickens this morning. I know… we shouldn’t have favourites, but… She just went totally downhill in the last 48 hours. I need to bury my head into things today, take my mind off it.
Mister Bump 
I admire your doing the taste tests. I am sorry for the loss of your chicken.
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If I go off Lactaid milk I prefer sweetened almond milk. But basically am not a milk drinker. Use Italian sweet
creamer in my coffee and tea. OH, so sorry about your chicken. When young I had one too, I named her Clementine and taught her to swing on the trapeze on a child’s swing set. She was a black and white speckled one, have no idea
what that kind is but I like her a lot. So sorry.
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I never tried almond milk in the experiment, but I’d be interested to look at the carbon costs. I really wanted oats to work because they are grown here. Course, most almonds are grown in California, so a more obvious choice for you.
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Sorry about the chicken. I still buy cow milk for my coffee and tea, but I find the Silk brand of soy milk to be an acceptable alternative, and the vanilla is kinda yummy. I’ve tried almond and oat and don’t like them at all. I had a month here in my new place with no fridge and I bought those gross little creamers that don’t need refrigeration. ICK!!!
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I think I last saw one of those in, like, 1980 🙂 I figured the UHT soya/oat might be similar to UHT cows’ milk (generally ugh!), although I have no idea if the process is the same.
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I like oat milk better. It makes a mean cup of masala chai!
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That sounds like something I’d enjoy!
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I’m sure you will.
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Sorry about you chicken.
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thanks
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No, it isn’t that almonds are easier for me. I have tried the others and didn’t like the flavor, especially soy. There
is something about it that upsets my stomach.
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Did you mention using soya milk for making your oatmeal? How was it? Sorry to hear about your hen.
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it was fine. It has to cook for slightly longer than cows’ milk but the results were pretty much the same.
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First I’m so sorry about your chicken
Second I’m lactose intolerant so I use probably carbon heavy creamer like French vanilla or hazelnut in my coffee ( tea just sugar) I’m not a soy drinker or oats but if you’ve found something you like and is affordable then go for it!
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So interesting. I didn’t realise you were doing this for your carbon footprint. It’s an idea I hadn’t thought of.
Very sorry to hear about your chook. 😦
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If all you do is use milk to put into drinks, it’s doable I think. Beef and dairy is one of the most carbon -intensive food processes.
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Yes we have thought a lot about meat but somehow not dairy. Our kids drink litres of milk. We get through more than 9 litres a week. So it would be a big change for us. Anyway it’s worth discussing.
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Good for you for making the switch my friend. Glad you found one you can stick with moving forward 👍👍🖤🖤
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Thanks for your advice.
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You’re welcome 😊🖤
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I never really knew there are also different kinds of milk. I found about it sometime ago, and still thought what could be the difference. Because milk is just milk right? Later came to knew different sources and tastes these milk come with. I don’t consume much milk now, except for other products like tea coffee etc. Packed cow milk is what highly prevalent here, so anything else is either hard to get or expensive.
Sorry for the loss of your Chicken.
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Best option, of course, is none at all. And thanks, I just buried her. Sad. She was good fun, and she inspired some writing.
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