January is also known as Veganuary! In celebration of Veganuary and to help encourage all those taking part in the challenge, the Owens team ran a tasting to discover the best plant-based milk for coffee.
Why review the best plant-based milk for coffee?
Visit Owens for your favourite coffee, and our baristas will ask what type of milk you would prefer. In coffee shops in the past, this question (if asked at all!) would likely have meant a simple choice between full fat or skimmed cow’s milk. Today however, it usually means “Would you like your coffee with cow’s milk, oat milk, soya milk /other plant-based option?!”
At Owens we already offer plant-based dairy alternatives and with Veganuary taking place throughout the whole of January and customers signing up to the Veganuary challenge, the team tested a range of plant-based milks in the form of popular latte and cappuccino drinks, tasting oat, almond, soya, and coconut milk as each, and comparing thoughts and findings on the beverages.
Perhaps the results will make you want to try something different too!
Plant-based milks in coffee
The plant-based milks we tasted in our coffees included:
- Oat Milk
- Almond Milk
- Soya Milk
- Coconut Milk
- Gluten free Oat Milk
Important to note that when running our tasting, we went with a barista version of all of the above plant-based milks as these have been designed to produce the best results in coffee.
All of the examples produced super coffees, but there were some clear stand-out contenders.
Oat Milk in Coffee
As we expected, oat milk did not disappoint. Oat milk is familiar to our baristas at the Roastery where we are well-practiced at producing a silky micro-foam with it. The creamy oat milk gave a rounded, well-balanced favour which was particularly tasty with our award-winning, bold and fruity Gara espresso.
Coconut Milk in Coffee
The team also gave top marks to the coconut milk. This was a little unexpected as it was the dairy alternative the team was most unsure about. The distinctive, sweet taste of the coconut milk was deemed a winner. Coconut milk worked especially well when paired with the rich, spicy flavours of our Baya espresso.
Soya Milk in Coffee
Even though we all thought the more neutral taste of the soya milk allowed the coffee flavours to flourish, the baristas found soya trickier to work with. The milk seemed to split easily, even when we lowered the temperatures. This altered the texture and mouthfeel.
Almond Milk in Coffee
Last, but not least, the tasting revealed that almond milk gave a definite sweetness and hint of marzipan to our drinks. This plant-based option is worth trying for those coffee lovers out there who are looking for a particularly sweet and nutty-tasting beverage.
As a company which is whole-heartedly committed to sustainable and ethical practices, Owens are proud supporters of ‘Veganuary’.
To get involved and support those who have signed up, we are offering a wider selection of plant-based milks for our takeaway drinks at The Roasteryand, as our in-house experiment successfully demonstrated, we are confident that the vegan coffee experience will be outstanding!