coconut milk
- Very smooth and satisfying
- <=1 g natural sugars so basically carb-free
- amazing replacement for milk in cereal and smoothies
Oatly is my one and only.
Oatly? Fuck Oatly. Also, Fuck Fuck Oatly. And so on.
Lol wtf is happening
We rotate between Almond and Coconut. Almond for stuff where the milk needs to be more neutral tasting. Coconut if we want a more creamy texture. We used to also like Oat (least wasteful on water during production vs almond), but it’s high in carbs so we avoid it now. Also, we actually use 0% fat lactose-free milk as well for coffee because it just tastes better than the alternatives for coffee.
If you can ever find it, try the Vita-Coco original no sugar added 1L carton that has around 5g of carbs, its really incredible super coconut milk that beats all for cereal. Its a little pricier but its amazing stuff.
Oat milk followed by homemade cashew milk. I found coconut milk and almond milk both to be too watery tasting.
Edit: Here is my recipe for nut/seed milk. This works for cashews, sunflower seeds, hemp seeds, and pepitas. I haven’t tried it with other nuts or seeds.
- 1/3c nuts or seeds
- 4c water
- Sweetener of choice (I just use 2 Splenda packets but I’ve also used agave and pitted dates)
- 1/8tsp salt
- 1/8tsp xanthan gum (can be ommitted but it helps the texture IMHO)
- 1/2tsp vanilla (optional)
Blend seeds or nuts with water, salt, and sweetener in a high speed blender. Strain through a nut milk bag. Add xanthan gum and re-blend. Stays good for a week or more.
Oatly had this strawberry-elderflower sort of drink and then it stopped being made / imported.
It was so fucking good, and I just don’t enjoy the other flavours as much.
Oatly adds amylase to convert oat starch into maltose. The result is that the sugar content is about that of Coca-Cola while they still write “unsweetened” or “no added sugar” on their sassy packaging because it’s technically true.
It’s good for a dash into your coffee, but I wouldn’t suggest it as a daily substitute due to the sugar content.
I don’t enjoy coffee or the Oatly meant for coffee that much.
The elderberry-strawberry thing actually tasted refreshing. I don’t drink any other drinks like that. I’ve tried, but I’ve just not enjoyed a single one outside of that, pretty much. They all have that sort of beany aftertaste. It’s not bad, but it’s not too enjoyable for me.
Wouldn’t the starch break down into an equivalent amount of sugar during digestion?
Yes. In fact, human saliva contains amylase. Also, coke is way less calory-dense than regular milk.
I keep getting surprised that people seem to think that adding amylase to oat water suddenly adds calories. You merely increase the amount of simple sugars. On the whole, the calory total is stil much lower than regular milk.Nice strawman you got going there, but I never said anything about calories. It’s about sugar.
Your uptake of sugar is not equal across all forms, but varies by the underlying sugar. The rate of uptake is measured with the glycemic index, the higher, the faster the uptake. Lactose has a GI of around 45, sucrose of 65 and maltose of 105. Maltose lets your blood sugar level spike significantly more than the others which leads to a more significant crash which induces hunger, irritability, fatigue, and overeating.
Coke is a lot more sugar-dense than milk (more than double the density) and coupled with the presence of a higher GI sugar, it’s more of a snack than a refreshing drink.
Additionally, the controlled enzymatic conversion by adding amylase breaks down a lot more of the oat starch than what would normally happen while eating and digesting, so my point still stands.
I see where you’re coming from and I didn’t mean to misrepresent your argument.
I am wondering about the following though:the controlled enzymatic conversion by adding amylase breaks down a lot more of the oat starch than what would normally happen while eating and digesting
On what basis do you say this? Do you know literature that shows this? Are blood sugar levels clearly impacted differently by oat-water starches with and without amylase treatment?
There is this study about different kinds of processing with alpha-amylase. The relevant data is in Figure 2, control (C in the figure) was just an oat-water slurry that was heated for some time, En is with the addition of amylase. The rest is about exploring different processing techniques.
It doesn’t compare starch-sugar ratio during digestion tho, not sure if there are any studies that do that. But higher initial maltose content means a higher spike.
Thanks for the ref.
higher initial maltose content means a higher spike
Based on your ref, I’m not convinced that this is truly the case though. I think this may be more relevant to your point:
https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fbf01092074
From the quick googling I did at work, it seems that there are different types of starches that digest at different rates. Whole grain cereals are in the slower-to-digest category *and might not get digested fully.
I personally suspect that the process of making oat milk - blending and straining the oats - makes them easier to digest and probably has an impact on GI. So it’s probably a wash.
Unsweetened almond milk mainly due to the low calories compared to other non-dairy milks but not as tasty for sure.
It’s been a while, but one time I had almond milk in rooibos tea* and it made it taste like cake. Can’t remember proportions or how much extra sugar or sweetener I had in it but knowing me, the amount wasn’t “none”.
* tea-like infusion. Rooibos and tea are not related plants.
Rice Milk
Oat for most things. Extra creamy.
Almond for a fewthings. Like I prefer almond in a bowl of cereal. Silk has an unsweetened one with extra protein that is my go to.
I use rice milk in my cereal. Nice and sweet. Not too fatty.
Almond milk is my go to
Chocolate almond milk is basically a glass of dessert.
I like soy milk. I don’t know why people freak out about it.
something about estrogen load
I liked the smell of it in my shaving cream but yet to formally try it in the mouth hole
It’s fine? It’s not ambrosia, but it’s easier on my stomach and a little bit healthier than the moo juice.
In order: Soy, Coconut, Almond, Macadamia.
Almond uses way too much water to be environmentally sustainable, and macadamia just has a weird after-taste that I don’t like.
Soy has a bit of a bad reputation (unfairly so, due to bad ‘bro science’); but I quite like the taste and it has a pretty low emissions/water footprint comparatively.
Just tried a swig of the soy i bought today. Actually…quite nice,creamy. We shall see if i like it in the morning.
A little phleghmy tho in your mouth after
Oat for lattes, rice for drinking straight, coconut for smoothies, almond for cereal
Nice call out on rice milk straight. I do think it has a nice subtle sweetness to it the others don’t.
Unsweetened almond milk, unsweetened oat milk is second
You’re not going to get carb free, but low sugar.
Oat milk in coffee is delightful. I find almond milk a bit too “non-present” I can’t think of a better word
Yeah I like that almond milk is not too much flavor. It means it doesn’t distract from the flavor of the thing it’s added to, only changes the texture and smooths out bitterness and other unpleasant flavor components like with tea and coffee. I prefer to get good tea or coffee and not add anything, but that stuff is expensive, so I get middle of the road quality and add almond milk to smooth it out but still keep some of the highlights.
Oat milk is good for the really mediocre stuff, though. It smooths it out a lot and adds some flavor. And I do like oats a lot in general. But a lot of times the oat milk is too gritty or too heavy. I found that making my own oat milk does eliminate those problems, but takes more effort and doesn’t last long if I make a lot of it at once to reduce the effort.
Pea milk. It has a good taste and I like the consistency. Most other milk alternatives are too watery.
Someone at work bought me macadamia nut milk when I went vegan, it was at Costco for a while, and man that was good. They don’t carry it anymore and it’s not in regular stores I’ve seen.
