Which non-dairy milk is best for coffee?

With so many non-dairy milk options available these days, lactose intolerant coffee lovers can now enjoy a cup of latte with ease. But, which non-dairy alternative milk is the best for your coffee?

Here, I explore the differences in terms of taste and texture in a coffee and explore their environmental impact too. I hope this will be useful for home baristas or coffee lovers who brew at home.

This evolved into a super long article, here’s what I tried to cover in a glance:

Best Non-Dairy Milk for Coffee

In a nutshell, the winners for me are:

• Best non-dairy milk for coffee: Oat milk, Soy Milk
• Best non-dairy milk for frothing: Barista version of any non-dairy milk
• Best non-dairy milk in terms of environmental impact: Oat Milk

If a range doesn’t have a ‘barista’ version, just look at the ingredient list. In general, those with added acidic regulators are less likely to curdle when mixed with espresso and those with added thickeners and syrup or sugars will be easier to froth and and the microfoam tends to hold for a longer period in a latte.

Here’s a table for your reference:

Comparison of non-dairy milk for coffee

*disclaimer: This test was not an accurate comparison of ease of texturing as I could not get ‘barista’ versions of all the alt milks used.

I won’t speak for all baristas, but personally, non-dairy milk alternatives are a headache.

Why?

Some don’t take as well to heat and others don’t like being in an acidic environment (i.e. the coffee), many if not most tend to curdle. If you don’t have experience working with alternative milks, it can be difficult to tell the reasons behind the clumping in your cup.

If you think it’s as simple as replacing diary milk with any non-dairy milk of your choice, you’ve just got to experience it yourself.

But first, quick heads up – I broke this article into two parts.

In the first section, I share my experience with the alternative milks in coffee and chocolate. If you’re looking for opinions on which non-dairy milk alternatives to use at home, the first part is for you.

In the second part, I dived into the nutritional benefits and environmental impact of each alternative milk on this list. For folks wondering if alternative milks are really more beneficial to the environment, the second part would be interesting.

Anyway, I had fun with this range of alt milks recently and here are my thoughts.

I) A barista’s comparison of non-dairy milk alternatives

I bought a range of non-dairy milk alternatives and had a fulfilling afternoon downing café lattes. I tried to go for alternative milks that are common in the specialty coffee scene and were easily available in supermarkets.

Each alternative milk was heated to 60C and used to construct a café latte and a hot chocolate.

Espressos tend to be slightly acidic and alternative milks which are not pH stable may curdle and even clump up quickly. Hot chocolate tends to be pH neutral. We should be able to tell the extent of curdling when we compare the texture between the latte and the hot chocolate.

P.S. due to space restriction, I was forced to limit myself to 1 option of each non-dairy milk alternative. Where possible, the barista version was selected. The second option was the unsweetened, un-enriched, unsweetened version. If you’d like a comparison of brands across non-dairy milk alternatives, let me know in the comments below.

P.P.S. I’m not a latte art champion.

Tip: do look at the list of ingredients when choosing alternative milk. Some brands offer non-dairy milk with flavoring instead. For example, Rebel Kitchen’s Hazelnut milk is an oat and coconut cream-based alt milk with hazelnut flavoring.

Soy Milk: Bonsoy

Bonsoy seems to come up in many discussions about soy milk alternatives for coffee and it was available at a supermarket (I went to a NTUC fairprice). Hence, it was selected for this test.

The downside of Bonsoy is that its packaging isn’t the most friendly for storage.

Other popular soy milk for coffee includes MILKLab, Happy Happy Soy Boy and Pacific Food brands. On hindsight, should I have given Nutrisoy a go?

• Cost

There are fresh soya milk (Marigold Powerbeans, Nutrisoy) that cost between $2 to $3 per litre, as well as UHT soy milk which cost between $3 to $6 per litre.

• Availability

Soy milk are readily available in most supermarkets. However, if you’re looking for barista grade soy milk, you’ll probably need to head to a cold storage or Fairprice Xpress or Finest.

You can also get them from local specialty coffee cafes or e-commerce platforms.

• Texturing Experience

Bonsoy was relatively easy to texture, in fact I overdid it the first time because I wasn’t expecting microfoam to form at all.

The presence of calcium carbonate which functions as a thickener and tapioca syrup in Bonsoy could be the reasons why it was easier to froth.

• In a coffee

Pairs well with espresso, I would say that Bonsoy is my favorite out of all the alternative milks tested here. It doesn’t overpower the coffee and the soy latte has a slightly malty after taste. It also brings out a slight chocolatey after taste in the coffee.

I can’t speak for all soy milk, but Bonsoy doesn’t curdle as much.

• In a hot chocolate

Makes a nice tasting chocolate without altering the taste. Bonsoy holds the microfoam well in a hot chocolate. There was a ‘head’ of soy curdle forming at the top of the latte art in the coffee, but this was absent in the hot chocolate.

Oat Milk: Oatly (Original)

Of course, it had to be Oatly. They had broken into the scene so successfully, they managed to get themselves listed on the NASDAQ (alongside companies like Facebook and Google). Fun fact, they’re partnering with Yeo’s to build a plant-based milk factory in Singapore. So woke!

Other popular oat milk brands for coffee include Minor Figures and MILKLAB.

• Cost

Oat milk tends to cost between $6 to $7 per litre.

• Availability

Oatly seems readily available in most supermarkets, retailed as UHT milk. There are several other brands that offer oat milk as well – pacific foods, ecomil, Sanitarium, etc. You can also find oat milk being retailed by several coffee chains in Singapore.

You can also get them from e-commerce platforms like Shopee, Lazada and Amazon.

• Texturing Experience

The original version of Oatly isn’t easy to texture, foam doesn’t form readily. If you’re using it at room temperature, you have a relatively short window to get it to foam sufficiently. My advise is to put your Oat milk in the fridge and texture it at a lower temperature.

This was quite difficult to froth evenly, with bubbles rising to the top quickly after frothing.

The microfoam isn’t as stable as dairy milk and there was significant (and visibly obvious) curdling of oat milk. Don’t serve this in a transparent glass if you’re trying to impress someone:

Oatly Original vs Oatly Barista Version

I was curious and had to get my hands on the barista version (bought from redmart).

Here’s the key differences:

• Cost: Original was $6.85 per L while the Barista version was $7.20 per L
• Ingredients: Barista version had additional acidic regulators

Frothing wise, they performed very similarly, both require some getting used to in order to produce a good texture.

However, the barista version had significantly less curdling, thanks to the acidic regulators. You can see it clearly in this photo:

• In a coffee

It brings out the acidic notes of a coffee but has a relatively weak body.

After steaming, Oatly tastes like Super’s instant cereal drink, but less sweet. And this was apparent in the after taste of the coffee.

It was interesting to note that the barista version had a stronger oat taste and a creamier texture.

• In a hot chocolate

Oatly works great in a hot chocolate and makes it tastes like Ovaltine.

There was no curdling in a hot chocolate but the microfoam dissipates after a while. That said, keep in mind that the original version used for this test, I expect the ‘barista’ version to perform better in the texturing department.

Almond Milk: alpro barista

There’s a surprisingly wide range of brands offering almond milk from Tesco to UFC to Pacific foods. I went with alpro only because it was the only one that had a ‘barista’ version.

There isn’t much differences between the original and barista version, except that the original is enriched with vitamins while the barista version contains acidity regulators which I suspect will play a role in preventing curdling when mixed with espresso.

• Cost

Almond milk costs between $4 to $10 per litre, depending on the brand.

• Availability

It is easily available and there are many brands offering Almond milk. You can find these at supermarkets, local cafes and on various online platforms.

• Texturing Experience

The alpro barista almond mink was relatively easy to texture and the latte art lasts for at least 10 minutes on the coffee.

• In a coffee

After frothing, the almond milk tastes nutty on its own. Unfortunately, the almond flavor overpowers the coffee.

There was insignificant curdling which was only noticeable if the coffee was left alone for a long period of time.

• In a hot chocolate

The latte art really holds on this one. The almond taste was quite distinct but it goes well with chocolate.

Hazelnut: ecomil

Hazelnut milk is another popular alternative milk option. I picked ecomil because I didn’t want to use alt milk from the same brand.

• Cost

Hazelnut milk costs between $4 to $7 per litre, depending on the brand.

• Availability

Hazelnut milk is fairly easy to procure with many brands offering it. However, you should take a look at the ingredient list to confirm if its pure hazelnut milk or if its hazelnut flavored milk. I’ve noticed hazelnut flavored oat milk being sold as ‘Hazelnut milk’, if you have food allergies, do check.

You can find these at supermarkets, local cafes and on various online platforms.

• Texturing Experience

This was relatively easy to texture with microfoam forming pretty readily.

Although this version was labelled as ‘sugar free’, it contains tapioca starch and locust bean gum, a thickener. These additives probably made it easier to texture and hold the microfoam.

• In a coffee

Ecomil’s Hazelnut milk was relatively stable at higher temperatures and in a coffee. However, the frothing process really brings out the hazelnut flavors and it overpowers the coffee in a hot latte.

I tried making a dirty coffee (double shot espresso into cold hazelnut milk) with it and that resulted in a pretty decent coffee. If you can’t be bothered with latte art, don’t have a milk frother or simply don’t want to heat your milk up, this is the way to go!

There was no visible curdling in this hazelnut latte.

• In a hot chocolate

The microfoam holds well in a hot chocolate and the hazelnut milk doesn’t curdle. It pairs well with chocolate too.

Rice Milk: Pureharvest Unsweetened

I bought the alt milks at a NTUC fairprice and Pureharvest’s Rice milk caught my eyes. You can find other brands online.

That said, I seriously don’t understand the need for this product. #rant

• Cost

Rice milk costs between $4 to $8 per litre.

• Availability

Rice milk is not as common. I think it’s just not a suitable market for our local market.

That said, you can still find rice milk at major supermarkets and e-commerce platforms.

• Texturing Experience

This rice milk was difficult to texture, it was as though I was trying to froth water. This could be due to the lack of complex sugars. The ingredient list includes water, brown rice, organic sunflower oil and sea salt. The taste reminds me of the ‘waste’ water we get after washing rice.

• In a coffee

Just don’t. There was zero curdling but the flavors didn’t blend well, this tasted like coffee flavored congee, without the starch. But…

• In a hot chocolate

This taste almost like milo ha!

I had many good milo-like chocolate drinks while trying to finish this.

Coconut milk: MILKLAB Coconut milk

I had purchased kara coco’s coconut milk drink from NTUC Fairprice initially, but decide to purchased MILKLAB’s coconut milk on Redmart because kara coconut milk isn’t commonly used for coffee. I’ll comment on both of these brands in this section.

I’ve only ever used coconut milk when cooking curry, so this felt a little weird.

Milklab’s version is made by diluting coconut cream (15%) in water, mixed with some additives while kara coco’s was made by diluting coconut cream (6%) in a mixture of water and coconut water. So technically, you’re getting ‘more’ coconut with Milklab’s coconut milk. However, in my experience, milklab’s coconut flavor overpowers the coffee, so in this case, more isn’t necessarily good.

• Cost

Coconut milk costs between $3.50 to $7 per litre. Kara coco cost me $3.50 per litre while MilkLab cost $5.50.

• Availability

Coconut milk specifically for coffee can be difficult to find.

However, coconut milk is readily available in most supermarkets, you can find them available as canned items or as UHT milk. As coconut milk is also an ingredient commonly used for cooking, you may also find pasteurised fresh coconut milk.

I’m personally curious if these would work with coffee, but that’s beyond the topic of this article.

You can also find coconut milk sold on e-commerce platforms like Shopee, Lazada and Amazon.

• Texturing Experience

This was surprising but Milklab’s coconut version was more difficult to texture compared to the kara coco brand. Both of them contained artificial sugars and thickeners.

With Milklab’s version, my frothing created a thick head with large bubbles that was difficult to mix into the milk and hence was difficult to pour. This could be due to my subpar skills, however I did not have this issue with the kara coco version.

After frothing the milk, both of them released an aromatic coconut fragrance.

• In a coffee

Coconut goes well with coffee, surprisingly. There was almost no visible curding nor was there any clumps in the coffee.

However Milklab’s version’s coconut flavor overpowered the taste of the coffee. They both add a nutty aftertaste to the coffee. However, I would expect coconut milk to do well with fruitier single origins.

• In a hot chocolate

Coconut milk doesn’t do as well in the taste department in a hot chocolate. The foam does hold well in a chocolate, but the same issues mentioned above persisted.

My favorite non-dairy milk

Personally, I would still stick to dairy milk where possible. However, if I had to serve alternative milk in a latte, I would go with Bonsoy or Oatly for their taste.

II – Alternative Milks: nutritional benefits and environmental impact

In this segment, let’s explore the nutritional benefits and environmental impact of each type of alternative milk. If you’re looking for an environmentally friendly milk alternative, then read on.

Lactose intolerance consumers aside, there’s been an increasing demand for alternative milks due to growing awareness of the environmental impact of milk production. Here’s an overview by BBC, as you can see, there’re three main areas of concern within the topic of “environmental impact”.

The flaws in the argument

If you were to based your milk choice off the BBC chart above, most people would go for soy milk. However, the table has failed explore the potential impact of upscaling production.

As mentioned above, the yield of soy milk can be rather low. And forests are now being cleared and ecosystems destroyed, just to fulfil the increased demand for “environmentally friendlier” soy milk.

Maybe it’s time to reconsider your alt milk choices. And to take a look at the actual impact.

Truth is, there is no perfect answer to this question.

But, let’s not lose sight of the forest for a tree. Cow milk farmers are constantly improving their processes to reduce their emissions and thinking of creative ways to improve their environmental impact. At the same time, although alt milks look environmentally friendlier in numbers, consumers might want to find out the impact of increased demand for alt milk production.

Another side impact to consider is the livelihood of dairy farmers, especially those with smaller boutique farms. Many of them do not have the option to pivot into a plant-based farm.

Let’s take a look at how each alternative non-dairy milk fared:

Best non-dairy milk for coffee (Environmental Impact): Oat Milk

Oat milk is made by milling a mixture of oats and water into a slurry. In commercial processes, enzymes may be added to breakdown the complex starch into simple sugars, before any solid bits from the brans are removed.

Also, you can make your own oat milk at home.

p.s. this section is the longest because Oatly is very transparent and has provided much information online. Kudos to them.

• Nutritional benefits

Don’t expect too much. I mean, it’s oats – complex carbohydrates which are likely broken down into simple carbs during production.

It may taste naturally sweet, but hey don’t expect too much nutrients to appear from nowhere…at least not from the raw product. That said, depending on the production process, oat milk may contain some fibre (most of it would have been removed along with the bran solids) and iron.

Oats are also said to contain “quality protein with good amino acid balance”, a soluble fibre, β-glucan which can reduce blood glucose levels and cholesterol and antioxidants and polyphenols. Although I’m not sure how much of those “goodness” actually finds their way into commercial oat milks. You may get more nutrients from homemade oat milk instead.

It should be of little surprise that many commercial oat milk are fortified with additional nutrients like Vitamins and calcium.

Personally, I never understood the deal with oat milk. Although it does cater to the lactose intolerant coffee drinkers, it does alter the taste of the coffee.

And if you’re consuming it for the nutrients. you could get so much more nutrients (and do away with the whole supply chain) by eating oats instead and oats don’t taste fantastic on their own anyway.

That leads us to another key reason Oatly could be popular:

• Environmental impact

Do a quick google search and everyone claims that “the production of oat milk leads to 80% less greenhouse gas emissions and uses 60% less energy”, but no one seems to know the source of the information and what the numbers are compared to.

But does oat milk really live up to its environmentally friendly hype? I did a little bit of CSI to find out if the claims are legit.

Oatly works with CarbonCloud to release sustainability reports that bares the numbers and how information is derived. You can read the 2021 report here.

According to CarbonCloud, Oatly’s climate footprint for the barista oat drink is 0.33kg CO2e per kg.

Comparatively, cow’s milk with 3% fat has a footprint of about 1.4kg CO2e per kg (according to CarbonCloud’s benchmarks). CarbonCloud calculates climate footprint by considering the entire cradle to store process.

In Oatly’s case, oat milk production indeed produces about 74% lesser CO2 emissions.

So, how do the other alternative milks fare better?

Soy milk

Soy milk is made by soaking soybeans in water then grinding them down. Additional water is added during grinding to produce a slurry. The slurry is then boiled and sieved to get the final soymilk.

The process to making soymilk is so simple, you can actually make your own at home. If you have tried it before, you’ll realised that the final produce is quite bland. Hence, sugar is often added into soymilk products that you buy off the shelves.

My take is that no one would buy soymilk product if sugar isn’t added. I mean, if you like Lao Ban dou hua, then you shouldn’t judge soy milk producers.

You can read more about how plant-based milk are made here.

• Nutritional benefits

But how does its nutritional benefits stack up against dairy milk?

According to SingHealth’s HealthXchange, Soy milk has “less saturated fat than cow’s milk while cow’s milk has more calcium.” In fact, many commercial soy milk are fortified with calcium and nutrients similar to those in cow’s milk. Here’s a table from SingHealth:

• Environmental impact

The environmental impact of soy milk is often compared with that of cow’s milk. The debate is still ongoing today.

Soy milk sounds more sustainable because there’s lesser greenhouse gases released during the farming and production process. However, due to its low production output, upscaling the production of soy milk requires the need for more land. This leads to deforestation which impacts the ecosystem in other ways.

Here’re arguments from both sides, you make the final call:

Authors of this review suggests that consumers should buy dairy milk from pasture-fed cows or soy-free feed cows. On the soy agriculture front, farmers are turning to GMO soy that could increase yield and reduce need for insecticides and weeds.

That’s that for soy milk.

Almond milk

Almond milk production is similar to soy milk – mill almonds, mix with water and sieve to get the almond milk. You can also make your own almond milk at home.

Like soy, almond itself doesn’t contain much simple sugars and isn’t too sweet naturally.

• Nutritional benefits

Almonds themselves are packed full of nutrients and vitamins, so much so that they have a good reputation as a healthy snack.

However, almond milk on the other hand tends to be made with a small quantity of actual almond. For example, alpro’s almond milk’s ingredient list suggests that only 2.5% of it was from almonds. The highest percentage I’ve seen was 4.2%, from the brand Almo.

Some commercial almond milk may be enriched with calcium.

• Environmental impact

Almond milk production emits the least greenhouse gases (GHG) and requires less land, but it requires the most water. A study by The Guardian revealed that it is also detrimental to bees’ population due to mites and the herbicide used.

So almond milk actually does pretty badly on this front.

Rice Milk

Like the plant-based milks above, rice milk is also made by milling the rice, followed by mixing or blending with water. It is then strained to retrieve the rice milk. Depending on the recipe used by the producer, rice milk may be made from white, brown or a mixture of rice.

This could be the Asian in me, but I really don’t get why is this even a product. Uncle Roger’s eyes would roll full circles.

And yes, you can make it at home too. But why?

• Nutritional benefits

Whatever’s in the rice, minus the fibre you could have been ingesting…unless you’re going for the enriched version.

Here’s the nutritional information from PureHarvest’s rice milk. This version is made from 14% organic brown rice.

• Environmental impact

If you haven’t seen how rice is grown, this is how a paddy field looks like:

Rice requires a lot of water and land to grow. The condition is also perfect for microbial activities that unfortunately also releases methane, increasing the greenhouse gas emission from rice.

That said, it doesn’t produce as much greenhouse gases as compared to dairy milk.

Hence, rice milk also doesn’t really provide an environmentally friendly alternative to dairy milk.

Coconut milk

Nope, this is different from coconut water nor coconut cream. Coconut milk is made by soaking grated coconut flesh in hot water before straining to extract the white coconut milk.

You can also make your own coconut milk at home. It is also a common ingredient in cooking.

• Nutritional benefits

The flesh of the coconut is said to contain a good amount of nutrients and vitamins, however these might be lost in the production process. Most commercially available coconut milk is provided in canned or available as Ultra high temperature (UHT) processed boxed forms.

I’ve also noticed that most UHT coconut milk contain a portion of coconut cream and thickeners. The thickeners could help in the frothing ability of coconut milk.

• Environmental impact

Coconuts trees are known for requiring significantly low amount of water and they also absorb carbon dioxide!

However, coconut trees can only be grown in tropical areas. This leads to two major concerns:

• upscaling of coconut milk production is likely to require land in suitable climate to be cleared,
• more energy may be required in food transport. Indonesia, the Philippines and India are the top producers of coconut, just imagine the energy required to transport coconuts from Asia to the rest of the world..

Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to find statistics that allowed me to compare the transportation ‘cost’ against the production impact of dairy milk.

What about the other alternative milks?

As consumers, we are spoilt for choice in the alternative milks department. This article was not able to cover the full spectrum such as cashew milk, hemp milk (don’t think its legal in Singapore, lol) and many more.

Do share your experiences in the comments below.

Conclusion

Despite what different companies want you to believe, alternative non-dairy milks are not perfect. Although they are (in theory) more environmentally friendly, I do not think that we should write off dairy milk as ‘bad’ and go exclusively for alternative milks because a sudden surge in demand for these milks could lead to unintended consequences such as the excess clearing of land.

That said, alternative milks are a great way for lactose intolerant coffee lovers to enjoy milk coffees. The best alternative milk for coffee in my opinion are oat milk and almond milk, in terms of taste. If you’re brewing at home, you should try out different milks to find something that suits your coffee and palate the most. 

And if you’re wonder, yes, these alternative milks work well with nanyang kopi as well. (See our kopi brewing guide here)