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Comment by chomp | Hacker News Reader

I find the oat milk I drink is like 95% of the way there in terms of being exactly the same taste as regular milk (not oatly, I found that one to be not great). The last 5% is an almost imperceptible "toasted oat" taste, and it's a little on the thick side. I also find that I have to dilute it 1:1 with water if I want it to work right in my coffee.

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Ive had the same experience in terms of not-totally-there. But I honestly like the oat milk taste better, especially in coffee and cereal.

Those are my two main uses for milk so I dont really buy regular milk anymore unless I need it to cook with or something.

Same, i only buy cows milk for certain baking recipes at this point. Oat Yeah (which i think is just a silk brand) has been my favorite I've found. It doesn't taste quite the same as cows milk which i am more than okay with.

Love oat milk, specifically Silk's Oat Yeah!

I think it's a good replacement. Since I eat a lot of _replacement_ foods, you kind of learn that you don't need that 100% to appreciate it for what it is. It's all learned taste.

I usually drink my coffee black, but a long time ago I made the switch to soy milk, and after a while it became natural in coffee. Oat latte's are pretty great too.

I have an issue with coffee + soy sometimes where the soy proteins appear to... curdle? cook? It seems to vary by brand of soy and coffee. As a result, I've generally been happier with my wife's recent switch to oat milk.

Have you had similar issues?

Seconded. Of all the milk alternatives, oat milk tastes the best and has great viscosity. (maybe even better than whole milk, certainly better than 2%)

It also serves as a great ingredient in beverages and avoids the allergen & California drought issues of almond milk.

Oat milk was what got me to drop whole milk (and now ice cream with oat based deserts). That was pretty much the remaining bit in terms of being full vegan. I still eat local eggs and fish maybe once a year. But as a latte drinker, milk had been one of the high carbon impact foods I was still consuming and oat milk made it easy to drop. I was never a big fan of almond milk in my coffee — too rancid when steamed for my taste.

I also buy oat milk now (since I use it as an additive, not for nutrition), but haven't replaced yogurt. I've not yet seen any research comparing yogurt with its alternatives.

We buy Forager (cashew) yogurt for smoothies. Have no idea regarding how it compares — though there’s a lot of plant-based cultured products out there. I’ve seen some interesting accounts on Instagram of people who make their own cultured plant-based cheeses.

The thing with alt-milks is that you have to watch out for sugar and additives if you care about those things.

For example, Oatly has 7g of added sugars, rapeseed oil and a few other additives.

Worth noting that the "added sugar" in a lot of oat milks is a regulatory labelling artifact, and it doesn't appear in some places. They've undergone an enzyme treatment that converts some starch into sugar, but the total carbohydrate content isn't changed.

Good to know. Although that doesn't really change much for me since simple carbs are still different than complex carbs.

The value in "complex" carbs over "simple" is the fibre and micronutrients that comes along for the ride. They're mostly still present in the treated oat milk (a lot of the insoluble fibre will be discarded, but the soluble fibre responsible for the beneficial health claims of oats is kept).

Starch vs. the maltose that the treatment produces shouldn't make a material difference in most peoples diets. It's all glucose in the end. (Maltose by itself has a higher glycemic index, but with the fat, fibre and protein it won't matter.)

Yes I understand the difference between complex and simple carbs. Even if it doesn't matter very much I'd still rather avoid simple sugars.

For example, I'd rather buy Elmhurst Oat Milk (https://elmhurst1925.com/collections/plant-milks/products/un...) that uses a different process. It has fewer calories and zero added sugar.

If I wasn't trying to avoid simple sugars I might have never found out about Elmhurst so to me it is worth it just to find better products.

Bingo. Most oat milks, including standard Oatly, have significant added processed vegetable oils to achieve the fattiness that most expect from milk. Can’t be healthy.

The only one I’ve found without them is an Oatly “lite” version but even that is hard to find.

I'd recommend checking out Elmhurst milks. I found them at Publix Supermarket and love the simplicity of the ingredients.

https://elmhurst1925.com/collections/plant-milks/products/un...

I can't say enough nice things about oat milk. It's made cereal leagues better, and I welcome the toasted oat taste in my coffee way more than soy.

> I also find that I have to dilute it 1:1 with water if I want it to work right in my coffee.

Try brands/packaging explicitly made for baristas. I find them perfect for coffee. It even works for frothing and steaming if you're into that.

I tried soy and almond and didn't care for them at all. When oat milk was all the rage I wrote it off as hype. Last week I decided to buy a half gallon of planet oat unsweetened original and I was surprised how much I liked it. I actually wound up pouring small cups as a treat and finished the half gallon in a week. I bought the dark chocolate version yesterday to give it a go. It has a pleasant coca flavor without being too chocolaty or sweet. Its like a thin chocolate shake. Dangerous as I drank 2/3 of it already.

Maybe I'm just unlucky with brand/batch but I found the opposite: oat milk I bought that was specifically marketed as being ideal for coffee has a rank, salty taste and frankly I'd rather drink or mix something obviously different but pleasant like coconut or almond milk

Unsurprising since most dairy-free milks have more salt/sodium than regular milk.

Ditto. Did not enjoy Oatly, but the store brand was great for use in cereal (and I drank regular milk forever). It was the same for my kids. Not complaining since the store brand is even cheaper.

iirc the taste was ok but I was unimpressed with the nutrition label. I tried a pea-based milk substitute and loved the flavor and the nutrition label. Just wish it wasn't so expensive (got it on a one-off sale for 50% off)

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