Plant-Based Milk: Can we rec-almond this milk?
Welcome back to this series of blogs discussing non-dairy alternatives to milk. In this installment we will be looking at almond milk. One of the more popular milks in this blog, it made up 60% of the plant-based milk sales in the U.S. in 2014. So let’s learn what makes this so popular.
This is the fourth in my series looking at different plant-based and lactose-free milks. The first three I looked at were pea milk, coconut milk and rice milk.
The brand we chose offers an unroasted variant as well, but I felt the roasted version would give a stronger flavour for the taste test I carried out on my colleagues (check out the video at the end to see how the tasting went). The ingredients are water, almonds (2.3%), calcium, sea salt, locust bean gum, gellan gum (these last two stabilize the mixture), sunflower lecithin (emulsifier, giving a creamy texture) and vitamins. Helpfully the packaging warns that it may contain nuts!
In terms of health claims, the side packaging boasts that it’s a source of vitamin E (note this is one of the added vitamins in the ingredients), low fat and unlike the others this milk advertises being easier to digest, having no lactose. Let’s compare it to dairy based milk.
This is indeed a low-fat alternative, but more surprising is the lack of carbs and sugar. Note the equal calcium content to dairy milk, due to being fortified with calcium. The protein content is also very low. In terms of FODMAPs, almond milk is low up to 200ml as well.
During the taste test no group was able to correctly guess this milk. I assumed (like I did with coconut) that the natural flavour would be strong enough to give this one away. This did not hold true — one group even remarked that they searched for the advertised “roasted” flavour, but to no avail.
Almond milk is a low sugar, low carb, low fat alternative that with fortification can match the calcium content of dairy based milk. With a pleasant nutty flavour (that is hard to identify blind), all of these factors combine to make this milk so popular.
The FoodMarble Taste Test!
For a bit of fun, I challenged some of the FoodMarble team to a blind taste test, to see how many they could identify. Considering the team, I figured that the best way to get them to try a variety of mystery milks was to mix it with coffee! Indeed, the idea of drinking seven cups of coffee had a lot of my colleagues excited. Each group of two had seven cups of half milk, half coffee placed in front of them and after trying all seven, they guessed each one. They got a point for each correct answer. The milks they tasted were:
- Pea milk
- Coconut milk
- Rice milk
- Roasted almond milk
- Soya milk
- Tiger nut milk
- Lactose-free dairy milk
Stay tuned for the rest in the series!
Let’s see how they got on!
Just to recap…What are plant-based milks?
Plant milks have been used for centuries, with almond milk and coconut milk used in cooking as early as the 13th century. In fact, a drink made from ground and sweetened tiger nuts called Horchata can be dated back to 1200 AD in northern Africa. These nuts originate from Spain. In modern times Horchata is more widely known as a Mexican rice-based drink, so some simple deduction leads us to the conclusion that the colonists from Spain who arrived in Mexico couldn’t find tiger nuts to make their drink and looked to rice as an alternative. They also added cinnamon to the mix and to this day it remains an incredibly popular drink in Mexico.
Plant milks are made by simply watering down a heated slurry, made by grinding the plant. However modern manufacturers try and re-create the texture and mouthfeel of dairy milk by adding some other ingredients. Depending on the situation some will also be sweetened to give a more pleasant taste.
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