Nut Milk or Oat Milk?

Alternative milks have been popular for a while now. More health conscious consumers have been moving away from full cream and skim dairy milk to healthier alternatives. One of the largest reasons for this is that dairy milk is an animal product and contains lactose.

The Alternative Milk Market

Stats to Know

According to Vegan Australia approximately five hundred thousand of us Australians are vegan and completely avoid animal products. Many other adult Australians have a lactose intolerance. Now, the alternative milk market is bursting with innovation and dairy free alternatives. Coconut, pistachio, macadamia or even blends of oats, flax and peas have all made an appearance on Australian supermarket shelves. They are often available with or without sugar and even in flavoured varieties, such as chocolate. Soy milk and nut milks like almond milk, in particular, have been growing in popularity of the past few years.

Almond milk and soy milk, until recently, been the trending alternative milks of choice for health conscious coffee connoisseurs. However like dairy milk, they are still high in fat content.

The Rise of Oat Milk

Lately more and more consumers are drinking oat milk in their coffees. Why? Oat milk is high in protein and calcium and low in fat and allergens. More people are turning to alternative sources of animal based protein in their diets and the process of making oat milk is more sustainable than nut milks. Oat milk has a milder taste in comparison with soy or nuts milk. It’s also creamier than most nut based milks, giving it a similar, silky texture to dairy milks when steamed by baristas. This means it’s not only loved by health conscious coffee lovers but baristas too.

Oat milk has surpassed nut milks in popularity already in the UK and is growing rapidly in popularity among Australian coffee drinkers. In the past year, oat milk sales globally were up 95%, according to the Vice president of client insights for dairy at IRI Worldwide. And more and more customers are asking baristas if they stock oat milk. If you’ve been drinking almond lattes or are a barista fed up with watery nut milks, now is the time to try something new and Oat milk is here for it!

This article was written by Laura Craig. Laura is a business owner and marketing specialist with a passion for creative communications, with a strong background in hospitality management and graphic design.