Milk Alternatives

Before I came to the US, my stomach used to get uncomfortable when I drink fresh milk because I was lactose intolerant. I was okay drinking UHT, powdered or condensed milk. Now I'm used to drinking fresh, unflavored milk. Apparently, there are a lot of people who still can't drink milk. In that case, they can drink Lactaid (milk with added enzyme to break down lactose). 

But I guess having other non-dairy alternatives is good for vegetarians and vegans.

I tried a bunch of different non-dairy milks:

1) Coconut milk

When I first saw it, I had a really bad impression on its taste. I grow up knowing that coconut milk is used in savory cooking and cakes. It's never meant to be consumed straight. Before I tried this I had the impression that it's going to be greasy and disgusting. My family don't buy processed coconut milk for cooking; we squeeze the milk out of fresh, grated coconut meat. That's how coconut milk is supposed to be: greasy.

Very white and opaque like expected, but maybe because it's been homogenized it doesn't taste too greasy. I mean, look at the nutrition facts. Look at how much saturated fat there is. 25% DV? That's a LOT. Drink 4 cups of this milk and you shouldn't have more fat intake.

Not to mention it has allergen warning too.

2) Hemp Milk
First I had to google what 'hemp' is. I'm not too familiar with it, but I guess they're sort of high protein seeds with omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemp).

 It has a very grainy texture, and you can also see the brownish tiny specs dispersed in the milk. It has a slight nutty, beany taste. And it's far from being creamy.

 3) Hazelnut Milk
When I saw this, I imagined drinking a liquid Nutella.

NOPE. Nothing like Nutella. I was so disappointed LOL

The milk is a little brownish. It definitely has the hazelnut taste and smell, but not as strong as in Nutella. Maybe because it's not sweet enough. It's not too bad, though.

4) Oat Milk
I've seen rice milk before, but oat? Nope. Never imagined that you'll be DRINKING oat and not EATING oat.

Oh and by the way, speaking of packaging, green packaging seems to correlate a lot with organic food. Most organic food products I've seen on the shelves tend to have recyclable packaging, be made of recycled materials, or be degradable.

 First impression after drinking it? It truly smells like oat. It has a little off white color, slight tan. It felt the creamiest out of the other milk alternatives that I tried, but it might have been from the vanilla flavor. Adding vanilla doesn't increase the actual creaminess of the beverage, but it leaves the impression of creaminess.

Will I buy these milk alternatives in future? Maybe not, but these are definitely very interesting.