With Blue Diamond’s Almond Breeze Barista, a strong, roasted almond flavour comes through the drink. I’m not sure if the nuts are actually roasted. For us, the acidity isn’t as well controlled as it should be, and it dominates everything else. 2.5/5 Find out how Good Hemp’s Oat + Hemp blend fared in our review. Happy Happy Soy Boy Unlike most non-barista coconut milks, this doesn’t have too much of a coconutty flavour. So while it doesn’t completely distract from the coffee’s flavour, the milk still dominates the drink slightly. 3.5/5 Califia Farms Oat Barista

This is the most common gripe people have with alt-milk. Use a steamer, handheld frother, or even a French press, it still doesn’t always froth up as well as dairy. And it’s very inconsistent. The flavour is quite neutral and there is no trace of that chemical aftertaste present in the espresso test. My guess is that it’s the application of heat to certain ingredients that lend plant-based milks like Rebel Kitchen’s and Califia Farms’s barista editions the unappetising artificial flavour. But the thing this milk does really well is blunt out any bitterness in the cold brew, whilst making for a completely homogenous drink. 4.5/5 Oatly Barista This is the hardest milk to find. You can’t find Happy Happy Soy Boy in any supermarket or health store in the UK. That’s because, as the brand explained to The Vegan Review, it’s primarily marketed as a foodservice product and is only available in coffee shops that use it as their house soy milk. The all-important taste test. After so much frothing, the next stage was tasting these best barista milks for their flavour and to determine how they perform in coffee drinks like lattes and cappuccinos.

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Baking and Cooking : Transform your favorite recipes into dairy-free delights with Almond Breeze Barista Blend Unsweetened Almond Milk. From pancakes and waffles to creamy soups and sauces, this versatile almond milk can be seamlessly incorporated, giving your dishes a rich texture without compromising on taste. The unique formula in Almond Breeze Barista Blend comes from Blue Diamond Growers, The Almond People, who have over 100 years’ experience in growing and harvesting the world’s finest almonds. Development: Good Hemp Barista is slightly sweet as well, and, frankly, adds a completely new dimension to the coffee. Whether that’s a plus or not is up to personal preference, but it does take focus away from the coffee and its notes, neither of which you can taste much. Alpro Barista Coconut is virtually a blend of soy and coconut. With a base containing 2.9% soybeans, it’s blended with 3.5% coconut milk. There’s added sugar, fructose, sea salt, flavourings, acidity regulators, calcium and stabilisers.

This being almond milk, I was curious to see whether it splits in the coffee, but this doesn’t, which I’m guessing is owed to the presence of oats. This mixes well with the coffee and makes for a homogenous blend. Just as the foam and liquid were separate entities in the espresso-based test, Almond Breeze takes a while to properly blend with the cold brew, but it never really mixes in fully. The Vegan Review tested 12 of the best barista milks in the UK in three ways — how they froth, how they hold up and tastes in espresso-based hot drinks, and how they complement cold brew. Holy crap, this is good. This is really, really good. Happy Happy Soy Boy is quite possibly the best soy milk I’ve ever had. With no added cane sugar and only 60 calories per 250ml serving, a coffee made with Barista Blend contains 30 per cent less calories than a coffee made with trim milk or regular soy milk.The flavour of the milk masks the coffee’s ever so slightly. But it is still a good, milky drink that doesn’t taste watery. There’s also a hint of saltiness that is delightful. Crucially, it doesn’t taste like pea protein at all and, like Minor Figures, it undercuts most of the coffee’s bitter notes. The end result is a balanced, delicious drink. Rebel Kitchen’s barista version, at least for frothing, lives up to the hype. It’s a great example of milks formulated specifically for barista use. It froths fantastically, leaving only tiny bubbles that disappear into the silky-smooth microfoam once tapped and swirled. This is not at all acidic, which is what you look for in cold brew. Oatly complements the coffee really well, and the oat flavour isn’t too strong either. Apart from some minute traces of bitterness, this is a fabulous pairing with cold brew. 4.5/5 Rude Health Barista Almond