I need to replace milk in my coffee and I need ideas
Coffee fedi, help me out!
I'm getting more and more milk/lactose intolerant as I get older, but lactose free milk is too sweet for me.
I don't sweeten my coffee, and even lactose free milk with no sweetener else makes my coffee too sweet.
So, what do I replace my milk with when I order coffee?
Oat milk is the best alternative I've found. Most places offer it so I switched to oat milk lattes and haven't gone back.
If brewing at home, there are barista versions made specifically for coffee, but the original works too.
Oat milk > actual milk when it comes to coffee imo.
As a barista and a vegan, this is the answer. Out of all the plant-based milks, oat is the closest to cow's milk when it comes to how it foams up, so baristas tend to make way better and more consistent drinks with oat than almond or soy. And this is just personal preference, but IMO the taste profile of oat works the best with coffee.
Totally agree! I am currently frothing Chobani oat milk with no added sugar for diy lattes and it is perfect!
Personally, oat milk works fine with caramel syrups, but doesn't taste as good with mints or chocolate as soy does.
I second this, but you will need to find the one you like, different brands can taste VERY differently.
This is very important, don't give up after 1-2 tests! I tested 6+ until I found my favourite (surprise: it's a barista edition!).
Agreed. I love one particular brand and find a lot of others have cardboard undertones.
Oatly Barista has the best taste imo.
BLACK. DRINK IT BLACK. PUT SOME HAIR ON YOUR CHEST. DRINK IT BLACK.
Sorry about that. I have seen you say you cannot do it, but this is false. You can acquire a taste for black coffee, and it will make your coffee drinking much easier as well as improve your palate for tasting coffee. Also black coffee has only like 5 calories per cup vs 80-120 calories if you put milk in it.
I love black coffee.
Just pure raw dogging coffee bean water.
I went black and, well, you know the saying.
One of the upsides is it's now really easy to tell what places sell garbage tier coffee (cough, Tim Hortons, cough)
I'm not sure I'm keen on my boobs being hairy, but I got myself a black coffee today...
We'll see how it goes :)
Yes! Welcome to the dark side. Have fun!
I think it's probably good to leave misguided ideas about masculinity out of it - although I'm sure you weren't being serious, of course.
That being said, speciality coffee brewed with care can often be quite enjoyable to drink black and I agree that it's worth trying out for OP.
BLACK. DRINK IT BLACK
Ha!
I like my coffee the same way as Mr. Wolf in Pulp Fiction.
It really depends on the type of coffee you have available. Light roasted single origin specialty coffee doesn’t require any milk at all, whereas dark roasted random robusta blend certainly does.
Definitely Oat.
There are brands that make some specifically to emulate the flavour and texture of cow milk, often named something along the lines of "not milk".
Alternatively "Barista" variants often have a slightly raised fat content and added soy or other protein to improve foamability.
Cheapest option is to make it yourself: ~90g oats per 1000ml water
Optional stuff:
add ~2 dates to the blender for a bit of sweetness
you can experiment with adding some cashews to the blend, or ~2 tbsp of neutral tasting oil to the blender for creamier consistency.
I heard xanthan gum can also be added to thicken the mix.
Additional coffee
Nothing? Or alternatively a single mocha shot?
But really I think the best thing would be to switch to cold brew dilute with a little water and ice and nothing more.
Nothing isn't going to happen. I've tried and tried to enjoy it over the years, but it lacks "body" or something...
Try a few(!, as in, 3-5 single grains) of salt to reduce acidity. For body you could try French press or mesh filtered, gets more chewy mouthfeel but that's a coin flip if you might like it or not.
Have you tried doing your own cold brew concentrate and then cutting it with water and Ice before? It really changes the profile of some coffee.
There is also the phrase garbage in garbage out, so if your starting with a low quality bean or over roasted bean you could be missing out on all the natural flavors in coffee.
Im lazy so I generally just do a simple Chemex filtered drip but even that created a cup miles better than any kurig or mr coffee equivalent that I found out I could really enjoy coffee without adding anything.
If I end up at Tim's or Dunkin then its a shot of mocha because I struggle to drink their coffee black because of how over roasted the beans are. They cook all the flavors out of it to make it "consistent."
Almond milk. Non-sweet is an option.
Yes, non-sweetened almond milk is my favourite and it doesn't go weird when you pour it in coffee.
After starting to drink my coffee black I've just been using it as an alternative to milk in nearly everything.
Oat milk and coffee taste like they're meant to be together.
Just make sure it's a good Oat Milk. The Chobani extra creamy is my favorite.
Another idea is to drop some coconut oil into the coffee. It's different but it's something and you don't taste the coconut if you get refined oil.
Oat milk lattes are so fantastically creamy, mmmm. I'm also a fan of plain old soy.
Oat milk is probably the best, imho. Although don't dismiss soya milk, especially the barista versions. Personally I went cold turkey on milk in coffee years ago and never looked back. If it's lacking something without milk, try different coffee! 20 years ago I was a 100% grande latte drinker, but now I'm a freshly ground double espresso every morning.
Another vote from me for out and almond milk. If you do any kind of milk steaming or latte art then oat is great for that...and I just like the flavour of almond milk. It's really nice with breakfast cereals too as it adds a nice nutty flavour to everything.
There is nothing wrong with Soy milk, but with coffee you have to be careful you don't curdle it due to the high temperature.
I know you've already gotten a bunch of answers including the going black option that I'm chiming in with... But I went through a similar process a few years back now. It took experimenting with lots of different brands until I found one that I could happily drink black. Not sure where you're located, but I found a local roaster that I've been super pleased with. It's called Goshen. It's more expensive coffee but it's also ruined a lot of other coffee for me now
Water? Maybe shift to a “long black” style.
A friend recommended Oat milk to me - I'm exactly the same as you re disliking the sweetness of lactose free - she reckons it's 'inoffensive'.
The best alternative I found when doing this was Mylk, which is Oat based but a lot more complex a formulation than most of the just Oat milks, the whole equivalent is the best, the coffee targeted one IMO wasn't great but its worth a try also.
However ultimately I learnt how to make coffee to get more complex flavours out of it and bought speciality coffee with a decent grinder and ended up finding sweetness in the coffee itself when its brewed well. This is the rabbit hole that is worth pursing, black coffee made a variety of ways.
The other possibility is start taking in some homemade kefir, it might reduce the lactose intolerance.
Soy milk! You can find no sugars added options
Brew better coffee so you don't need milk? Try some light roast beans.
I was able to cut out milk entirely first from my filter coffee and then from my moka pot coffee just by using better freshly roasted and light roasted beans.
This is specifically for cafe coffee. I'm fine at home
Oh, dang. That's tougher.
I would have recommended oat, but if you say lactose free milk is already too sweet I think you’re likely to find the same with oat. Macadamia is probably the “creamiest” non-sweet alternative I’ve tried, give it a shot.
That being said, stay open to the idea of cutting back on additives altogether. I went through all sorts of things just to discover that what I liked wasn’t a particular creamer or sweetener or coffee brand - it was just lighter roasted coffee 😅
I find whole milk to be very sweet in comparison to oak milk, with skim being even sweeter.
You could try putting more coffee in. Like a bullseye or just throw in a scoop of some crystals like a pyscopath.
I went black decades ago and I never went back. Before then I was basically addicted to the sweetness and the milk.
But man, I never enjoyed coffee like I do now.
My wife takes oat milk. That seems to work for her.
Whiskey
Ah, Irish coffee
I don’t know if something like this is available where you are, but in the US there is a brand of milk owned by Coca-Cola where they filter out the sugars (lactose is a sugar), it is called Fairlife and is marketed as high protein milk. It still retains the fats and proteins and flavor of ordinary milk. It comes in a variety of fat percentages like ordinary milk for people with different dietary preferences.
My favorite plant milk is soy milk, but that isn’t as readily available out here as it used to be since conservatives decided drinking it would turn men into girls. I find oat and almond milks too watery and unsatisfying in drinks.
Not all lactose free milk is equal. Look for ultra-filtered lactose free milk. The extra sweetness is caused by adding an enzyme that breaks down lactose into smaller, simpler sugars, e.g. glucose. Your body is better at tasting these sugars, and so you notice the sweetness more.
Ultra-filtered milk removes the brunt of the lactose before they add the latase enzyme, and thus there will be less simple sugar for your body to notice, resulting in a less-sweet milk.
Oat milk or water won't add the body or depth you're looking for. Depending on the particular beans, roast, and brewing method, milk might enhance the flavor profile. Similar to sugar and salt enhancing cacao. Yes, you lose nuanced notes, but no, that's not a bad thing if the overall profile is improved.
You can also try blending different milks. Maybe you like 90-10 oat/whole milk or 70:30 ultra filtered/macadamia.
Perhaps go to a local shop during a slow period and ask if you can get a cup of coffee black and a flight of alternative milks. Whatever you do, have fun doing it!
I tried all the options (soy, oat, pea, lactose free) and they all sucked. If it is available, get some lactase supplement and stick with the real thing.
I had the same issue a half a decade ago and my solution was, like most of the answers I imagine you'll get here, to just get better coffee and drink it black. If you visit your local third wave cafes they should have a regular rotation of drip specialty coffee that you could try and usually they sell it too. I order from Th3rd Wave which sends me a box of different specialty coffees every month which really helps me discover what's out there, maybe you have something similar in your area?
@ada I've been a cow's milk junkie for decades, but Oatly Original is a sufficient replacement IMHO.
My recommendations are largely brand dependent and probably not available outside of germany.
I have a really good oat-almond milk at my convenience-store (Netto) around the corner. Another (LIDL) sells a very milk like oat milk (that is called No Milk). Both go for 1€ per Liter.
Rank 3 takes the sugar free variant of soy milk from alpro. Very mild taste, gives your coffee the texture your used to from milk. I even liked it when i was still drinking cows milk. They also got their own NOT Milk, which is also good. My beef with alpro are their steep prices.
Try out different plant based milks (oat, soy and almond al least), but start with barista versions, they're usually higher in fat content and do not curdle as easily.
They're all very different and brands differ quite a bit, so you might need to do some experimenting. Check your go-to grocery stores and see what they have the most of. 10 brands of oat milk? Probably a good starting point.
My vegan coworker uses sweet vanilla soy milk most days, but plain soy milk on others.
If it's too sweet, consider doing 50/50 with water.
I usually do oat milk, it's not bad
A friend recently made me black coffee with a little honey and it was excellent. There was only enough honey to take the bitter edge off the coffee without getting too sweet. Although my friend did use some high quality beans I wouldnt normally use so I'm not sure it will work on the cheap stuff most commercial places use.
