Please help with soy milk $ other cow milk alternatives...
Posted by dance4me on Apr 07, 2006 · Member since Mar 2006 · 20 posts
I have been a dairy addict most of my life. I'm wanting very much to switch to soy or some other alternative to cow's milk. Can anyone help give specific brand names to products that taste good. I don't know if there is something similar to milk or if I need to get over the idea of tasting milk and find something that just tastes good. What's the scoop on all that's out there. When I stand before the soymilk section my head swims from the choices. Thanks.
My favourite flavours are chocolate and vanilla, and my favourite brand is So Good, but I don't know if it's available outside of Canada.
Good luck with your non-dairy milk quest, though :)
It's a good idea to follow Baypuppy's advice and start with a flavoured soymilk such as chocolate or vanilla. (In some places, it's even possible to get other flavours like chai, coconut, malt, strawberry...)
The reason I say this is because soymilk doesn't taste exactly like milk. Actually, it just tastes like soybeans. Or sweetened soybeans. It can be a bit jarring if you're new to soymilk and aren't expecting it! But the flavours that are added really do help make it palatable.
As far as plain soymilk goes, some people can drink it, others...well...I never did get used to drinking a glass of plain soymilk. But I use the plain soymilk for other stuff like cereal and soups. It's unobtrusive once you add stuff to it!
as far as milk alternatives go, soy milk isn't my favourite, especially the versions you get in the US and canada. i'd recommend trying it a few times with different brands and in different foods though, cos each tastes different, and it has a unique flavour that works better with some things than others. i find it to generally be quite nutty tasting, and much prefer rice milk in most things.
rice milk is sweeter, and not as thick as cow or soy milk, but i think its really good. i'm a big fan of 'rice dream' rice milk, which comes in unsweetened, sweetened, vanilla, and chocolate flavours. it comes in a dark blue carton - in the UK its blue with clouds on it. and you can get it on the shelf as well as in the chilled section of the supermarket.
i especially like the chocolate version (which i can't seem to get in the UK :-( sadly) - but you gotta shake it or you get a weird oil layer on the top, and i find it too chocolatey on its own and like to cut it with a splash of the origional or vanilla. and then i put a spoonfull of peanut butter in it and blend it and mmmmmm, its lush. or blend some chilled vanilla rice milk with a frozen peeled banana for the most refreshing drink ever... mmmm. anyway, got sidetracked a bit there, sorry!
i've also tried a brand of ricemilk called 'ryza' recently, (it has pale green leaves on the carton i think) which is super nice too, and a little thicker than ricedream. so erm yeah..... rice milk is definately good and worth trying too :-).
I use the Silk Soymilk Enhanced that is fortified with Omega-3 and antioxidents. Occasionally I'll buy Silk's chocolate soymilk if I'm craving something but for the most part I stay away from the flavored ones. Personally the vanilla makes me a little sick to my stomach. I'd stay away from the light soymilks. It's like drinking dirty water and there's not enough flavor in them to make them worth the money.
I'm one of the people Katica mentioned who only uses soymilk for cereal, oatmeal or if it's required for a recipe. I was never a milk drinker before becoming a vegan because I was lactose intollerant. So to me there's not a taste issue per se I'm just used to drinking juices, tea and water. Good luck on your search. Susan :D
I like Silk & I cannot even bring a large container of choco Silk into my house or I will drink it all in about 1/2 an hour!
Howe'ver, I started my anti-dairy quest with rice milk & used it over cereal & in cooking. Eventually I came to enjoy drinking it & now I love to drink rice or soy milk. Almond milk is very good too, richer & probably more fattening. IMO, having it over cereal is the best way to get used to it. I was a huge milk drinker. I loved the stuff. It took a few months to switch over to rice milk & now I love soy & rice milk as much as I loved milk.
I want to share a story: I was visiting my mother years after I had given up milk. She poured herself a big glass & I asked for a sip. I wanted to see if it tasted as good as I remembered. I ran to the kitchen sink & spit it out & told Mom her milk had gone bad. It was awful! It was so putrid I had to rinse my mouth out several times to get rid of the taste. She sipped the milk & looked at me like I was crazy & said, "It tastes just fine."
Conditioning. ;D
we've been experimenting with various milk alternatives lately and i have found that rice milk is by far the most like milk (in my opinion). we didn't care for either soy (my son is allergic to soy anyway, but we tried it before we knew) and we didn't like almond either. they're both a little sweet. good in a smoothie or in oatmeal, but not for a big glass at dinner. we use rice dream original flavor.
About the fat content in the various milks. I remember being surprised finding out that there is more fat in soy than in almond milk. I'm looking at my milks right now. Almond milk: 3g fat, soy milk: 4g fat, and rice milk: 2.5g. All in all, any of them would not be considered fattening.
So, that being said, almond milk is my favorite. We buy the unsweetened kind. I love it on cereal. Chocolate almond milk is to die for, we even heat it up for hot chocolate (I haven't had dairy in awhile, but I think it would be hard to tell the difference between chocolate cow's milk and chocolate almond milk).
Elizabeth
PS The only thing I don't like about the almond milk available here (Almond Breeze) is that it isn't fortified with B12.
I buy unsweetened soymilk. Most soymilk contains sugar. Good luck!
We buy SoNice Original or Unsweetened... we just discovered the SoNice original in 4L plastic jugs at another store... this is good because we can't recycle the soymilk cartons in our area but we can recycle the plastic jugs...
The boys (23 months) drink Rice Milk (I figure they get soy from other sources, so I don't want to over-do-it)... usually Rice Dream Original Enriched... but if I go to the HFS I can buy a different brand (I can't think of the name right now) in the cooler section that doesn't contain added oil but does contain all of the extra vits...
Another nod to Chocolate Silk. And almond milk is wonderful in baking.
And to add what others have already said: milk alternatives taste absolutely nothing like animal's milk. I don't even like to think of them as alternatives, but a separate food category all together. Same goes for cheese substitutes. I haven't found anything that even remotely tastes like cheese. I have found some awesome creamy, tangy foods that are wonderful.
Sometimes leaving behind the conceptual frame of substitution and replacement can help you make the transition. It worked for me. Once I stopped trying to compare the two, I found that I ended up liking many more milk-like and cheese-like foods. That's just me, though, but I thought I'd share.
I like Silk Soy milk, in original (plain), vanilla, plain unsweetened and sometimes in Chocolate - good for hot cocoa! I have tried Almond milk and thought it was delish! but much more expensive than soy milk where I live. I tried the enhanced and found it had a wierd aftertaste that I didn't care for.
I have been drinking soy milk for about 5 years and have tried several different kinds also I started out trying rice milk and wasn't all that fond of it. I would like to try it again because so many people like it so there must be some good kinds.
Over ten years ago when I was at my father's house I always thought there was something wrong with the fridge - the milk always tasted like it had gone bad and was kind of sour -- but no one else ever thought it was anything but normal.
I have not tried milk in 5 years and don't miss it one bit. You could consider the alternative to be a different product instead of a 'fake milk' and maybe that would help you to not miss the taste you missed from before.
I would suggest trying different brands of alternative milks and in different recipes as other people have posted and you might find some you like.
Good luck!
I love pretty much all the Silk flavours :) That being said, it seems like plenty of people I know prefer rice milk (again try the vanilla before attempting the regular). Also, try the milks *on* things like cereal; I found that rice milk makes cereals way tastier than dairy milk even when I drank dairy milk. Rice milk is low in protein tho, so you would want to find a different source for that.
A lot of other milks like almond milk, oat milk that sort of thing are good in baking or on things but not so good (in my opinion) for strait up drinking.
One last tip, do not sit down with a glass of non-dairy milk and expect milk. Sit down and expect a tasty creamy beverage. It will help to not be as judgemental. Lastly, try them ice cold or warmed with flavourings added (warmed vanilla silk with a dash of almond extract or warmed chocolate silk ROCK!).
My favorite is Almond Breeze, both regular and Vanilla. It is the only brand I can drink by the glass, and works well in coffee too.
Hello there
Like you I was looking for a milk alternative that I could actually drink like milk. It took a while but I have finally found one that I love with cereal and chocolate chip cookies. It is called Eighth Continent fat free vanilla. It is wonderful and now that I have found it I think it is much better than dairy milk ever was. I was used to drinking skim milk before and this has the same consistency I buy it at Krogers and it is in the refrigerated dairy case like the rest of the milk. Give it a try and good luck.
i remember drinking whole milk all the time and the little half n halfs at the restaurants...mmmm...anyway i would like to agree with all the good comments on the silk brand. it really is wonderful. the chocolate is super yummy and its the only one i'll sit down and drink a glass of. i was never a big pour myself a glass of milk kinda gal but i did like it in cereals. recently i have discovered the silk light plain and like that it is a little less thick than the regular kind and i like it better on my cereal. just experemint and find what you like and yes to agree with other comments to think of it not as a substitution of flavor because you will be disapointed...just think of it as something cold and slightly sweet depending on what flavor. hope you find one that works for you!....also some have commented on eighth continent that is a good brand as well but i find it sweeter than the silk brand.
All non-dairy milks taste different. Don't just try one and swear off of them forever, because the next brand will taste very different.
For newbies, I recommend Better Than Milk powder. Before anyone freaks out about a powder, just trust me on this. I had a friend who was trying to get her family to go off milk, but they hated regular soy milk. I told her about BTM and she started by making a batch, mixing it half and half with cow's milk (the family knew but couldn't tell the difference. They quickly graduated to just the BTM milk after that.
BTM powder (Original flavor) doesn't have a strong soy flavor and can be mixed to one's taste. It also has the benefit of being portable (handy if you're in on a trip and your hotel has nothing but cow's milk), and also useful as a 1:1 replacement for powdered milk in a recipe. Find one source here http://www.outletnutrition.com/041648078006.html
For my regular milk my household uses Silk vanilla. We like it and get it very inexpensively at Costco.
Okay, I used to be a BIG milk drinker, especially when I was younger. I have tried soy and rice milks -- neither work well for me (new vegan, here. Went vegan for Lent this year, and am sticking it out mostly*.). I am getting used to soy in coffee and in oatbran (which cooks like oatmeal). I just don't do cold cereal anymore (except straight out of the box as a snack occasionally). I will be trying the Almond Breeze. I totally agree on the 'different food group' concept.
HOWEVER, being a fan of milk and milk products, I have to say TRY SOY ICE CREAM!!! Wow! That even knocked my spouse's socks off (a diehard omnivore who's only veggies are starches and green beans). AND, they have at least one brand (stateside) that has active cultures. Same 'stats' as the soy yogurt, so guess which I picked when I was sick and put on antibiotics? ;D
- C.
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* The "mostly" part is that my current deal with my spouse is that she gets to pick one day a week that I am 'non-vegan' and I'll split whatever it is she wants. We always used to split pizzas and Friendly's banana split sundaes, so I'm betting that will be the next 2 weeks. Lent was REALLY hard on her.
I love Vitasoy Light Original. It's has a nice and creamy taste and is not too sweet. I don't like the vanilla flavored milks, just because I find them too sweet.
Can you drink Lactaid? It's for lactose intolerent people. But I was just wondering.
Try Silk Very Vanilla soymilk. It tastes a lot like melted vanilla ice cream, and it's fortified w/ vitamins and extra calcium. To be honest, I never cared for dairy, so I'm happy with every alternative I try. My kids are pretty easy to please, too, but they go WILD for Very Vanilla. This milk poured over cereal is a tasty way to start the day :D
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