This is a popular question that is often asked by people who have just become vegan, who think about going vegan or who might look at baking a cake or so for a vegan friend!
Over the recent years the selection of vegan "mylk" has increased massively. Plant-based alternatives to milk are actually not called plant milk as milk is what comes from animals. However, there is one exception, which is coconut milk. For some reason coconut milk may be called milk as it has been around for a long time. Anyway, I will not get further into this. To make it clear I will only refer to milk when I mean the milk that comes from animals. With regards to plant-based alternatives I will call them "drink", as, for example, oat drink.
When I became vegan there were really only milk alternatives made from soy and coconut available. Due to demand many companies have increased their selection of milk alternatives and the most popular are oat drink, almond drink, and rice drink. However, there are also alternatives made of hazelnut, coconut, cashew, brown rice, tiger nut, and even quinoa! As the manufacturers of these target a specific market, these are often made of organic ingredients, which is certainly not a bad thing! However, as the organic ones are oftentimes more expensive, brands (such as Alpro) also offer non-organic versions.
Personally we prefer oat and soya drink in coffee, as they are quite neutral and taste really well in coffee.
For baking we prefer soya, as it can replace the eggs that you would normally use. However, as some people cannot have soya due to allergies, oat drink would be our second choice.
All the other ones are delicious as well. Rice drink is generally quite sweet, as the production process releases some of the natural sugar that you find in rice.
As animal milk can have very negative effects on your health, plant-based drinks should be your preferred choice. Animal milk does not have any health benefits, and it actually is not good for your bones (yes, we were all told that as child, but it is wrong). Organic, plant-based drinks, which do not contain additional sugar, are always our preferred choice. As there are now so many brands and different products, it will take a while for you to find out, which one you prefer. The brands we use are Provamel, sometimes Alpro, and Oatly. Another major brand is Rude Health.
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