What Vegan Milks Go Best With Coffee?
This is a guest blog by Oli Baise | Managing Editor
Drinky Coffee
A 2022 study from the Good Food Institute suggests that 41% of US households drink plant based milk.
The rise of plant based milk, combined with our enduring love of coffee raises the question of how to best pair vegan milk with coffee.
Here we’ll go through what the best milks are to add to a coffee, as well as how each plant based milk can froth up into a latte or cappuccino.
What Makes Milk Go Well With Coffee?
People have been drinking milk with coffee since 1684. Milk goes well with coffee because of four characteristics:
A fat content of over 1%: This fat content is why milk gives coffee a creamy texture.
A protein content of at least 1.5%: Proteins bind to the tannins in coffee which soften the drink’s more bitter notes.
A splitting point above 150 Fahrenheit: We usually drink coffee when it's between 140 and 160 Fahrenheit, so you don’t want to use a milk that splits at a lower temperature than this. Spilt milk gives coffee an unpleasant grainy texture.
A neutral flavor: You don’t want milk to overpower coffee. A neutral or slightly sweet flavor is ideal. Coconut milk is the biggest culprit when it comes to overpowering your coffee’s taste.
The table below shows how all the popular plant based milks fare across these criteria. I have also included their sugar content and the type of sugar that each milk has, as this relates to how well they froth up.
Type of Milk
Flavor Profile
Fat Content
Protein Content
Sugar Content
Curdle Point
Dairy
Sweet-neutral
2.0%
3.5%
5%
(lactose)
194 Fahrenheit
Soy
Neutral
1.7%
3%
0.4% (sucrose)
145 Fahrenheit
Oat
Sweet
1%
2.5%
7% (maltose)
160 Fahrenheit
Almond
Sweet-neutral
1.25%
0.5%
0.5%
(sucrose)
160 Fahrenheit
Cashew
Sweet-neutral
4.5%
1.9%
1.25% (sucrose)
150 Fahrenheit
Coconut
Nutty
2.4%
2.3%
3.3% (sucrose)
150 Fahrenheit
Rice
Sweet
1%
0.1%
5% (sucrose)
140 Fahrenheit
Pea
Neutral
2%
3.5%
0%
170 Fahrenheit
What is the Best Plant Milk to Add to Drip Coffee?
If you just want to add a splash of milk to a coffee that you make in a pour over or a French press, then your best options are oat milk, pea milk or soy milk.
Each of these milks work differently to dairy with coffee in the following ways:
Oat milk: Oat milk has around half the fat content of dairy (assuming you’re used to 2% milk). This means that you have to add about twice the amount of oat milk to your coffee as you do with dairy to add the same amount of body to your coffee.
Pea milk: Pea milk is the closest in texture to dairy milk. However, because pea milk has no sugar in it, you might want to add a small amount of sugar to your coffee to mimic the sweetness you get from dairy.
Soy milk: Soy milk is also texturally similar to dairy, however it has a much lower splitting temperature. So you want to add your milk to your coffee just before you are about to drink it (rather than as soon as it's brewed) to avoid your milk splitting.
Almond and cashew milk are also decent choices to pair with coffee, but they don’t work quite as well as the three milks above.
I wouldn’t recommend rice milk or coconut milk with drip coffee.
Rice milk is too thin and watery to add any body to your coffee, and coconut milk’s flavor clashes with coffee.
What Are the Best Plant Milks For Steaming and Frothing?
The best plant milk for frothing into a latte is oat milk.
For milk to froth well it needs to combine a low fat content with a high protein content.
Milk froths up when you steam it because heat and pressure cause the proteins in it to stretch out. If there isn’t sufficient protein in your milk then this stretching will not occur.
Fat blocks this stretching from happening, so if your milk has too high a fat content it won’t froth up nicely.
You also want your milk to have some sugar in it if you want it to taste like steamed dairy milk. Steaming dairy milk breaks down its lactose into sweeter sucrose. This is why frothed dairy milk tastes a lot sweeter than unfrothed dairy.
The plant milk that best combines high protein, low fat and high sugar together is oat milk. Oat milk is the best plant milk for steaming by a long way, which is why almost every coffee shop uses oat milk as its main dairy alternative.
Coconut milk is the only plant milk that froths anywhere near as well as oat milk. Coconut lattes are a bit of an acquired taste, although frothed coconut milk works better with coffee than unfrothed coconut milk. It's worth a try if you like coconut.
What About Barista Milks?
If you’ve been drinking plant milks for any period of time you’ve probably seen that specialist “barista milks” are available.
These are just plant milks (almost always oat milk) with extra protein added. This protein usually comes from peas.
They do froth up better than regular oat milk, because you have more protein to stretch.
They are also significantly more expensive than regular milk, so I’d only recommend them if you plan to make a lot of frothed coffees at home.
Wrapping Up
The best all rounder plant milk to have with coffee is oat milk.
Oat milk works well when you add a dash of it to coffee. It also froths up the best of all plant based milks.
Soy milk and pea milk also work well with coffee, but they don’t froth up as well as oat milk. So oat milk is our top recommendation overall.
If you want to brew freshly roasted coffee at home then you might want to check out our coffee beans.
