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?
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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.
Oatly Barista has the best taste 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.
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.
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.
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’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 :)
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.
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)
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.
BLACK. DRINK IT BLACK
Ha!
I like my coffee the same way as Mr. Wolf in Pulp Fiction.
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’.
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
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.
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
- soak and rinse oats
- blend oats, pinch of salt and water
- don’t blend too long, the mix gets a bit gluey otherwise
- strain through a cheese cloth or similar
- leave in the fridge overnight
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.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!
Almond milk. Non-sweet is an option.
Whiskey
Ah, Irish coffee
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?
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.
