The best barista oat milk - the big comparison

Good barista-made oat milk makes a cappuccino better! The most important criteria for a good match between oat milk and coffee are foaming performance and creaminess, as well as a balanced flavor with the espresso. Which oat milk or oat drink best meets these criteria? And which manufacturer is also transparent about its production, its carbon footprint, and the ingredients used?

We wanted to know for sure. To do so, we tested 20 oat drinks and had them tasted in a blind tasting by six baristas, roasters, tasters, and food technologists. The reigning Swiss Latte Art Champion then subjected the oat drinks to a foaming and latte art test.

In this article, we use "oat milk" and "oat drink" synonymously. Oat drink is the formally correct term for oat milk. According to the EU , this is not milk, but a milk substitute. In this article, we use both oat milk and oat drink, as is common usage.

The results of the test series reveal some surprising findings. See the test series chapters.

• Results at a glance
• Taste winner
• Foaming performance and latte art
• Sustainability and transparency
• Price-performance
• Conclusion
• How was it rated?
• Sources and further links

Results at a glance

The best oat milk on the market is the one that suits your interests and criteria.

Across all of the categories we tested , dm's Oat Barista Milk performed best in our test.

But the absolute taste winner in the cappuccino is the barista oat drink from Mølk .

Minor Figures Organic took first place in the sustainability and transparency category.

The foaming ability of many oat drinks proved to be very good . Only a few fell short. The foaming behavior of the very good drinks was too similar to select a single milk as the "best."

How did the different oat milks perform in the various categories? This summary shows.

The best oat milk is the one that suits you best. With that in mind, we invite you to browse through our results. We explain how we rated each of them in the individual chapters.

Taste winner

And the winner is... Mølk! The German startup's milk tastes particularly impressive when paired with foamed milk. The oat drink took first place with both a rich, chocolatey espresso and a fruity espresso.

The cappuccino prepared with milk chocolate was balanced against the chocolatey espresso . The foamed oat milk complemented the coffee well without overpowering it. The cappuccino was described as caramelly, chocolatey, and nutty, particularly reminiscent of walnuts. Despite a somewhat dry aftertaste, the overall balance was good.

In combination with the fruity coffee, the oat milk exhibited similar characteristics. The cappuccino was creamy, nutty, and caramelly, suggesting that the oat milk's own flavor also contributed to this. The espresso itself lacked any pronounced nutty or caramel notes. The fruity aromas of the coffee lacked the same presence as the notes of the darker espresso roast.

The texture of the oat milk was described as buttery, oily, and sticky, which, when foamed and warm, paired very well with espresso. As a cold oat drink, Mølk also ranked fourth, although some tasters described the oily note as too intense and slightly artificial.

dm's Barista Oat Milk also performed well, with Aldi Suisse and Lidl Barista Oat Drink following suit in terms of taste. dm Barista Oat Drink and Lidl Barista Oat Drink took the top two spots in the blind tasting of the pure and cold oat drink. How did it score?

Foaming performance and latte art

Delicious milk doesn't automatically foam equally well. Only well-frothing milk can be used as creamy foam for latte art. Swiss latte art master Dario Pieber therefore foamed each oat milk twice for us and poured it into a cappuccino with a heart. All oat drinks were used anonymously.

In conclusion, almost all alternative milks used demonstrated good to very good foaming performance . Six oat drinks received full marks. They were easily aerated during the drawing phase and homogenized very well during the rolling phase. Even during pouring, the surface remained smear-free, the contrast was good, and the surface was stable and bubble-free.

The differences in the majority of oat drinks were so small that we can unreservedly recommend all barista oat drinks for frothing.

Very good milk frothing performance

With 10 out of 10 points:

• REWE organic + vegan Barista Oats
• Aldi Switzerland
• BioBio Oat Barista Netto
• Alnatura Oats
• Provamel oat drink Barista organic
• Coop Karma Organic Oat Drink

9.25 out of 10 points:

• Mirgos V-Love Organic · Oat Drink
• Lidl CH/DE - Barista Oat Drink
• Beleaf Oat Drink Barista
• Natumi Organic Barista Oat Drink

Good milk foaming behavior

8.5 out of 10 points:

• dm Oat Drink Barista with Soy
• Minor Figures Organic Oat
• Gutsch
• Mølk
• Berief Organic Oat-Soy Drink 1l
• Rebel Kitchen ORGANIC MYLK Barista

7 out of 10 points:

• Oatly Germany Oat Drink Barista Edition
• Alpro Barista Oat Milk
• Voelkel Oat Drink Barista

Medium foaming behavior

5.5 out of 10 points:

• Allos Oat Barista

Sustainability and transparency

When evaluating the sustainability and transparency of oat drinks, we did not compare them to cow's milk , but instead conducted a direct comparison. In a direct comparison between oat drinks and milk, oat drinks generally perform better (see the WWF study as a PDF).

(We also have two articles <1> <2> and a documentary about cow's milk. If you want to learn more about milk.)

As part of transparency, we assessed whether a life cycle analysis was available, whether the origin of the ingredients and nutritional information were available. Regarding sustainability, we considered origin, production, carbon footprint, sustainability reports and targets, and waste management. For this purpose, we not only conducted online research but also contacted manufacturers and considered the responses.

Result of sustainability and transparency

Minor Figures scored the most points. As a B-Corp company, they can score especially well with comprehensive information about their products and their sustainability goals and standards. The same applies to Rewe and Berief, which share third place. Gutsch follows in second place, operating very locally and maintaining close relationships with their producers.

What statements can we make?

Essentially, all oat drinks are grown and produced in Europe. Only Rebel Kitchen's Mylk contains "coconut cream," which presumably doesn't originate from Europe.

The manufacturers themselves say they strive to work as locally as possible, but often have to rely on products from other European countries.

The CO₂ footprint is far lower than that of conventional milk, at about half. The comparison data comes not from an organically produced oat drink, but from Oatly . Transport data from Scandinavia to the supermarket in Germany is also taken into account. This suggests that the emissions from organically produced oat drinks grown and processed in "Central Europe" should have an even lower footprint.

Some of the products are labeled as climate-neutral, meaning their emissions are recorded and offset. However, since it is unknown exactly which emissions are generated during the production of the beverage, we have not included them.

The ecological scarcity method , which considers land-use changes, acidification, and heavy metal pollution in addition to the "Global Warming Potential," thus allowing for a more comprehensive analysis, can also confirm this. The difference is not as pronounced as with CO2e, but oats still have a clear advantage .

Price-performance

Classifying the price-performance ratio of different oat milks presents the difficulty of requiring a weighting of the evaluated parameters. However, this is difficult to do across the board, as different purposes must be evaluated depending on the intended use and interest.

Those who enjoy fruity espressos will place less value on the taste of oat milk in combination with dark espressos. Those who also like to use oat milk in muesli will place more value on its cold performance. We decided to treat all evaluated criteria equally and used the average of the parameters.

The results of this comparison are as follows:

• With a price-performance score of 5.68, "dm Oat Drink Barista with Soy" leads the list, closely followed by "REWE Bio + vegan Barista Oat" with a score of 5.60 and "BioBio-Oat Barista Netto" with 5.33
• "Alnatura Oats" also perform well with a price-performance score of 4.42.
• At the bottom of the list we find "Coop Karma Bio" and "Beleaf Oat Drink Barista" with price-performance scores of 1.61 and 1.49, respectively.

Conclusion

Oat drinks and alternative milks are becoming increasingly important alongside home espresso machines. Oat milk cappuccinos have become a staple in many cafés. In our own cafés, 25% of all cappuccino orders are now made with oat milk.

Our test shows that numerous oat drinks now work very well in combination with espresso.

Manufacturers have worked hard in recent years, especially in terms of foaming ability, and the Barista Editions we tested live up to their name.

The foaming ability of almost all milks tested is good to very good.

When it comes to sustainability and transparency, the gap between exemplary and inadequate is wide. There's still room for improvement for all manufacturers.

How was it rated?

Sustainability and transparency

Evaluation Transparency

We searched online for information about the drinks. We wanted to learn not only about the ingredients and nutritional values, but also about the sustainability and origin of the drinks and their components. It's clear that ingredients must be listed on the packaging. But if you want to research these information online in advance, you should also be able to find these values ​​on the providers' websites and in their stores.

Unfortunately, we couldn't find any information about the drinks in Lidl's online shop, for example. Gutsch lacks a nutritional information panel, and Natumi lacks an ingredients list. Otherwise, all information was available.

However, information on origin, production, and LCA (life cycle analysis) is less easy to find. Only Oatly has published an LCA . Minor Figures has reported a footprint for its drink, but it is less detailed than Oatly, which reports different footprints for different markets. Migros provides a comparative value for its oat drink: The CO₂ footprint is equivalent to driving 4 km by car. This puts the footprint into good context. However, it is not possible to compare it with other manufacturers, and therefore Migros does not receive a point in this area.

Additional points in this area could be earned by providing information about the origin or location of the production facility. For about half of the drinks tested, we were able to find at least some information about the country of production on the website.

Sustainability assessment

While transparency assessed the availability of data, the sustainability assessment focuses on the quality of the information provided.

We spent a long time considering how to handle missing and vague data. The result was that we didn't rate any information with 0 points, and in cases of unclear or imprecise statements, we assumed the worse option.

For example, statements like "We source our ingredients from local farmers. However, with increasing demand, we have to resort to oats from the EU, for example," were often made. In one such case, "Europe" was used as the source.

For the published footprints, we considered them to be present if they were smaller than the footprint of milk* (1.36 kg CO2e /L).

We considered various certifications in the production of the beverages, including Bioland, Naturland, Bio-Kund, and Demeter. Each of these certifications has additional restrictions regarding the use of additives and cultivation techniques. However, we did not emphasize any specific method, as investigating this would exceed the scope of this paper. A separate study would be required. However, we gave a higher rating to all certifications that have additional restrictions than EU organic.

We also did not study the sustainability reports and targets of the individual providers in detail, but used them to get an idea of ​​the current status of the respective company.

We asked manufacturers how they handle waste within their companies. We received many interesting responses about what they do with the various waste products. From reusable shipping packaging to feeding the oat residue to pigs, there were a variety of approaches and solutions.

Origin

• 0 points, non-EU country
• 1 point for origin in Europe
• 2 points Country of origin = country of distribution

Production

• 0 points conventional
• 1 point EU organic
• 2 points Bioland | Naturland | Bio-KnospeCH | Demeter

CO2 footprint VÖ = 1 point

Sustainability report/goals = 1 point

Waste management available = 1 point

Oat drinks from Beckum

During our research, we noticed that many manufacturers produce their drinks in Germany/North Rhine-Westphalia, or specifically in Beckum. Berief is headquartered there, and Soja GmbH, which shares a managing director with Berief, is located a two-minute walk away. (As of summer 2023)

It's not surprising that Rewe, Alnatura, and Netto share the same ingredients and nutritional information. Rewe and Aldi Süd list Soja GmbH as their bottler, while Netto lists Berief as the producer. Berief's oat milk itself is also included in the test.

The taste

Warm rating: Cappuccino

Six testers evaluated four different aspects of each oat milk. They assessed the balance between espresso and oat milk, mouthfeel (texture, heaviness), aftertaste, and visual appearance.

The maximum score that could be awarded per aspect was 6 points. This resulted in a maximum total score of 144 points per oat milk (6 points per aspect multiplied by 4 aspects multiplied by 6 test subjects). However, since the full point range is rarely achieved in practice, the maximum score was reduced by 10% for the purposes of presentation. An adjusted maximum score of 129.6 points was set. This score corresponds to 100% of the realistically achievable points. A score of 88% therefore corresponds to 114.1 points (88% of 129.6 points). To represent the ratings on a scale of 1 to 10, the percentages were divided by 10. Thus, a rating of 88% corresponds to a grade of 8.8 on the scale of 1 to 10.

This approach was carried out with both a fruity espresso and a classic and darker espresso roast ("chocolaty").

Rating Cold: Pure Oat Milk

In addition to evaluating the four aspects, the taste of the cold milk was also evaluated by the testers. Each tester could award up to 6 points, with 6 being the highest and 0 the lowest. This resulted in a maximum total score of 36 points per tasting. However, since each oat milk was tasted twice, each oat milk could achieve a total of up to 72 points.

As before, the maximum score was reduced by 10% to allow for a more realistic representation. An adjusted maximum score of 64.8 points was set. This score corresponds to 100% of the realistically achievable points for tasting cold milk.

The top-rated oat milk scored 46 points in this category. To represent this on a scale of 1 to 10, the score achieved was first converted into a percentage (46 out of 64.8 points corresponds to approximately 71%) and then divided by 10. Thus, the best oat milk received a rating of 7.1 on the scale of 1 to 10 for the taste of cold milk.

Rating price-performance

To calculate value for money, we first averaged the ratings for each brand in the five categories of fruitiness, chocolateiness, cold milk, sustainability, and foaming ability. Ratings in these categories were given on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the best result.

We then calculated the value for money by dividing the average of the ratings by the price of the respective oat milk. The resulting value gives an idea of ​​how much "quality" or "value" you get for every euro spent. A higher value indicates better value for money.

Sources, Further Links, Notes

*https://www.wwf.ch/sites/default/files/doc-2020-10/2020_10_%C3%96kobalance%20Milch%20und%20 Vegetable%20Alternativen.pdf

Philipp Schallberger is co-founder of Gutsch. He was not involved in the evaluation or development of the test criteria. The tasting was conducted blindly, meaning no taster knew at any given time which milk they were tasting.

Thanks and team

The oat milk test was prepared by Tobias Milz and Felix Hohlmann . Tobias Milz is an environmental technologist and regularly writes about his research on coffee and sustainability on our website . Felix Hohlmann is the 2024 German Barista Champion and prepared the cappuccinos with barista trainer Andrea Perin . Dario Pieber is the Swiss Latte Art Champion and was responsible for the consistent foaming of the cappuccinos in the latte art test.

The sensory panel consisted of the above-mentioned Tobias Milz and from right to left:

Pascal Rutz , pastry chef, barista and founder of Brootmacher:innen

Gabriela Blank , Barista, HR Administration KM, Yoga Teacher, Co-Founder Rabbithole Basel

Nicolas Schwob , Food Scientist, Co-Founder Rabbithole Basel, R&D Vito

Nadja Schwarz , Q-Grader Robusta and Arabica, Wine Sommelier, Swiss Certified Hotelier-Restaurateur, Sensory Course Leader

Philipp Schallberger , Head of Roasting, Coffee Makers, Partner, Sensory Science, Former Judge at World Barista Championships and World Brewers Cup

Thanks to everyone involved for their cooperation, as well as to the other supporters in the background.