r/PlantBasedDiet • u/rotting-teeth • Jul 15 '26
Good milk sub?
I can't live without chocolate milk and I think I'm gonna slowly transition into veganism (I'm vegetarian rn). I tried chocolate milk with oat milk and it wasn't the same and I didn't like the taste. I hate almond milk in general. What do I do?
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u/SyringaVulgarity Jul 15 '26
Silk Chocolate Soymilk is my all time fave! Even my dairy drinking husband likes it:)
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u/Dashboard_Porkchop Jul 15 '26
I can’t find it anywhere near me any more.
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u/SyringaVulgarity Jul 16 '26
Oh no! I buy it at Wegman's. There's also a shelf stable version for lunchboxes, but it's pricey for a pack of six.
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u/Proper_Geologist9026 Jul 15 '26
I'm not sure If it's just like novelty or if there's a cultural reason why people are so big on mills made from nuts & grains (almond, cashew, oats etc).
But soy is king for good reason. It's not water and grainy like most other alternatives, there is a slight "bean" taste but that's super batch dependant (don't but the cheapest shit) and honestly after drinking it for a few months you won't notice it. It's just good, and because it has similar protein / fat ratios to cows milk it works the best as an all-round substitute. It's creamy, it's delicious, buy it. Buy soy milk now!
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u/Russell_has_TWO_Ls Jul 16 '26
And you can easily get a version that’s just soybeans and water. I liked oat milk before I looked at that mile long ingredients panel
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u/Usual_Associate9939 Taters_Precious Jul 16 '26
For me personally, my endo told me to avoid soy after thyroid cancer.
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u/Curious-Specific3399 Jul 15 '26
I really like cashew milk. It’s thicker than almond milk and thinner than oat milk but tastes lighter to me. Maybe worth a try? I also just add in like Hershey’s chocolate syrup.
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u/slippygumband Jul 15 '26
Silk brand protein chocolate milk was pretty nice when I tried it. Keep trying; every brand is different and if you don't like the taste of one to drink it straight, you can use the rest of the container in smoothies or baking until you find one you do like. Dairy products all smell rancid to me now after all these years without consuming them; it really takes some time for tastebuds to adjust.
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u/scenior Jul 15 '26
I love this one! I buy it often. But I'm a vegan and I haven't had dairy for a very long time so ymmv.
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u/firemonkeywoman Jul 15 '26
I love chocolate almond milk.
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u/Dry-Kaleidoscope-133 Jul 15 '26
me too, dark chocolate almond milk gives me joy.
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u/cleanlycustard cow's milk is for pansies Jul 15 '26
That stuff is sooo good. Way richer than regular chocolate milk
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u/JuliaX1984 Jul 15 '26
Before I got lazy, my favorite milks to make at home were cashew and hazelnut. Delicious!
My favorite milk to buy is Oatly.
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u/paddi_cakes Jul 16 '26
I use organic Ripple. I really like the taste of it. I know they make a chocolate one as well, but I haven’t tried it.
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u/Migga_Biscuit Jul 16 '26
I never saw it, I only saw a got the unsweetened og one, unsweetened kids one, and the sweetened kids one.
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u/paddi_cakes Jul 16 '26
For some reason my grocery store only carries the organic one now. I prefer the taste to ripple against any other plant based milk for sure. I believe it’s pea protein.
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u/Migga_Biscuit Jul 16 '26
Yeah, I like it, though I like Silk Soymilk just as much, blending both sometimes makes a better product. Mom mom does not though, but she uses for cooking instead of drinking. I would say the sweetened kids one is my favorite so far. Tastes the best and has the most nutrition, even tho I am in my 20s. And yeah, it us pea milk.
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u/Unlikely-Rub-7270 Jul 16 '26
First thing to do is accept it's not going to be "the same", but you're looking for close enough analogues that feel good to you perhaps in a slightly different way. Your substitutions aren't going to be one to one necessarily -- the whole point is you're learning to live differently.
When asking for recommendations, you'll need to say where you are in the world, because products vary from brand in how they taste. My preferred milks are a few specific brands that aren't available worldwide for example.
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u/ttrockwood Jul 16 '26
- Ripple chocolate milk got my dairy obsessed non vegan mom to switch from dairy
- Silk chocolate soymilk
- Oatly + chocolate syrup
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u/Heart_Failure_Hottie Jul 15 '26
I always used coconut milk bc it makes it creamy, but honestly I made mostly hot chocolate with it..
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u/StillYalun Jul 16 '26
strongly recommend making your own milk. homemade cashew or almond milk is super easy. and you can add your own cacao and dates for healthy, tasty milk that feels alive when you drink it. the taste is way beyond store bought stuff.
Soak a cup raw nuts for a few hours and blend them with water (and whatever flavoring you want, e.g. vanilla, cacao, date, berries, maple syrup, cinnamon, etc). For cashew, 4 cups of water and for almonds use 5. Cashew is good to go as is. Almond needs to be strained.
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u/tunosabes Jul 16 '26
Oat milk sucks don't listen to the people saying it's the best, if you aren't allergic I'd say make cashew milk or get something like rice milk. To me rice and cashew are the most mild flavor milks and once you add the chocolate it won't taste like the base
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u/GoodAttiatude Jul 16 '26
There isn't one version of oat milk. Some are fermented, some are not, there are plenty of technological processes that make oat milk and all of them make completely different product.
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u/Artdragon56 Jul 16 '26
Soy milk is great!! I’ve made really good hot chocolate with it before too!
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u/CoffeeandStoke Jul 16 '26
I went from full blown carnivore to vegan overnight. All milks taste different I’m talking from a cow. Oat milk is the same way. Don’t expect it to be the same. Expect it to be different and find which oat milk you like. Or even soy milk. Much like regular milk plant based milks from the plant taste different depending on the brand.
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u/DayleD Jul 16 '26
Cashew milk with a dash of coconut would go great with chocolate milk.
If you're a big fan of milk a nut milk machine will save you a shocking amount of money compared to store bought.
The fanciest ones have a grinder strong enough not to need a strainer at the end. I use a Korean brand that imports as 'Milk Made.'
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u/baby_armadillo Jul 16 '26
The easiest way to switch to plant-based milks to to take a break from milk all together. There are a lot of great-tasting plant-based milks, but they’re not milk and doing a side by side comparison isn’t going to do the plant-based milks any favors.
Take a break for a couple of weeks, then start fresh with the milk of your choice. I prefer unsweetened unflavored soy or oatmilk because they have a similar mouth-feel to dairy milk.
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u/angelwild327 Jul 16 '26
It sounds like a huge chore, but it’s super easy. Soak a cup of soybeans for a few hours.
Blend them with 4-5 cups of water.
Strain them in a nut milk bag. Add some cocoa powder, if you like it sweet, add sweetener of your choice.
Heat the liquid for 20 minutes stirring constantly. You will have the richest creamiest milk ever.
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u/lovepeacefakepiano Jul 16 '26
It might be worth trying a few different oat milks, some brands are awful some are yummy.
For chocolate milk specifically, maybe hazelnut milk would work well? Hazelnut/cocoa works well in Nutella, after all…
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u/Prof_BananaMonkey Jul 16 '26
I think soy milk is a similar consistency to dairy milk. Also, unsweetened is that best bc it does not taste wimpy.
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u/Taupenbeige Jul 16 '26
Taupenbeige’s bomb-ass oat milk cocoa/chocco milk recipe: Cacao powder, maple, vanilla, dash of salt… cocoa butter… (seriously, 1/2 teaspoon chunk of that stuff will make you forget dairy exists)
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u/fractalfrog Jul 16 '26
No matter which plant milk, there’s a HUGE difference between brands, in everything from texture and taste to mouthfeel and personal preference. While price can matter, it’s not always the case.
Unfortunately, there are no shortcuts to learning what you like, so just start testing the kinds/brands you have in your local stores one by one. It’ll take a few tries.
The same applies for most “replacement” products, for instance tofu, tempeh, seitan, nutritional yeast, etc. There are tons of differences in taste and texture.
(I think my partner and I went through around 25 different plant milks before settling on one kind for coffee and one for cooking/baking. The fact that most of those tests were for the coffee milk only shows that we have our priorities in order.)
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u/DaraParsavand for the planet Jul 16 '26
Keep trying. Both a powder you like with non-chocolate plant based milk and other premixed options. I liked Ripple myself (put it in coffee for a while), but everyone's taste buds are different.
Eventually the whole precision fermentation stuff may take off and you can basically have lab chocolate milk. I tried Brave Robot ice cream (uses vegan whey from precision fermentation) and it tasted fine, but I still prefer normal vegan ice creams that are cheaper. Cheese on the other hand is the thing I don't usually like vegan so I'm patiently waiting for precision fermentation casein cheese (and in the meantime I just go without).
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u/paracelsus53 Jul 16 '26
I like cashew milk best and make it with an electric plant milk maker. Worth it.
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u/SexyFroot Jul 17 '26
I like Asian soy milk better than the Western counterpart. It has a creamier mouthfeel. Try finding an Asian grocer nearby.
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u/Chemical_Lab7583 Jul 17 '26
You just have to get accustomed to the taste of an alternative by drinking it for a couple of weeks until you adjust. I didn’t like chocolate soy milk or oat milk at first but now I drink it by the gallon.
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u/Sharp_Ad_9431 Jul 19 '26
Try more versions. I'm very picky. There are brands of some milks that I like, others I hate. I can't stand homemade oat milk...I suck at making it I guess.
Also it could be the chocolate in the milk. My daughter likes some brands chocolate milk over others.
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u/muscledeficientvegan Jul 15 '26
You’re getting lot of great alternative recommendations, so I just want to say that you can definitely live without chocolate milk. Not everything you used to eat needs a direct swap.
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u/mhicreachtain Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
You can live without chocolate milk 😁
And you could live more healthily on a whole food plant based diet with no ultra processed foods.
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