Alternative milks have gone mainstream, becoming so popular in fact that some TikTok wellness influencers have turned against them (because that’s how the click economy works). This resurgence is due in large part to coffee and coffee shops, who led the charge and brought greater visibility to things like oat milk. It used to be that alt milks came with an upcharge, but nowadays most cafes have done away with the premium, some even opting to serve an alt milk as their standard option.
But how do alternative milks, nut-based milks in particular, stack up to cow’s milk in coffee? This is a question posed in a recent paper published in the Nature journal Scientific Reports, and the answer is: it depends.
For the study, researchers from the Department of Food Science and Biotechnology at Seoul’s Dongguk University sought to examine the physicochemical properties as well as the sensory attributes of coffee with nut-based milk. For this, the researchers utilized a selection of nut-based milks, eight in total, made both roasted and unroasted almonds, hazelnuts, cashews, and walnuts, which were then added to espresso made with Arabica coffee.
Each drink would then be analyzed for physicochemical properties, including “volatile compound content, fatty acid content, antioxidant activity, color, the browning index, viscosity, and particle size” as well as the sensory attributes of the beverages—does it taste good or not?—to compare against an espresso and cow’s milk beverage.
When comparing the levels on polyphenols, a naturally occurring compound with a wide range of health benefits, they found that only walnut milk, from both roasted and unroasted, had higher levels than cow’s milk, with roasted cashew and roasted hazelnut being on par with cow’s milk.
But when evaluating fatty acid content, commercial cow’s milk was found to be significantly higher in saturated fat (the less good kind), meanwhile nut milks were higher in unsaturated fats. Overall, coffee with nut milk was found to be both higher in antioxidants as well as unsaturated fatty acid, particularly roasted nut-based milks.
When it comes to sensory evaluation, though, cow’s milk won out. 17 trained panelists evaluated the various coffee and milk combinations, and they rated the coffee with cow’s milk as having the most sweetness, with cashew milk coffee coming in second. The nut milks were all found to be more bitter than the cow’s milk, and in terms of overall texture, cow’s milk was preferred over all nut milks.
In general, the paper finds that while coffee with nut milks have more healthful properties, coffee with cow’s milk is still preferred based on sensory. Of course, things like flavor are a bit more subjective, so if you prefer the taste of nut milk over cow’s milk—or have trouble digesting it—then the findings are all good news.
The full findings can be found at Scientific Reports.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
