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These days, you don't have to be lactose intolerant to be a lover of nondairy milks. In fact, one in three people drink nondairy milk at least once a week. And over the past few years, the nondairy milk industry has exploded. Options used to be super limited—it was soy milk, or bust—but today, the market is flooded with nondairy milks made from a ton of different plant sources, including almond, pistachio, walnut, oat, coconut, macadamia, and more.
Our top picks
- Best Overall Nondairy Milk: Oatly Original Oat Milk
- Best Nondairy Milk For Coffee: Elmhurst Unsweetened Walnut Milk
- Best Nondairy Milk For Smoothies: Mooala Organic Original Keto Mylk
- Best Nondairy Milk For Cereal: Silk Unsweetened Organic Soymilk
- Best Nondairy Milk For Oatmeal: Elmhurst Unsweetened Almond Milk
- Most Surprising Nondairy Milk: Milkadamia Macadamia Milk, Unsweetened
Our lactose-free experts
We tapped the expertise of two Delish staff members who are major (and extremely opinionated) nondairy milk lovers. As someone who is lactose-intolerant, Senior Food Producer June Xie loves a vanilla soy milk. She wants her nondairy milk to be smooth and silky. Meanwhile, Assistant Social Media Editor Izabela Campos started dabbling in dairy-free milks about two years ago. She's a huge lover of oat milk, especially in coffee.
How we chose these products
When selecting milks to taste, Campos and Xie stuck with ones that were unsweetened, so sugar couldn't mask any odd or nuanced flavors. In all, they sipped on 15 different nondairy milks. They paid close attention to taste (both wanted milks that tasted like their main ingredient), aroma (nothing funky), and texture (thick and creamy, like actual milk). Here are the nondairy milks that came out on top.
Interested in trying your hand at homemade nondairy milks? Try this recipe for oat milk or this one for almond milk.
Pros
- Creamy
- Strong, oat-y aroma
Cons
Creamy and incredibly drinkable, Oatly Original Oat Milk takes our top spot. "I could drink this straight and dip cookies in it," Campos swooned. "Would love in my coffee." The "toasty cooked oats" flavor, added vitamins, and drinkability impressed Xie.
Elmhurst Unsweetened Walnut Milk
Pros
- Nutty flavor and aroma
Cons
The "super rich and fatty" texture of Elmhurst Unsweetened Walnut Milk makes it an ideal coffee creamer, Xie said. "[It] tastes as rich as half-and-half," she noted. Both Campos and Xie observed a strong walnut aroma and flavor, so keep that in mind when purchasing.
Pros
- Creamy finish
- Tastes sweetened
Cons
According to Campos, Silk Unsweetened Organic Soymilk could be a dupe for regular milk, which makes it great for those who are looking for something close to real dairy. They think it'd be great in cereal. It has a "nice, luscious pour," "tastes sweetened" (even though it's not), and is "solidly creamy on the finish," Xie said.
Pros
- Keto
Cons
- Very strong coconut flavor
The important thing to keep in mind with Mooala Organic Original Keto Mylk is that you must like coconut. Campos and Xie do, and so they loved this nondairy milk's strong coconut aromas and creamy taste. That said, they admitted it was too coconut-forward to drink straight or mix with coffee. But! Using it as the liquid in fruit-based smoothies would lend a delightfully tropical note, they said.
Pros
- Rich and creamy texture
Cons
- Slight astringent aftertaste
Elmhurst Unsweetened Almond Milk is thick in texture and creamy in taste, Campos noted. The flavor is plain, "like tofu with a raw almond scent," Xie added. It also doesn't seem to be super filtered and contains almond pulp. They duo think it's great for oatmeal—especially oatmeal loaded with toppings—which is to say the milk adds a base layer of creaminess without overwhelming a dish's other flavors.
Milkadamia Macadamia Milk, Unsweetened
Pros
- Slight sweetness
- Nuanced flavor
Cons
The nuanced flavor of this Milkadamia Macadamia Milk surprised Campos and Xie, since neither had much experience with macadamia-based milks. It has a "slight sweetness, even though it's unsweetened," and has a "not too watery, not too thick" consistency, Campos said. Xie noted that the flavor was a "vanilla-y," "a bit yogurt-y," and "fruity."
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