9 Oat Milks, Ranked (By Someone Who Hates Oat Milk)

If you’ve browsed any of our coffee coverage, you know that we take our brew pretty seriously. From pour-overs to espresso machines, and from bean roast to brew strength, we have strong opinions about it all. This week, it’s all things coffee at Wirecutter.

I hate oat milk. Its unappetizing, murky gray color, its thin consistency. The stuff looks more like dirty dishwater than like actual milk. If I’m going to put anything in my coffee, it’s going to be regular cow’s milk. So I’m not sure if my editors were playing a cruel joke or just seeking an honest opinion when they asked me to do a blind oat milk tasting to find the best brand. Keeping an open mind, I begrudgingly accepted the challenge.

To even the playing field, I stuck to unflavored, unsweetened oat milk varieties that are sold at most grocery stores. I also tested several “barista blends,” which have a slightly thicker consistency than regular oat milk. To evaluate both the oat milk itself and how it tastes in coffee, I tried all of the brands on their own and then in coffee. Here are my tasting notes, in order from best to basically undrinkable:

1. The Oatly Oatmilk was by far the best of the bunch. It has a similar mouthfeel, consistency, and color to whole milk. There’s definitely an oaty flavor coming through, but it’s mild and well balanced. It didn’t overpower when stirred into coffee, and it mixed well without separating. A winner.
2. The Oatly Barista Edition Oatmilk was on a par with the regular Oatly Oatmilk, only slightly sweeter and thicker. It was pleasantly oaty but not so strong-tasting that it overwhelmed the nuances of the coffee. If you want an oat milk that foams up nicely for lattes, this is the one to get. This oat milk is, unfortunately, not as widely available as the regular version, but you can buy it online.
3. The Elmhurst Milked Oats Barista Edition was so dark (practically beige) that it looked the least like actual milk. But if you’re partial to a sweeter oat milk, this one wasn’t terrible. It didn’t separate in coffee, and it had a light oat flavor.
4. Outside of the top three, the oat milks start to be touch-and-go. The problem I had with them is the problem I have with oat milks in general—they just aren’t rich enough to be described as anything close to “milky.” The Planet Oat Oatmilk was gray and watery. It didn’t curdle in hot beverages, but it was so thin and lightly flavored that it watered down coffee. Not my favorite.
5. The Elmhurst Milked Oats lacked body and was so bland that it tasted like oat-flavored water. When I poured this one into my morning roast, it didn’t separate, but it did give my coffee an off flavor that I didn’t appreciate.



6. The Silk Oat Yeah Oatmilk had a strong oat flavor, similar to the Califia Farms Oat Barista Blend, but it was slightly darker, thicker, and sweeter. It, too, didn’t separate when stirred into coffee, but its oat flavor was overpowering.
7. The Califia Farms Oat Barista Blend had an off-putting brown tinge and a strong oat flavor that was less balanced than that of the Oatly oat milks. It also separated in coffee, which is a big deal breaker.
8. I hate to say it, but the flavor of the Califia Farms Oatmilk reminded me of pureed wet cardboard. It had white flecks floating in it right out of the carton (even after vigorous shaking), and it separated so much in coffee that it looked like curdled milk. It is almost, but not quite, at the bottom of the pack.
9. The Pacific Foods Organic Oat Plant-Based Beverage was so cloying that I had to spit it out. Its oat flavor was completely masked by its sweetness and—even worse—by its lingering chalky aftertaste. Like the Califia Farms Oatmilk, it also appeared separated, even before I stirred it into coffee.