• fine_sandy_bottom
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    11 hours ago

    Yeah see this is the thing.

    Looking at the ingredients of oat milk it’s often as little as 2% oats.

    That checks out looking at these ingredients… 4/5ths of the oats are strained out.

    That means it’s really oily unsugary water with a whiff of oat.

    What is even the point of that.

    Also, fun fact… the xanthan gum seems to kill the creme on a nice cup of black coffee. So a dish of oat milk in your long black is… undesirable.

    • ubergeek@lemmy.today
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      8 hours ago

      Horchata, aka chilled rice drink, is only like less than 1% rice! It’s mostly water and sugar, with some spices!

      What’s the POINT?!?!

      Spoiler: horchata is delicious, and basically the same thing as oatmilk, when you get down to it.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        One of the few things I really miss about living in L.A. was all the little agua fresca stands where I could get horchata. And cheap.

    • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
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      10 hours ago

      The “point” is that it’s a tasty beverage.
      Why on earth would you measure the quality of a beverage by how diluted the solids are, or how much filler gets strained out?

      “Milk is just watered down cheese! It’s 87% water! What’s the point of it?”
      Coffee hardly has any coffee in it, you throw away most of the bean.
      Don’t even get me started on broth.

      The fat content is equal to or lower than the fat content of typical dairy based creamers, which is also where the sugar content comes from. A mild quantity of fat is required for the creamer to have a good mouth feel and have a degree of “coating” effect. The gums help keep the fat in suspension since I lack a homogenizer like they use on milk, as well as increasing the viscosity in a way that’s imparted by protein in milk.

      If you want to you can just eat the result without filtering. It’s called oatmeal. It’s still watered down though, so I might recommend toasting them and having a nice dry oat bar to go with your puck of dehydrated milk.

      In general, I’d recommend against putting any sort of creamer in your black coffee. It tends to make it no longer black coffee.
      I don’t personally find issue with any of the emulsifies doing anything to coffee I don’t like, but if you’re exploring there are plenty of others. I’ve had good luck with konjac in a blend with guar, xanthan, and methylcellulose, but two of those are less likely to be in the baking aisle at the store. The more you use the smaller the proportional quantity you need, since they have a synergistic effect. Less than a gram total combined weight of the four previous ones makes a consistency like heavy cream. Great for ice cream base.

      • tpyo@lemmy.world
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        9 hours ago

        Your comment is great, equally snarky and informative. I appreciate it and got a couple giggles out of it, too!

        Thanks for taking the time for both of your comments. I’ve saved them for the future as I can no longer drink dairy and not a fan of how much sugar some of the commercial oat milks have

        • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
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          9 hours ago

          No problem! I’ve been lactose intolerant for a while but over the past several years it’s gotten a bit more … Dramatic. The lactose free ice cream always seems to have a funny taste to me, but I tried a oat milk ice cream and was really surprised how creamy it was.
          I have an ice cream maker so I started doing some science at making my own. There are worse hobbies, since even the failures are almost always edible. (I did make one with the “fun” property of being nearly identical in texture at every temperature. Scooping some into a hot pan and having it crisp but remain soft is… Unnerving)

          If you make some, feel free to let me know how it goes! I’d be happy to give pointers to push it in a direction you prefer, or just have another data point for what works. :)