The flavour is quite neutral and there is no trace of that chemical aftertaste present in the espresso test. My guess is that it’s the application of heat to certain ingredients that lend plant-based milks like Rebel Kitchen’s and Califia Farms’s barista editions the unappetising artificial flavour. It does get better as you drink it, and turns out to be quite refreshing and light. But the acidity is just way too high and distracting. 3.5/5 Rebel Kitchen Barista

It does leave a little residue at the end, and, surprisingly, is slightly less creamy than you’d expect it to be. 4/5 Read our ultimate showdown for the best vegan Easter egg in 2021. Ingredients, price and availability In fact, it uses more oats than any other oat milk on this list, even Oaty Bruce, with a 14% oat base. The almonds, given their strong flavour, make up for only 3% of the milk, which is also higher than most almond milks. Sunflower lecithin and sea salt are the other two additions. It’s a quite remarkable and minimal blend for a barista milk. But as I found in my oat milk test, Califia Farms’s barista edition has a chemical aftertaste that just doesn’t go away. The promising early signs are all steamrolled by this late hit of off-tasting notes. 3/5 Good Hemp Barista It tastes good, but the sweetness of the oats overtakes any flavour lent by the almonds. It also takes focus away from the coffee, which is a shame. 2.5/5 Sproud Barista Not just because it’s summer, but iced coffee is just as important a test as hot drinks. Instead of testing the milks in iced lattes or iced filters, I decided to conduct the review in cold brew.The coconut milk froths well, but not as much as you’d expect — this is essentially a blend of soy and coconut milk, and the protein in the soybeans help with the frothing. This is the hardest milk to find. You can’t find Happy Happy Soy Boy in any supermarket or health store in the UK. That’s because, as the brand explained to The Vegan Review, it’s primarily marketed as a foodservice product and is only available in coffee shops that use it as their house soy milk. Like Happy Happy Soy Boy, Minor Figures doesn’t just complement the coffee’s flavour — it lifts it to a whole new level. 5/5 Oatly Barista

The all-important taste test. After so much frothing, the next stage was tasting these best barista milks for their flavour and to determine how they perform in coffee drinks like lattes and cappuccinos. For companies making multiple kinds of barista milks, I chose only one, recommended to me by the brand itself for this review. I used a small French press for the tests, as many households don’t have access to espresso machines or electric frothers. Here’s our ultimate showdown for the UK’s best barista milk. Frothing

Ingredients

This is not at all acidic, which is what you look for in cold brew. Oatly complements the coffee really well, and the oat flavour isn’t too strong either. Rude Health’s barista almond milk has an intriguing and impressive ingredients list. Even though it is marketed as an almond milk, its oat content is way higher than the almonds. I used equal parts cold brew concentrate and milk for each test to determine the milk’s influence on flavour and texture. Almond Breeze Barista The flavour of the milk masks the coffee’s ever so slightly. But it is still a good, milky drink that doesn’t taste watery. There’s also a hint of saltiness that is delightful.