Exploring Alternative Milk: Expanding Customer Choice Availability
Don’t forget your lactose-intolerant and vegan friends!
Today, I thought I would talk about why offering alternative milks is an important aspect of ensuring each customer receives an experience perfectly tailored to them.
In the world of coffee, every detail matters. From selecting the finest locally roasted beans to mastering the espresso brewing process. But what about the often-overlooked ingredient that binds it all together? Milk.
In recent years, there's been a surge in demand for alternative milk options driven by health considerations, environmental concerns, and evolving taste preferences. As cafe owners, we must welcome this trend, which can open up exciting new avenues for creativity as baristas if we embrace it enthusiastically.
At Clarries, we've jumped into this movement wholeheartedly, offering a range of options to suit every palate, including lactose-free, almond, soy and oat milk. In regard to cafes, there are four reasons why we believe these milks are critical when creating the best visit for your customer:
1. Various Flavour Choices
Traditional dairy milk provides just one flavour note. Alternative milks each bring their unique taste and texture to the table. From the nuttiness of almond milk to the creaminess of oat milk, these options allow our clients additional customisation for their individual preferences. I personally prefer soy milk the most (as a lactose-intolerant person myself 🙃) because it is smooth, light, almost tasteless and froths almost perfectly, unlike other alternatives. Therefore, if you can only stock one extra type of milk, I would recommend soy milk with oat being a close second place.
2. Healthy Substitutes
Many of our customers are highly conscious of their dietary choices, whether due to lactose intolerance, veganism, or simply a desire to improve their well-being in their everyday lives. Alternative milks offer a solution for our customers so they can enjoy a latte without regret by providing lactose-free and plant-based options that are often lower in calories and saturated fat (Department of Health). As long as the milk is fortified with calcium, it can match the nutrients that can be obtained from dairy milk, especially soy milk (Dietitians Australia) - another reason why it’s my favourite milk we use in the cafe.
3. Sustainability
The environmental impact of dairy production is well-documented, from greenhouse gas emissions to water usage and deforestation. Alternative milks, particularly those made from oats, almonds, and soy, generally have a lower environmental footprint, making them a more sustainable choice for eco-conscious consumers. For example, soy and oat tend to be the best milk options when considering sustainability because they use less water and are more scalable because many of these crops are already being grown to feed livestock. As we transition to using plant-based milks more often, there will be fewer cattle bred that need to be fed with this produce. Therefore, extra land won’t need to be depleted (The Guardian). However, if you are trying to make your cafe environmentally friendly, just remember that almond milk, though superior to dairy milk, needs a lot more water to be produced than other plant-based milks and the growing process for almonds can be detrimental to bees (The Guardian).
4. Innovation and Creativity
Embracing alternative milks opens up a world of experimentation when developing drinks in your cafe. Why not carry out some tests and suggest to your customers which milk would go best in each drink, much like a sommelier does with wine? Or try to enhance the flavours of these different milks to make them the star of the drink (I think this would especially work with almond milk because of the strong taste)? There's no limit to the inventive concoctions you can dream up with these versatile ingredients.
I know that this article has primarily focused on the most common alternative milks. However, I might return to this topic in the future as I am quite interested in researching other, less prominent milk alternatives, such as rice or macadamia milk. Try to find more sustainable, healthy substitutes that work well in drinks served at our cafe.
At Clarries, we're committed to providing our customers with the highest-quality espresso drinks (and non-caffeinated drinks, too!) altered how they see fit. The customer is always right in matters of taste after all. That's why we proudly offer an assorted selection of milks, ensuring everyone can taste their perfect cup.
Whether you're a dairy devotee looking to try something new or a committed vegan in search of the perfect latte, we invite you to explore the world of alternative milk at Clarries.