Featured Image Credit: Emily Brown
Topics: Food and Drink
Emily Brown
How much is a pint of milk?
The answer to that question used to be pretty simple, but with a whole variety of milks now on the market, it's got a little more difficult. Are we talking almond milk, coconut milk or regular milk? Do you want barista-style, skimmed, chocolate?
Well, I've now got a definitive response to the question - but it comes in the form of another question.
How much is a pint of milk? Well, that depends - how much is a bag of oats?
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Admittedly, this opens up its own debate, but I think we can all agree that a big bag of oats usually only costs around $1, whereas a carton of plant milk will usually set you back at least double that amount.
Enter: the Milky Plant. I promise, it's not as icky as it sounds.
With my love of cereal and my boyfriend's three-coffee-per-day habit, we go through oat milk at record speed in our house. So when the opportunity came up to make huge quantities of the stuff for the price of a bag of oats - or a bag of nuts, if you're so inclined - I obviously wasn't going to pass it up.
I then came home to the sleek, futuristic-looking machine, and quickly accepted that my plans for the evening had changed.
Not that making your own oat milk takes a long time - in fact, it's as simple as pouring oats into the blender slot, filling up the water, and hitting the button to make the milk appear. It takes just three minutes, plus a bit of time afterwards to make sure the machine's all clean - but it definitely quicker than a trip to the store.
For my first attempt with the machine, I kept things simple - just oats and water. This is oat milk in its purest form, and if you're just looking for something to moisten (sorry) your Cheerios, then this will do the job, but it's not the most flavorsome of substances.
If you're after something a bit sweeter or thicker, you will need to make a couple of adjustments to make the milk to your liking. You could opt for hazelnuts or almonds instead of the blander oat, or add a sweetener like golden syrup or vanilla extract once the milk has been deposited into the reusable Milky Plant bottle.
It might take some time to get the formula just to your liking, but once you've cracked the ingredients, the milk is yours for the making.
Three days after receiving my Milky Plant machine and I've enjoyed multiple bowls of cereal, and my boyfriend has been happily sipping away at his coffee like nothing's changed.
The best part? I've still got a near-full bag of oats to go.