Pea Milk

 Some of the huge range of milk alternatives

At one time, being sent to the shop by your parents to buy milk was an easy job. You only had to ask if you needed to get full fat or semi skimmed. I don’t think gold top has been an option for quite some time but I remember it was always the bottles the birds pecked the silver foil off in winter when the bottles sat on the doorstep. 

If someone asks you to get milk now the choice is enough to bring you out in a cold sweat.  The choice of dairy-free milk drinks has grown massively over the last few years. It’s debatable (in court probably) if manufacturing companies can actually call their plant based products ‘milk’ as such but it’s in the public domain now so it’ll most likely stay.

 We have a choice of almond milk, oat milk, coconut milk, rice milk, hemp milk, soy milk as well as other nuts, macadamia, hazelnut and cashew. 

Plant-based milk sales are on the rise, while sales of traditional dairy milk continue to decline, although sales of yogurt and cheese are staying strong. Recent research from Nielsen has found that the plant-based milk category is up 3.1% since last year, while cow’s milk sales are down about 5% over the same period. According to research from 2016, almond milk is the top-selling milk substitute with sales growth of 250 % from 2011 to 2015.

I’ve tried and bought all of the variations. I’m usually influenced by two factors, one is price – I go for the special offers, and the other is that they don’t contain sugar to make them sweet. I always go back to soya milk and the cartons I buy are sweetened with apple juice. The others are sweetened with sugar which is the second highest ingredient and that doesn’t suit me.  They are often found in the fridge section of the supermarkets/shops. If you have a vegan lifestyle or are allergic to either dairy or nuts the choice of regular milk and alternatives can be a bit limiting too.

Some people can’t drink some of those milks mentioned due to nut or soy allergies. Some aren’t good for the environment: Almond milk production uses a lot of water to produce the finished product and there is a concern about the estrogen-like compounds in soy. Oat milk seems to come out the best for environmental impact and seems particularly popular among vegans, according to PETA, thanks to its slight natural sweetness, neutral flavour and consistency.

Pea Milk

Just when you thought the choice was daunting enough, along comes a newcomer -Pea Milk. (Supress the giggles please).  There were talks about changing the name at one stage as producers didn’t think the idea of drinking ‘pea’ sounded very appealing. Thankfully they realised people could spell and kept the name and because it’s a creamy white colour you don’t have to drink green goo.

This one appeals to me because as gardeners it’s great to know that we can make this at home. The same can be said for oats and soy but you’d need a fair size plot or field to grow enough to process. The drink is made from yellow split peas which grow the same as regular peas. It’s a different process to almond milk production and it’s claimed that it takes 100x less water to grow the peas rather than farming almonds and25x less water than farming dairy. 

I bought my first carton and chose the unsweetened one. It’s a bit like the Barista oat milk which is used for coffee and has a rich creamy texture. I really want to like it more than soya but I think it’s a bit of an acquired taste in both drinks and porridge.

Pea milk claims to be free from diary, nuts and soy which pleases most groups and takes far less energy to produce. It has 8g of protein per glass (8x more than almond milk) 40 % less sugar than cow’s milk and twice the calcium of cow's milk. It’s also high in fibre and low in saturated fat. The peas themselves are also high in the amino acid lysine (a building block of protein) as well as iron. it makes a very pleasing, creamy bananas and custard too.

Fortification

Plant milk doesn't always offer us all of the nutrients that cow's milk does, so for people who are vegan or can't consume dairy because they're lactose intolerant, they are encouraged  to check the labels for fortification. Plant-based milks are not required to be fortified,

Fortification is the process in which vitamins and minerals are added to the base product. Some are fortified with calcium, Vitamin D and B12, but this doesn't mean to say that all pea milk products will be.

There's no right or wrong when it comes to choosing milk to suit your lifestyle, it's a judgement call. Like most things, some products are less environmentally damaging than others.