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We found the ideal oat milk for frothy coffee drinks, and it wasn’t a close contest.
Walk into any third-wave coffee shop, and the options are pretty endless. As much fatigue as this may cause consumers, it’s a relief for dairy-free latte lovers.
Gone are the days when whole milk was the only option available. Today, any coffee shop is bound to have at least a couple of non-dairy milk options. You can bet that oat milk is one of them.
Whole milk has long been the industry standard for steaming because of its substantial fat content, which produces a viscous, creamy microfoam that pours like paint. Low- and non-fat milks are more difficult to achieve good microfoam with.
Next to whole milk, oat milk is generally the barista’s go-to when they want to achieve enviable art. Still, not all oat milks are equal.
We steamed and poured six of the most widely available barista oat milk brands to answer one question: Which oat milk produces the best microfoam? Several were good contenders, but a couple stood out from the rest. Here’s how each oat milk performed.
Related: How to Steam Whole, Oat, and Almond Milk for Café-Quality Lattes and Latte Art
How we selected the oat milks
Given that this was a test of barista-grade oat milks, grocery store availability wasn’t a must. The majority of these brands are available at grocery stores, but their barista oat milks are often only available online or at specialty markets.
We chose brands that are prolific in coffee shops. If you’re an oat milk lover who frequents different cafés, you’ve likely tasted most of these at least once. If a brand did not make barista-style oat milk, it was excluded.
Related: This Is the Old-School Brewing Method Coffee Experts Swear By
How we tested the oat milks
We steamed each oat milk in a stainless-steel milk pitcher using a Meraki home espresso machine, which produces results on par with commercial machines. For consistency, we used Meraki’s auto-stop, temperature-based system to steam, which stops the wand once the milk reaches 131°F.
Then, we poured each milk into a double shot of espresso, using the same bean, grind size, output weight, cup, and choice of latte art (a heart). The best milks performed similarly to whole milk. They produced a viscous, creamy consistency with microfoam that didn’t separate from the milk itself, and they were incredibly easy to pour.
Best Overall: Elmhurst
Elmhurst’s barista oat milk was dreamy, as it steamed up beautifully. If not for its coloring, we could have been fooled into thinking this was whole milk. Though it didn’t get quite as glossy on top as whole milk, it made for an impeccable pour that left hardly any marbling on the surface of the crema. The heart ribboned out of the pitcher in a similar fashion to whole milk. Elmhurst’s was a standout.
Most Cost-Effective: Oatly
Oatly’s barista oat milk steamed nearly as well as Elmhurst’s. It deserves just as much attention for a couple of reasons. It’s widely available at grocery stores, and it’s often dollars cheaper than Elmhurst’s. If you’re on a budget, we’d suggest Oatly as your barista oat milk of choice.
The microfoam produced by Oatly showed no signs of separating from the milk in the pitcher, which made for an easy pour that resulted in a lovely heart. It left a little more marbling on the surface of the crema than we’d prefer, and it was pretty viscous without being too thick to manipulate. It’s the one to grab when you realize you’re out of barista oat milk while you’re at the store.
Best Organic: Minor Figures
Minor Figures isn’t quite as easy to get as Oatly, but if you strive to live an organic lifestyle, this should be your pick. Minor Figures performed nearly as well as the previous two. The only issue was that it was slightly more viscous than the above two contenders.
Still, Minor Figures’ oat milk was easy to manipulate when poured into the espresso. We achieved a good, if slightly porous, heart, and there wasn’t much marbling. Though it played no part in our final ranking, the brand’s quirky packaging definitely would make this a more endearing choice to consumers.
Best for Skilled Baristas: Califia
If you’re confident in your steaming abilities, you may want to get a carton of Califia’s barista oat milk. It’s a bit of a high-risk, high-reward situation. Califia’s oat milk isn’t as easy to steam as the prior contenders. Once you get the hang of it, however, you may find that this produces your favorite microfoam.
Califia’s milk feels slightly thinner than the others, which makes it a bit tricky to get right. The line between adding just enough air or too much is very fine. It will probably take a few steams to get perfect. Once you do, the result is relatively thin, still viscous, and yields a gorgeous, uniform pour.
The full list of contenders, ranked from highest to lowest:
- Elmhurst
- Oatly
- Minor Figures
- Califia
- Planet Oat
- Pacifica
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