Why Elmhurst Creamer Should Stay Far Away From Your Shopping Cart

There are a lot of alternative milks to choose from when you're standing in front of the grocery store fridge. From rice to almonds and coconuts to peas, it seems like just about anything can be milked these days — with oats being one of the most popular. Oat milk is known for being the favorite amongst baristas for its neutral flavor profile and impressive frothability, making it one of the go-to alternatives in your coffee drinks. When it comes to oat milk coffee creamers, however, there is one brand in particular that our taste testers think should stay far away from your shopping cart: Elmhurst.

Elmhurst Dairy is the dairy farm that switched from cows to plants, swapping the dairy in its milk for a variety of grains, seeds, and milk back in 2017. But, it seems the brand still has a bit to learn about crafting milk from something other than cows. While we can't speak for Elmhurst's other plant-based milks and creamers, Tasting Table's taste testers found that its French Vanilla Oat Creamer was one of the worst of the bunch they sampled in their ranking of 10 oat milk creamer brands — placing it ninth, just behind the ever so popular Nut Pods. While shoppers appreciate this brand's clean ingredient labels, they seem to agree with our taste testers in that it lacks creaminess — something that's very important to a creamer.

Elmhurst's French Vanilla Oat Creamer is much more water than oats, and it has a texture to match. The only thing remotely good our taste testers had to say about it was that it did, in fact, taste of vanilla — which was just about the only point it had over the Nut Pods oat creamer that came in last. But Elmhurst isn't the only brand that struggles to create a creamy, rich texture similar to dairy. It's a quite common culprit among plant-based alternatives, and the unfortunate thing is that's just a byproduct of Elmhurst's clean ingredient list that people love so much.

One thing Elmhurst boasts about with its plant-based milks is that they don't contain any added oils or emulsifiers, which by any other means would be great — just not when you want a milk to froth. The key to making barista worthy oat milk at home is actually to incorporate more fat, and the simplest way to do that is to add a couple tablespoons of a neutral tasting oil to your recipe. Be it avocado oil or grapeseed oil, not only will you get a boost of healthy fats in your milk, but it will also double as an emulsifier — aka a frother. Shaken, blended, whisked, or frothed, the fatty oils in plant-based barista milks are key to giving them that rich, foamy texture.