The Best Milk Substitutes For Dairy-Free Homemade Coffee Creamer

Making homemade coffee creamer is one of the few things that's actually as simple as it sounds. Still, there are ways that you could overcomplicate it — but fortunately, making it dairy free is not one of those ways. At least, not when you have the help of one of the world's best baristas, Andrea Allen. The co-founder of Onyx Coffee Lab, 2020 U.S. Barista champ, and 2021 World Barista runner-up, offered Tasting Table her advice as it pertained to the best milk substitutes to use for dairy free homemade coffee creamer, and she said, "I'm a big fan of mixing coconut cream, which is thick and amazing, with an alternative plant based of oat, almond, or other comparable alternative milk."

But Allen also made an important point: One of the recurring issues with milk alternatives is that they're comparably thinner in consistency to regular milk and don't always provide that same creamy mouthfeel. For that reason, she recommends adjusting the ratio typically used to make homemade, dairy-based creamer and opting for 2 parts milk to one part coconut cream. She also noted, "The cream will have both flavor and sweetness so tasting before adding flavor/sweetener is best practice." Given that the coconut cream will likely inhibit some of its tropical and nutty flavor, you'll not only want to consider how much sweetener you add to your creamer but also the kinds of flavors that you add.

While mixing the coconut cream with another alternative milk will help dilute some of the coconut flavor, it's still likely to come through in your homemade, dairy-free coffee creamer, so you'll want to be intentional with what flavors you add to it. As shown by the pumpkin spice creamer that will ruin your coffee, coconut milk is not going to be the best base to use in your homemade fall-flavored coffee creamers. The tropical taste of the coconut cream simply doesn't mesh well with the warm, spicy flavors typical of creamers of the fall season. Instead, you're better off sticking with other sweet, nutty, and fruity flavors — think vanilla, hazelnut, almond, or even raspberry or blueberry.

If you're really wanting to make a dairy free fall coffee creamer, try experimenting with substituting the coconut cream for an oat-based sweetened condensed milk. If you can't find one in the store, you can make your own by adding sugar to your store-bought oat milk and slowly cooking it down on your stove top, the same exact way regular condensed milk is made. You might just need to mix in some xanthan gum to help thicken it. Then, combine that with 2 parts of regular oat milk (or any other alternative milk you have on hand) and add any flavors or sweeteners you like. Because of oat milk's neutral flavor, it will seamlessly blend with all of the warm coffee flavors you love during the fall.