Review: Can Maïzly Corn Milk Succeed Where Plant-Based Alternatives Fall Short?

Almond milk. Coconut milk. Oat milk. Soy milk. Unicorn milk. Okay, that last one was just to see if you were paying attention because there is an entire dark forest of plant milk options out there for those of us trying to get through the day without animal products, whatever our reasons might be. The one thing they all have in common — as my many efforts at a plant-based life have led me to believe — is that they're all kind of a letdown. While each has its strength, its place, and its no-go zones (keep almond milk out of my coffee, keep coconut milk out of my tea, keep oat milk out of my existence), there hasn't been a great all-purpose plant dairy product yet.

With that dissatisfaction burbling within me, I gladly took up a new milk contender on its offer to try a new product. Could I have at last found the all-purpose plant answer to my predicament? I was about to find out. Gentle reader, I give you ... Maïzly corn milk! Yep, corn milk. Not exactly the corn milk we've seen before here, which has many practical milk uses, including thickening soup. This one has coconut and chickpea for flavor, texture, and nutrition purposes. But still, a more direct milk substitute than longtime Tasting Table readers might expect to sweeten their coffee with. Let's compare it with cow milk.

Recommendations are based on firsthand impressions of promotional materials and products provided by the manufacturer.

Yep, it's milk from non-GMO corn, inasmuch as anything from a plant rather than a bovine udder is "milk." As with such things, the primary ingredient is water, followed by two forms of corn, the first being soluble corn fiber, and the second corn maltodextrin. However, coconut oil and chickpea protein are blended in there as well, along with some various binders and stabilizers. Corn might be the main ingredient, but it seems just as fair to call this a hybrid of coconuts and beans. All that said, their presence seems pretty minimal, though. I imagine the coconut is there for fat and structure, which it shares with the chickpeas for protein.

There's a little sugar as well, but not much. A one-cup serving only offers 4 grams of sugar and that's the fifth ingredient, coming in after maltodextrin, which is itself a sweetener. For contrast, a cup of 1% milk in the fridge as I write this has 12 grams of sugar.

Maïzly makes it clear that it's not to be used as an infant formula substitute, though if that's what you're after, the company does sell just such a thing for your vegan baby's best corn-based life. Otherwise, it's meant to be used entirely suitably for all milk purposes, even making much of its baking substitutional powers on the Maïzly homepage. It's gluten-free, dairy-free, and allergen-free.

In theory, you can order a six-case of Maïzly in regular or chocolate from the company's website, but I found the shop had no actual cart or ability to order. Trying it in a different browser, I found "Sold Out" messages before the page had fully loaded, but as this vanished, it could have just been waiting to load quantity availability. If you do get the store to work, expect a six-pack of 32-ounce cartons to cost $29, but it's not clear if shipping is extra or included. International shipping is not available yet, though the website says it's on its way. What's neat is that you can keep it boxed shelf-stable at room temperature until you open it. Then, into the fridge it goes.

You can use the company's zoomable map to find it at supermarkets around you. In NYC, I found it available at about a score of upscale and health-food-focused grocery stores, though not Whole Foods yet, which could impact how easily you get a carton. It certainly affected my ability to dig up a retail price, since none of the stores I checked offered online shopping or inventory preview. For now, Maïzly appears to only be available in stores around New York — though the company says it will eventually be available on its website, Amazon, and at select retailers nationwide. If you do find it near you, it would be reasonable to expect it close to that $5 price for a 32-ounce carton that the six-pack suggests.

The first test, obviously, was drinking the regular stuff head-on to see how it compares, and I've got to give it up to Maïzly here. Unlike the thick pudding of full coconut milk, this corn drink sure looks like regular milk other than being a little bit more bubbly as it settles. There wasn't too much nose that I could detect to compare to cow juice, but nobody's sniffing milk like fine wine out here anyway.

But how does she drink? The taste is not bad at all, although I think the coconut comes through as strongly as the corn. That could be for good or ill, depending on your feelings about, say, the Starbucks Midnight Drink Refresher, but it's not minimal. That said, there's an aftertaste that really clings ... it's not bad, just strong and a little tangy. It's almost like you've had a swig of milk that's been out for the better part of an hour. In essence, it felt like I had a strong case of milk breath from the first swig. Still, I think this would be a nice glass to pour with a sandwich or to neutralize an acidic serving of tomato sauce, even if I'm not inclined to dunk my cookies in it. So far, it's well and truly ahead of the plant milk curve, beating even almond milk for actual drinkability.

Maïzly sent a carton of chocolate milk alongside the regular edition, and I wish I could say this version of corn milk performed as ably as its partner. While the taste was good, it was not exactly selling milk: pretty far from it, in fact. I would liken chocolate Maïzly more to Yoo-Hoo, albeit less slick (a plus!) and a little more ... not exactly chalky or fibrous, but definitely like some kind of particulate suspension I'm not looking for in my chocolate milk. It also had more of a notable corn quality to it than the milk, as if the chocolate contrast was emphasizing its differences.

I doubt I would buy it for this purpose. (Yet there's a twist awaiting our return to this chocolate corn milk, dear reader! Stay with us.) Still, I'd take it over chocolate drinks like Yoo-Hoo or Nesquik, both of which also recommend a vigorous shake before you drink. Sometimes sediment is the price we pay to get chocolate into our bodies by liquid means.

I'd love to tell you what Maïzly tastes like in coffee, but pouring the usual amount I would use for half and half, it vanished. I was left with the same mug of black coffee I had just poured for myself as usual. If you're looking for a replacement creamer in your coffee, this ain't it. I couldn't even tell you what effect it had. Adding more, I did finally get a nice beige coffee but I'm really hard-pressed to say how this changed the flavor at all. 

As someone who usually takes his coffee black or with half and half and even a heavy whipping cream when I'm feeling degenerate, the fat content here didn't ever really assert itself. It felt less like I had added milk and more like I just had coffee that was less black. Not that it felt more watery ... it just took the edge off of the acidity more than it contributed any sort of dairy flavor. No longer invisible, it was still mostly undetectable. But is that so far from the real deal? 

The best comparison for this product appears to be 2% milk for fat and sugar. So I'm not pitting this against half and half in my coffee. As with most plant milks, the nuttiness of the coffee gets exacerbated even as the drink brings in some sweetness. It may be mimicking milk best by aping its weaknesses, too.

As with drinking this corn milk straight, it presented a real verisimilitude other than the strange, final flourish of small bubbles that didn't break. As far as anyone could eyeball the color, this was a regular cup of tea with milk, though the bubbles gave it away. Things seemed pretty normal, so I gave it a guzzle.

Opposite to the way it disappeared into coffee's strength, the corn milk elbowed forward in the tea, and not in a way I loved. Flavorwise, it does get you most of the way there, but the corn aroma really comes forward, and it's not the best pairing with the tea. You might think leaves and grass grain go together but ... nope. It might be a personal preference but I think I'd just rather have my tea straightforward. Then again, I usually do, so if you have your tea preferences and also want a plant milk you can live with, it might be something you can either disregard or get used to. Not a dealbreaker, just definitely not a preferred method. Be aware as you proceed to pour.

I have to say, this is where Maïzly shines. It is freaking hard to get some foam on top of plant milk at home, and usually when you do it breaks down almost immediately. Those bubble formations that never broke in my tea and my glass of milk? They turned out to be a structure that was made for frothing, and Maïzly generated a thick topping that even piled on top of itself and held its shape all the way down as I drank.

This is colossal. I no longer need to be a sad boy at the café when they ask if I want alternatives to delicious traditional milk, and I know my love for latte foam is going to lead me to pay seven bucks for a texture of gross oat foam. Honestly, I would buy a carton of Maïzly to keep in my fridge for the sole purpose of making my coffee fun again, even though I do love it black. This is the argument for corn milk unto itself, and we're still at breakfast.

I cheated a little bit to make this cocoa. I used the chocolate milk rather than the regular stuff since drinking it as-is didn't super appeal to me, and come on ... is it really any less orthodox anyway? I was running low on the regular stuff that they sent me to review, and didn't have too many other uses for the chocolate milk, though I might bake dessert with it. I think it's a fair play, considering we're judging it on how well it heats up and mingles with the cocoa mix rather than the taste of either.

Really, these are two versions of hot cocoa under review, because of course I tried hot chocolate Maïzly on its own first, having heated it up before I added any cocoa powder. You know something? I think it's perfect already. The same characteristics that make it a little too textured as milk make it perfect for a thick cup of cocoa. Adding some very nice Ghirardelli cocoa mix didn't do much to change the taste profile, perhaps grounding it with a slightly darker chocolate flavor. I think this stuff might be missing its calling as a vegan hot cocoa rather than chocolate milk. They could be selling it as "ready to pour." At the very least this feels like an easy payday for some cafe in San Francisco or Portland to start serving. Vegans like cozy holiday feels too, you know.

I put Maïzly on Rice Krispies to get the broadest and mildest profile that wouldn't cut into the corn. The sweetness of the plant milk is a plus here. Getting a little more audacious, I put it on Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Again, it performed more like regular milk than almost any plant milk I've used. Big credit here.

I would definitely buy this to put on cereal. So far I've been stuck with almond milk or coconut milk, both of which are pretty intrusive unless you're eating a cereal that already has almonds or at least pairs well. Finally! Something I can pour on my Apple Jacks. The only catch for me, as a consumer, is that my main cereal is Honey Bunches of Oats, which actually pairs great with almond milk. So for price comparison, you could find 64 ounces of almond milk cheaper than 32 ounces of this stuff without altering your breakfast's flavor. But if you want a low-key milk for any type of cereal out there, this is another victory for Maïzly.

It's not a perfect reproduction, but you could do a lot worse in the plant milk space, and you could hardly do better, except for a specific instance or two. Maïzly offers some strengths and advantages not usually found among these types of liquids, which tend to have very intrusive flavor profiles. As my fully vegan friend said to me, nobody actually likes oat milk. The coconut here has its most dominant tendencies fairly well reduced while also still contributing to fat and mouthfeel. I'd be interested to play around with this more, maybe do some baking, make ice cream, that's sort of thing. For now, I can say it's a welcome addition to the playing field, even with the lingering aftertaste.

Maïzly is an alluring alternative for vegans or lactose-intolerant folks on its own, and as dietary considerations compound (some folks have nut allergies too, y'know), it offers a powerful attraction. Sustainability is a focus, so if you're sitting at home guilting yourself over your almond consumption, consider that corn and coconuts are doing it better anyway. All in all, I've found a product I'd pay for out of pocket, even if I still wouldn't use it for anything. Catch me in six months to see if I'm making brioche rolls and homemade ice cream or mac and cheese with it, but for now, I'm just enjoying a cup of hot corn cocoa with the snow dripping outside my window.