To date, the scariest episode of The Good Place on NBC was when the ever ethical Chidi told us about how bad almond milk is for the environment. Ever since Chidi revealed his moral dilemma about his use of almond milk in his coffee (which is really a nut juice and not a milk, but that's a whole other article), I've been questioning my commitment to the non-dairy beverage. If the moral ethics professor is tripped up over it, how am I supposed to make a decision?
Given the questionable ethics of almond milk, my commitment to not drinking soy milk for personal health reasons, and the fact that oat milk is so yesterday, I decided to give pea milk a try. You should laugh, I laughed. The name's funny. Pea milk is made from, well, peas. Split yellow peas, in fact, meaning it's packed with protein and unfortunately (or fortunately) not green.
Why do we even care about another plant juice that's lying about being milk? Because pea milk has some pretty sweet benefits working in its favor. Most bottles advertise 8 grams of protein per serving, and pea milk also uses way less water, emits less CO2, and the front-running brand (called Ripple) uses already recycled packaging. Pea milk is an all around win for people with environmental concerns. According to GQ, pea milk is also dairy-, soy-, nut-, and gluten-free and vegan, for all you allergen-conscious babes out there.
Not mad. Sounds great. Seems legit. But what we really care about at Spoon Simmons is: does pea milk taste good? No matter how earth-friendly a product is, it does the earth no good to have a carton go bad in all our fridges because it turned out the stuff tastes awful. A couple of publications have done taste tests, but we're into investigative and original journalism here so I forced this milk on all my friends at the dining hall.
We tried Ripple Unsweetened Original Nutritious Pea Milk to get an authentic pea experience. It was hidden in the non-dairy section of Target, where there were also Sweetened Vanilla and Chocolate pea milk options.
Here are our thoughts:
- It tastes a lot like plain almond milk, but creamier. Definitely doesn't taste like peas so that's a relief.
- The texture was smooth and not chalky like other milk alternatives I've tried.
- I thought it had a weird aftertaste, funky and a little sour. It wasn't awful but once I was aware of it I couldn't not taste it anymore. However, my friends who are dairy-free thought that it tasted great, they were used to the not *true* milk taste of milk alternatives.
Overall we decided that if you already use almond milk in things like smoothies or cereal (we tried it on cereal, it wasn't bad) then this wouldn't be a big leap. We just didn't love it as a drink on its own. We did some math too, and based on Fenway Target prices, pea milk is $.08 per ounce, while almond milk is $.05 per ounce. However, I personally would be willing to pay extra for the environmental benefits of using pea milk.
Bonus Round: Chocolate Pea Milk
We tried out the chocolate version as well. A couple friends who don't usually do chocolate milk because it's too sweet loved this because it was more subtle in flavor. Those of us who didn't love the flavor of the plain pea milk thought this was great; it was sweet and chocolaty with no weird aftertaste.
Our recommendation? Give it a try! If you're already used to milk alternatives, this is a fun one to add to the mix. And if you're new to the plant milk world, then this is a great place to start.