Given that many of you are eliminating dairy, what is your substitute when you do add milk to tea?

30 Replies
Lazey said

I once had a kiwi bubble tea (which probably was not ever a tea and made with powder) made with coconut milk and it was amazing… But yeah, coconut milk probably would not work with every tea.

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Serenity said

Re: coconut milk: the coconut milk by Silk does not have a coconutty taste, IMO.

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Ozli said

When I didn’t use dairy, I just wouldn’t use anything in tea. They all tasted wrong to me (and we used mostly rice or almond or soy for cooking/cereal) – Silk creamer was good for coffee but way too overpowering for tea. These days we drink lactose-free cow milk & supposedly it’s a bit sweeter than regular milk, but I don’t really notice.

If I haaad to choose a non-dairy milk to add to a tea it would probably be original flavour soymilk by So Good (preferably) or So Nice.

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Dione said

I really enjoy soy milk (Silk or Eden) in Rooibos tea, yummy and just sweet enough. If I go to a tea place I get them to make me Rooibos soy lattes and those are delicious. I have started to experiment with soy milk in black teas and I like that too.

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Kittenna said

Hmm, which brand of almond milk did you use/try? I find that they definitely have different flavours. I like TrueAlmond regular (certainly not with vanilla flavouring!) for matcha lattes, and I don’t find it adds a ton of almond flavour. However, I can’t say I’ve tried it as a milk substitute for chais or other tea lattes.

For chais, I feel like unsweetened coconut milk might be a good bet, because I like coconut and IMO it goes well with chai. However, I don’t keep coconut milk on hand as I really do not like drinking it as “milk” without adding a bunch of sweetener (which pretty much defeats the purpose of buying something like that, since I am not at all dairy free and drink plenty of cow’s milk).

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The last two years that I was living in the UK, I used a product called Kara “Dairy-Free Milk” which was similar to coconut milk, but with thickeners and much less coconut (about 8% coconut, from memory). There is a similar product called “coconut beverage” in the US. This was fantastic in teas and cooking. It isn’t too good in coffee, but I never drink that black muck these days. I never really liked soy, but just got used to it over the years. Rice milk was fine, but the colour when used for tea was all wrong. Since returning to Australia, I have had to use soy milk again as they don’t sell anything similar to this ‘coconut beverage’ but I have found a recipe to make it myself when I get my own place.

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I’m allergic to real milk, & for years drank all of my teas straight. Then I fell in love with Chai, which also led me to adding ‘milk’ & stevia to black tea occasionally. Initially I used soy milk in my Chai, & really had an obsessive relationship with Silk French Vanilla creamer for awhile. I weaned myself off that several months ago (actually, I bought a pint of it recently, & it was sickeningly sweet). The coconut milk ‘creamer’ likewise is loaded with sugar & thickeners, plus I hate the way it tastes.
I detest rice milk, flax milk, & most other ‘milks’.
We use Blue diamond unsweetened vanilla almond milk here for smoothies, but I don’t like it in my tea.
If I go out for Chai, I usually get it with soymilk.
If I make Chai at home, I open a can of coconut milk (not the coconut milk beverage, just the canned stuff). I heat it up first, brew my Chai strong, & then add the coconut milk & some stevia. Sometimes I really love it this way, but sometimes I don’t care for it.

Truthfully, lately when I’ve had chai at home, I just added some stevia only. I didn’t really miss the creaminess. It tasted good.

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I’m not eliminating dairy and I drink my tea straight anyway, but have you tried just using the original flavor coffee-mate, either the liquid or the powder? They’re non dairy and should change the flavor in a similar way to milk.

OMGsrsly said

They don’t have lactose, but they do have casein which is a dairy protein. At least the powder does. I haven’t looked at the liquid in forever.

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I rarely add milk (of any sort) to most of my tea, but I just tried melting in coconut butter into my chai tonight, and it made it sweeter, creamier then just milk would have…I am curious to try it with just the coconut butter sometime to see what it would be like.

I was thinking of using coconut butter the other day in my Chai. If I open a can of coconut milk, part of it usually gets wasted because I put it in the fridge in a jar & forget all about it. My sis, MsWhatsit, freezes the rest in ice cube trays, but I put it off…

Serenity said

Oh my gosh, YES. I have been doing this lately and it is like creating instant coconut milk. Since coconut butter is just pure coconut in a jar, frothing in a scoop of it into hot tea creates this instant, silky latte. I don’t find the coconut taste to be overpowering, but then again, I really like coconut. I know this convo is from a while back but I couldn’t help but chime in…!

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I just want to point out that if you’re trying to avoid all milk products, non-dairy does not always mean it doesn’t have any milk derivatives! Same for non-dairy cheese!

Serenity said

Excellent point.

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