The Best Nut Milk Makers
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I’m really sick and tired of all the additives in my food. After switching from cow’s milk to oat and almond milk for the better part of the past decade, I’ve slowly started to mix OG dairy back into my diet. It’s primarily because the preservatives in many of the popular plant milk brands are counteractive to any other benefits they may otherwise provide.
Don’t get me wrong. I still love my plant milks, mainly because I like the flavor of them. Nothing goes better with a matcha latte than some frothed oat milk.
But are these nut milks even healthier? Are they even helping the environment? If you have a lactose or dairy issue, then obviously these alternatives are necessary. But many of the leading brands in the space process their liquids in ways that add a long list of ingredients with hard-to-pronounce words. It’s why they last so long in the fridge. When it comes to almond milk in particular, the environmental argument is basically thrown out the window, given the extreme amounts of water needed to produce it.
I’m not one to be an artisan, so making the milks on my own to avoid these issues really hadn’t been something I thought would be practical. But there are an increasing number of nut and plant milk makers that do all the work for you, giving you supremely fresh, additive-free plant milk. I’ve really been enjoying incorporating these fresh plant milks into my coffee—they add a fresh nuttiness that I really never got from the store-bought ones.
Be sure to visit some of our other buying guides for kitchen gear, including the Best Gear for Small Kitchens, the Best Electric Kettles, the Best Coffee Grinders, and the Best Tea Accessories.
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How We Tested
I tested these by making three types of milk with each. For almond milk I used Blue Diamond Whole Natural unroasted, unsalted almonds. For cashew, I used 365-brand unroasted, unsalted cashews. For macadamia, I used Mauna Loa dry roasted, unsalted macadamia nuts. I also used filtered water from a Zero Water filter as the liquid in each machine. In terms of the machines themselves, I was looking for a well-engineered product that I could trust would last me a long time.
I also considered the length of time it took to produce the milk, as well as the simplicity of using the product and ease of cleaning it. In terms of the milk the machines yield, I examined the taste and smoothness in relation to each other as well as store-bought milks. I also tested adding additional ingredients like sweeteners to see how well they made additional recipes aside from the most basic of milks.
These freshly made milks are all going to have a shorter shelf life than plant milks you buy at the store (typically about five days) because of the lack of added preservatives, so shelf life was not a factor I considered. All in all, I really didn’t want these machines to just be glorified blenders with a filter built in. I wanted them to be specifically curated for making the best plant milk possible.
- Photograph: Andrew Watman
Best Overall
Nama M1 Plant Milk MakerBrand-new on the market, the Nama M1 Plant-Based Milk Maker is making its mark because it outperforms every other, hands down. The primary factor that makes the Nama M1 the best is that the final product is velvety smooth—smoother than the milk made from any other machine I tested for this guide. There is absolutely zero pulp in the milk that comes out. On top of that, it works extremely fast. Once you input the nuts and water, the first cycle takes just about a minute. You then flip the spout open to let the initial milk out, and another cycle runs for another minute to squeeze the remaining milk out of the nuts. It all pours into a provided container, which you sit right next to the machine on the well-gripped mat that’s also provided. The container has a tight seal on it, so that when the milk separates in the fridge, you can shake it straight from the container and nothing spills out. At the same time, the lid is easy to remove when needed. It also works as a measuring cup for water.
It seems that what makes the milk from the Nama M1 so smooth is that the filter here is unlike any of the others. It’s more of a screen—like a very fine-mesh sieve. Many of the others are more of a hard metal with small holes. And what’s even more impressive is that it accomplishes all of this while taking the shortest amount of time.
It’s obvious how every nook and cranny of this machine has been carefully thought through. The base has a really nice weight to it, which is important because otherwise the machine would shake on the table while grinding the nuts. It also has a very modern design with barely any buttons. There’s just one knob. You don’t need to tell it which type of nut you’re using. It works with any kind of nut or grain that you desire. The top of the machine also serves as a measuring cup for your nuts! It’s just so well engineered that every aspect feels so nice to use–from sliding the top onto the base to lifting the spout.
The pulp left behind is where you can really tell that this machine is more than just a glorified blender. It’s not just ground nuts you need to clean up—the pulp almost becomes a pasty cream that lines the walls of the filter. This occurred with each type of milk I made. You can actually scrape the pulp and use it in other recipes for some added nutrition. The texture of the pulp also makes the whole thing extremely easy to clean. With just a rinse, it all easily falls off. I barely scrub or use soap.
Specs Pitcher included? Yes Need to soak nuts? No Pulp in milk? No Heats milk? No Maximum net milk per cycle About 4 cups Time per cycle About 2 minutes - Photograph: Andrew Watman
Another Great Option
Growup Plant-Based Milk MakerThe GrowUp is a modern nut milk maker that looks sleek on your countertop and makes good nut milk. If you like the design and want to save a little money compared to the Nama M1, then this may be the best choice. Comparably, there are some design flaws, but the GrowUp is still a solid option.
The removable cap on the top snaps nicely into place and feels secure. It also acts as a measuring cup—1 cup—so you can just scoop your nuts directly. You then put 3 to 4 cups of water directly inside, depending on how thick you want your milk to be. You have to make sure the blade is pushed on tight—one cycle I tested completely failed to grind the nuts. Just water came out. I realized I didn’t push the blade down enough, so I tried again and it worked fine.
The GrowUp has a small touchscreen interface to guide you through making your milk. You pick which type of milk you want to make (there are nine options), and then it directs you to insert the nuts and milk. Cashew milk took me six minutes and 10 seconds to make. The machine makes a loud blending noise (it freaked my cats out) for about a minute before anything starts pouring out. For the remaining five minutes it then switches between pouring out and blending. The product doesn’t come with a container for the milk, so I put a bowl underneath to catch the milk. I then poured it into my own glass carafe to store in the fridge (the carafe was too tall to have the milk go directly into it). When the milk pours out of the machine’s spout, there’s a bit of a splash zone, so I needed to wipe down the machine afterward. The milk that came out for each nut milk I made was pretty smooth, although there was definitely a little pulp in each.
The cleaning cycle on this is helpful. Once the milk cycle is complete, you can go right into cleaning it by removing the filter and pouring in water. It then takes four and a half minutes for it to wash and swoosh around and pour out all the gunky pulp. It can get a little annoying because you have to remove the dirty filter and reattach the blade to do this. I’d rather not have to handle the blade so much, to avoid cutting myself on it. And you also still have to then wash the filter by hand. You also need to wipe down some final remnants in the machine with a cloth after the cleaning cycle. Sometimes it doesn’t dispense enough gunk and I had to run the clean cycle twice. It’s not a perfect cleaning system, but it’s definitely a big help.
Specs Pitcher included? No Need to soak nuts? No Pulp in milk? Yes Heats milk? No Maximum net milk per cycle 3.5 cups Time per cycle About 6 minutes
- Photograph: Andrew Watman
Best for Flavored Milk-Based Drinks
NumilkThe Numilk is unique for nut milk makers in that you don’t actually insert nuts and water into the machine. I like the final product, but I’m not sure why this entire machine is necessary to make these milks. It comes with a variety of concentrated flavor packets, which you then tear and insert into the top of the machine. You fill the provided container with water, place it in the machine, and then the packet empties out into the water and gets blended together.
They do get mixed very well, but you could really just use a blender if you don’t want to buy a whole extra gadget. The flavor packets are pretty tasty, so you could in theory just buy those on their own and blend them yourself. If you want the full Numilk experience, you could also subscribe to get your favorite flavor packets in the mail regularly. The packets cost between $15 and $24 for a pack of four, and also come in packs of 12.
The flavor packets make great additions to drinks. I tend to like to froth them and then pour over an iced coffee. It’s a good way to add flavor in your coffee without adding sugary syrups. You can even drink some of them on their own, like the Matcha Oat Latte. Some of my favorites are the Pistachio Vanilla and Chocolate Oat. I’m a little skeptical about the ingredients list, though. The pouches contain a creamy liquid. The Unsweetened Almond one, for example, says it only contains almonds and salt. The company claims on its website that these pouches contain no gums, fillers, or preservatives. I’m glad to hear that, but I still have some hesitation about what’s really in these because almond and salt alone would not produce a creamy liquid, and each of them have the same exact consistency. Transparency is important for me.
I find the container that the flavor packet pours into to be both the best and worst design aspect of this product. I like that it comes with a sturdy container that the milk gets poured into directly. The silicon lid is also very tight and doesn’t have any leakage when you shake it to mix the inevitable separation. However, you can’t swap this container for another because it’s custom to the Numilk and needs to snap in place so the blender works properly. So when you have one milk sitting in the fridge, you’re not able to make another until you’re finished with that one. You can solve this problem by buying extra containers, but they cost $50 each.
Specs Pitcher included? Yes Need to soak nuts? N/A Pulp in milk? No Heats milk? No Maximum net milk per cycle 4 cups Time per cycle About 1 minute - Photograph: Nutr
For Solo Milk Makers
The NutrThe somewhat questionably named Nutr is the smallest of the milk makers I tested, about the size of a half-gallon milk carton. It also makes the smallest amount of milk, about a cup and a half at most. It is speedy, though: Throw in a cup of water and a tablespoon of instant oats, and five minutes later, you get a cup of oat milk. The same is true of almond milk, so the idea is that it makes milk only when you need it, precluding the need to store it. If you want larger quantities, just know that Nutr is working on a family-size version that can make up to 600 milliliters (about 2.5 cups) in one batch.
I tested it by making oat, almond, rice, and tiger nut milk. The resulting milk was very well blended, although the milk did benefit from using the Nutr’s included cup-top filter, which catches the plant mush. That filter didn’t catch it all: I still found some gritty bits in the filtered milk. The Nutr is quick but frustratingly noisy: The loud blender motor runs intermittently as if a child has their finger on the power button and keeps turning it on and off to annoy you. The blender runs less often on the longer milking cycles, but it is no less irritating. It certainly isn’t the kind of noise I want first thing in the morning: It woke up my dog, which meant I couldn’t have a cup of coffee before I took him for a walk.
The Nutr also handled rice milk (a hot milk that has to be heated while brewing) without problems, but it took about 27 minutes, plus about 10 minutes waiting for the milk to cool from the near boiling point the milking process needs to get those enzymes working. That’s a long time to wait for the small amount it makes.
In addition to offering subscription shipping for the nuts, oats, and other plant materials you make milk from, Nutr sells powder mixes to flavor the milk and add herbal ingredients. The Vanilla Cinnamon with Reishi Mushroom and L-Theanine had a rather unpleasant fungal aftertaste, but the strawberry powder was more pleasant, with a sweet taste and a slight citrus kick. A sample pack of the five flavors is included.
Making small batches of fresh plant milk when needed is a great concept, since plant milk tastes best freshly made. The execution could be better, though. The noise is incredibly irritating, and the small maximum quantity means it only works for one person. That might be OK if you have a single vegan in the family, but the noise might drive them back to drinking cow milk. —Richard Baguley
Specs Pitcher included? N/A Need to soak nuts? No Pulp in milk? Yes Heats milk? Yes Maximum net milk per cycle 1.5 cups Time per cycle 5 minutes
- Photograph: Almond Cow
Best for Almond Milk Fans
Almond CowI tested the $330 Almond Cow Starter Set, which includes the milk maker and a few accessories, such as a rather cute branded glass milk jug, and a cleaning brush. The process of getting milk from your electric cow is simple: Add water to the vessel (between 5 and 6 cups), put the dry ingredients in the filter cup, twist it onto the bottom of the lid so the blender arm is in the materials, put the lid on, and press the button. The Almond Cow then grinds and mixes everything, a process that takes a few minutes. When it is done, the light on the top turns blue, and the milk is ready. The pulp is kept in the filter cup, which you remove and clean by hand. A collector cup is included, which fits over the filter cup to stop it dripping everywhere. The vessel also has to be rinsed out between uses.
I found the milk the Almond Cow produces was delicious. The high-speed blender with multiple blades meant the almonds were well blended, and little or no grainy plant material was left behind. The milk came out a little frothy, like a pint of albino Guinness. The froth quickly settled, though, and the 5 cups that the Almond Cow produces should be enough for a family breakfast or a day of coffee-making. After using the Almond Cow, there is a lot of cleaning: Clean the filter cup, rinse the top off (the milk gets splashed inside the vessel as it is blended), and clean the vessel itself. It’s no surprise that the starter pack I tested also included a bendy scrubbing brush that helps get the gunky plant pulp out of the filter.
I also found that with chunkier ingredients like almonds, you must push the filter cup up quite hard to ensure it is correctly locked into place when attaching it to the top. That’s because the blender blades sit right at the bottom of the cup, and a nut can get stuck below the blades, keeping the twist lock from engaging properly. If the cup works its way loose during blending, it makes a mess and could damage the blade. The easiest way to avoid this, I found, was to gently shake the cup while attaching it to the top to keep the materials moving. I also found that when you pour the milk out, the top of the Almond Cow has a habit of falling off as you tip the whole thing to get the final milk out of the vessel. There is no locking mechanism that holds the lid in place, only gravity.
Still, the Almond Cow does an effective job. It makes well-blended milk in decent quantities and does it pretty quickly. What it does not do, however, is handle the variety of other types of milk some machines can. You are limited to raw milk like almonds, cashews, and oats. —Richard Baguley
Specs Pitcher included? N/A Need to soak nuts? No Pulp in milk? Yes Heats milk? No Maximum net milk per cycle 5 cups Time per cycle 5 minutes - Photograph: ChefWave
For Families and Milk Experimenters
ChefWave MilkmadeIf you want to make larger quantities of plant milk or experiment with different milk sources, try the ChefWave Milkmade. It automates the process of milk-making but allows plenty of flexibility in the source and quantity, and has an auto-clean feature that saves a lot of time. It looks like a coffee machine, with a loader at the top and a glass carafe at the front. There’s even a water reservoir at the back, like a Keurig or other capsule coffee maker, though you have to refill it every time you use it. You take off the water reservoir and fill it to the 10- or 20-ounce levels, depending on how much milk you want. You then put the milk source in the mixing chamber, a glass-lidded compartment on the top of the machine. You then select the cycle from the control panel, and it brews you up a batch in the handy milk jug on the front of the machine. That process took about 18 minutes for oat milk and 45 minutes for soy milk. Once complete, the Milkmade beeps contentedly and runs a cleaning cycle that purges the system and dumps the cleaning water into an internal hopper. Once the cleaning cycle is complete, empty the hopper, and the Milkmade is ready to run again.
It's simple and effective, but the downside is that you must refill the water reservoir and empty the internal water hopper every time you use it. Even though the reservoir holds over 40 fluid ounces, most of that is used in cleaning. The Milkmade did an excellent job blending the milk but didn’t filter it, meaning the milk can have a slightly gritty texture from bits of the source material. This was present in the oat, soy milk, and horchata that I made, all of which benefited from a final pass through a fine mesh filter (not included).
The control panel provides six presets (almond, soy, oat, cashew, macadamia, and coconut) but you must select your desired preset by pressing the program button repeatedly until the one you want is selected. The control panel looks like you could just touch the name to select, but only two of the buttons are touch-sensitive. You can delay the start of the milk-making process so you will have a fresh batch of milk when you wake up, but you only set a delay; there is no true timer. There is also no way to customize the presets, so you can’t raise or lower the mix temperature or tweak the grinding time, things that most plant milk connoisseurs like to do with experience. —Richard Baguley
Specs Pitcher included? Yes Need to soak nuts? No Pulp in milk? Yes Heats milk? No Maximum net milk per cycle 2.5 cups Time per cycle 18 to 45 minutes
- Photograph: Tribest
The Cheapest and Simplest Nut Milk Machine
Tribest SoyabellaLooking like a slightly overgrown electric kettle, the Tribest Soyabella is a simple plant milk maker that can do other things, such as make soups, infusions, and tofu. It is rather too simple, though—the only option is to make raw or heated milk, chosen by a pair of buttons on the top of the device. This top lifts off to reveal the device's workings: a blender arm and a filter cup. To make a batch of milk, you put up to 4 cups of water in the vessel and a cup of your plant material into the filter cup, which twists to lock onto the top. The blender then grinds up the material and mixes it with the water, while the filter cup keeps the plant pulp contained.
The process takes about a minute for raw milk and between 15 and 25 minutes for hot milk, depending on how much water you add. The Soyabella can handle between 3 and about 5 cups of water. When done, pour the milk out, remove the filter cup, and discard the pulp. This works well. While some gritty bits did get through, the filter cup kept the chunkier bits contained. I found the results from the suggested recipes relatively weak and watery; the instructions suggest that you run the cycle two or three times to get a better result, which was a good idea. It would be better if there were a way to set a longer blend time. There is also no provision here for automatically soaking the plant source, so you must do that manually.
The short manual shows how to use it to make soup, sauces, and soft tofu, and includes a good selection of recipes for various dishes. A grinding cup is also included, which fits over the blender arm to grind dry ingredients. The Tribest Soyabella tries to be a jack-of-all-trades but doesn’t master any of them. It makes decent milk, but only if you run it twice or thrice. That makes it feel a bit pointless, since it requires a lot of extra work every time you use it. —Richard Baguley
Specs Pitcher included? N/A Need to soak nuts? No Pulp in milk? Yes Heats milk? Yes Maximum net milk per cycle About 5 cups Time per cycle 1 to 25 minutes
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