As a diverse array of alt-milks continues to proliferate, I'm seeing more and more questions about "which is the best altmilk." As with nearly-any question someone might end up answering on GitHub, my answer is that it depends. Some amount depends on personal flavor preferences. I think that more of this than you might expect, though, is a matter of pairing.

Background

First, why do I have so many opinions on alt milks. I have tried all of:

rice milk
oat milk
sesame milk
walnut milk
macadamia nut milk
coconut milk
almond milk
soy milk
pea milk
cashew milk
hemp milk
flax milk
sunflower seed milk
hazelnut milk
Not Milk (a proprietary blend)

and probably more that I've long-since forgotten. This is mostly because I was a barista at a coffee co-op before most regions settled in on the standard sets of vegan options we see today, and I've remained fascinated by trying literally every new option I come across. Between easy access to store-bought vegan milks in my area and random "Hey you wanna try this weird nut milk I made" offers through the years, I've had quite a lot, most of these several times in different varieties. I do have some brand preferences for storebought, but which brands are available varies regionally, so the only brand I'll specifically name here is NotMilk. There's not really a generic option there, because they've got a brand-specific proprietary blend going on, so there's not really another way around it.

Overall Advice

This post is going to focus on milk pairings for beverages, especially milk-heavy beverages where milk choice makes a huge difference. In those instances, the biggest thing is that you go for a Barista Blend. Even the best brand's regular altmilk rarely compares with the cheapest available barista blend for steaming and foaming, or even just heating without odd textural effects (looking at you, hemp and pea milks) or off flavors.

When You Don't Want The Milk To Stand Out

For neutral cases, like a steamer (steamed milk, optionally with some flavor syrup added) or a drip coffee, I prefer oat milk. It has a nice body, but not too much flavor other than a general creaminess to distract from the main flavor. Oat milk is my easy-default choice when I want a creamy beverage and don't want to bother thinking through pairings or keeping a dedicated custom milk in my house for something I'm maybe not drinking often. If you do have time, money, and fridge space to think about a milk pairing for your favorite warm beverage, though, I believe it can really add to the experience.

Milk To Highlight Earthy Flavors

For matcha, I really like soy milk, because the lightly-beany flavor that especially comes out when it's steamed can help highlight the earthy flavors. For especially earthy coffee, I like pea milk, which has a more-balanced and less-beany earthiness that can highlight those flavors. However, steamed pea milk ends up an awkward texture that's very noticeable (and distracting to me) in matcha.

Milk To Highlight Spicy Flavors

For chai or other spiced beverages (like Mexican hot chocolate), I really like macadamia nut milk. I think the extra creaminess and lightly-roasty flavor can really pull out the toasted flavors of the spices.

Milk To Highlight or Add Sweet Flavors

This is my one exception to the always-get-barista-blend rule, as well as the one place I'll mention a brand name. I really like the NotMilk product for particularly sweet beverages, like hot chocolate or sweetened warm tea. I also love their newer NotCo Plant-based Chocolate Milk as an incredible cheat for a mocha. If you don't have NotMilk in your area, barista blend almond milk can help highlight the sweetness. If almond takes you to an overly-sweet flavor, though, you can always fall back to oat.