Got Milk?

You know where your coffee comes from, but what about the milk in it? Anna Sulan Masing reports on a growing movement towards quality, sustainable diary.

At the start of this year, as Greggs launched its meat-free sausage roll and hundreds of thousands of people in the UK took part in Veganuary, the Economist proclaimed 2019 as the “Year of the Vegan”. There’s no doubt we’re seeing a rise in people turning to plant-based diets. So what does that mean for speciality coffee?

The reasons for a rise in plant-based food and drink consumption are varied – consumers are not a homogeneous group. The main drivers of the shift are concerns about animal welfare, personal health and global sustainability, none of which are exclusive to a plant-based lifestyle but are the primary perceptions of what is gained by one.

Within the speciality coffee industry, the focus is on what usually accompanies the coffee – the milk. Concerns over coffee farming practices and traceability are key, so it makes sense that those translate to milk. But the conversation has largely been limited to “dairy or non-dairy”, lacking nuance and failing to address why and how.

In the past year the consumption of mylks (alternative milks) has seen a significant increase among coffee drinkers, in particular oat mylk. Chris Whitelaw, hot beverages manager at Tate Galleries, has seen an increase of 31,000 oat drinks sold between 2017-18 and 2018-2019. Peter Dore- Smith, founder of groundbreaking Fitzrovia coffee shop Kaffeine, says 19% of his coffee sales are with mylk, with 38% of that being oat mylk.