The vegan dilemma-help! - Barista Exchange2024-03-28T17:33:40Zhttps://www.baristaexchange.com/forum/topics/the-vegan-dilemmahelp?feed=yes&xn_auth=noa friend of mine in philly ha…tag:www.baristaexchange.com,2011-12-21:1688216:Comment:13301822011-12-21T14:34:50.611Zashley griffethhttps://www.baristaexchange.com/profile/ashleygriffeth
<p>a friend of mine in philly has a shop called grindcore house which is entirely vegan. maybe you could look them up and ask for a few pointers!</p>
<p>a friend of mine in philly has a shop called grindcore house which is entirely vegan. maybe you could look them up and ask for a few pointers!</p> Holy Kakow is pretty good? It…tag:www.baristaexchange.com,2011-05-14:1688216:Comment:11285162011-05-14T18:11:54.093ZDonald Tylerhttps://www.baristaexchange.com/profile/DonaldTyler
Holy Kakow is pretty good? It's the best chocolate sauce available : ). Check out their organic flavored syrups as well. One stop for 100% fairly traded, organic sauces/syrups - the taste and<br />
<br />
quality are exceptional.
Holy Kakow is pretty good? It's the best chocolate sauce available : ). Check out their organic flavored syrups as well. One stop for 100% fairly traded, organic sauces/syrups - the taste and<br />
<br />
quality are exceptional. Jennifer,
You have tons of…tag:www.baristaexchange.com,2011-02-23:1688216:Comment:10390442011-02-23T09:51:59.088ZSoutheast Grindhttps://www.baristaexchange.com/profile/SoutheastGrind
<p>Jennifer,</p>
<p> </p>
<p>You have tons of vegan options! At our coffee shop in Portland we serve a large vegan client base. I personally have found that Pacific Soy Blenders tastes the absolute best steamed. We also use the Living Harvest Hemp and people drink that everyday. They recently reformulated it to not separate. I think that it tastes better with certain flavors like hazelnut or chocolate. It's makes a pretty good hemp-a-ccino tho too. Holy Kakow is a local vegan chocolate company…</p>
<p>Jennifer,</p>
<p> </p>
<p>You have tons of vegan options! At our coffee shop in Portland we serve a large vegan client base. I personally have found that Pacific Soy Blenders tastes the absolute best steamed. We also use the Living Harvest Hemp and people drink that everyday. They recently reformulated it to not separate. I think that it tastes better with certain flavors like hazelnut or chocolate. It's makes a pretty good hemp-a-ccino tho too. Holy Kakow is a local vegan chocolate company that we use also. Check them out. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Best,</p>
<p>Kacey</p> @Monika
Thank you for sharin…tag:www.baristaexchange.com,2011-02-22:1688216:Comment:10384382011-02-22T17:27:49.339ZJennifer Jacobshttps://www.baristaexchange.com/profile/JenniferJacobs
<p>@Monika </p>
<p>Thank you for sharing that! I would love to read more of your tasting notes! Feel free to post them here or send me a message with them. I'd greatly appreciate it! </p>
<p>@Monika </p>
<p>Thank you for sharing that! I would love to read more of your tasting notes! Feel free to post them here or send me a message with them. I'd greatly appreciate it! </p> We just opened our shop a few…tag:www.baristaexchange.com,2011-02-22:1688216:Comment:10382112011-02-22T14:57:13.239ZMonika Saldenhttps://www.baristaexchange.com/profile/MonikaSalden
<p>We just opened our shop a few months ago, and wanted to offer a milk alternative in addition to soy. For soy we use the Pacific Barista Series.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>We went to all of the Co-ops in our area and bought every kind of milk alternative we could find. We tasted them cold, steamed, and steamed with espresso. Here is what we tried that day:</p>
<p>Good Karma Rice Milk</p>
<p>Pacific Almond</p>
<p>Tempt Hemp unsweetened</p>
<p>Tempt Hemp sweetened</p>
<p>Wildwood Soy…</p>
<p>We just opened our shop a few months ago, and wanted to offer a milk alternative in addition to soy. For soy we use the Pacific Barista Series.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>We went to all of the Co-ops in our area and bought every kind of milk alternative we could find. We tasted them cold, steamed, and steamed with espresso. Here is what we tried that day:</p>
<p>Good Karma Rice Milk</p>
<p>Pacific Almond</p>
<p>Tempt Hemp unsweetened</p>
<p>Tempt Hemp sweetened</p>
<p>Wildwood Soy Original</p>
<p>Wildwood Soy Unsweetened</p>
<p>Organic Valley Soy Original</p>
<p>Organic Valley Soy Unsweetened</p>
<p>Pacific Foods Hazelnut</p>
<p>Pacific Foods Oat</p>
<p>Hemp Dream Hemp</p>
<p>Blue Diamonds Almond Breeze Original</p>
<p>So Delicious Coconut Unsweetened</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Whatever we could find, we tried. My favorite was the Hazelnut milk from Pacific Foods. It tastes <em>amazing</em> with our espresso. The flavor and texture of the hazelnut milk bring out beautiful roasty nuances of the espresso and actually complement it very well. I would recommend this drink--not just as a milk alternative. It's good.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I have more tasting notes if you are interested. Just let me know. I didn't want to bore everyone! But go to the store, grab a few, and see how they taste with your espresso. Every brand tastes a little different too, so taste as much as you can. And something else might work better with whatever espresso you are using. You never know how the flavors will react.</p> I don't do cooked at home. S…tag:www.baristaexchange.com,2011-02-22:1688216:Comment:10382072011-02-22T14:39:48.220ZJason Haegerhttps://www.baristaexchange.com/profile/JasonHaeger
<p>I don't do cooked at home. So the trick is that it's just not doable. Cool.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The oiliest nut I've come across has been Brazil nuts. Making raw brazil nut butter results in an oily mess. </p>
<p>I don't do cooked at home. So the trick is that it's just not doable. Cool.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The oiliest nut I've come across has been Brazil nuts. Making raw brazil nut butter results in an oily mess. </p> roasting. i love it raw too i…tag:www.baristaexchange.com,2011-02-22:1688216:Comment:10381852011-02-22T08:25:05.460ZAeryn! Ehttps://www.baristaexchange.com/profile/AerynE
roasting. i love it raw too ive been known to drinkit straight from jar standing in front of the open fridge. roasting it makes a really nice flavor but 1 second too long and the oils turn rancid-read- when you steam it to too high of a temp it pretty much skanks it and it goes real sour/burn. has anybody tried making milk with a really oily nut? like hazlenuts?! that would be out of this world delish. or for that matter maybe honey roasting(or roasting the nuts with cane or agave syrup to keep…
roasting. i love it raw too ive been known to drinkit straight from jar standing in front of the open fridge. roasting it makes a really nice flavor but 1 second too long and the oils turn rancid-read- when you steam it to too high of a temp it pretty much skanks it and it goes real sour/burn. has anybody tried making milk with a really oily nut? like hazlenuts?! that would be out of this world delish. or for that matter maybe honey roasting(or roasting the nuts with cane or agave syrup to keep it vegan)? Okay, I'm curious.
What's…tag:www.baristaexchange.com,2011-02-22:1688216:Comment:10381312011-02-22T01:02:05.299ZJason Haegerhttps://www.baristaexchange.com/profile/JasonHaeger
<p>Okay, I'm curious. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>What's the trick to getting raw home-made almond mylk to actually taste good when steamed? </p>
<p> </p>
<p>I love it raw. Steamed, it looks wonderful. I can pour art with it. But it never tastes good. (in other words, it's pointless) </p>
<p> </p>
<p>I'm under the impression that most people saying almond mylk works well are buying pre-manufactured (read: probably roasted and/or pasteurized) almond mylks. What's the trick?</p>
<p>Okay, I'm curious. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>What's the trick to getting raw home-made almond mylk to actually taste good when steamed? </p>
<p> </p>
<p>I love it raw. Steamed, it looks wonderful. I can pour art with it. But it never tastes good. (in other words, it's pointless) </p>
<p> </p>
<p>I'm under the impression that most people saying almond mylk works well are buying pre-manufactured (read: probably roasted and/or pasteurized) almond mylks. What's the trick?</p> you know, a lot of people see…tag:www.baristaexchange.com,2011-02-22:1688216:Comment:10381232011-02-22T00:30:59.226ZAeryn! Ehttps://www.baristaexchange.com/profile/AerynE
you know, a lot of people seem to automatically think faux-milk has to bad. I actually prefer a "mylk" over cream of cow milk- i think the super high fat content just coats the mouth and prevents people from actually tasting the coffee itself. Soy is delicious- maybe your starbucks drink was so awful because it was a starbucks drink. Almond milk works great- it steams up well & is super easy & cheap to produce in gallons on your own, most any nut will make a good milk- the high fat…
you know, a lot of people seem to automatically think faux-milk has to bad. I actually prefer a "mylk" over cream of cow milk- i think the super high fat content just coats the mouth and prevents people from actually tasting the coffee itself. Soy is delicious- maybe your starbucks drink was so awful because it was a starbucks drink. Almond milk works great- it steams up well & is super easy & cheap to produce in gallons on your own, most any nut will make a good milk- the high fat content the better, a certain amount of people enjoy rice milk - i personally dont trust anything that seperates into 3 distinct layers after sitting out for 3 minutes. one of the issues ive run into that you might too , no matter which mylk you choose is that certain syrups & even certain very acidic beans cause a "tofu" kinda thing to occur. just my thought- but it seems entirely do-able to run a vegan coffee shop as long as you dont attempt to be a Faux-anything vegan- stick to natural things and natural things will occur In the soy world, try the Bar…tag:www.baristaexchange.com,2011-02-21:1688216:Comment:10378052011-02-21T23:56:19.309ZMatthew Scotthttps://www.baristaexchange.com/profile/lemonjellos
<p>In the soy world, try the Barista Series Pacific Soy and Vanilla Soy. Those have gotten the best steaming & texture results for me. They also have a chai coming out in the next couple of months that I tried this weekend and enjoyed. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>As a vegan, I decided early on to let customers decide for themselves. We offer soy and rice alternatives for everything and offer vegan chocolate & syrups. Because we have a lot of vegan customers, vegetarians, gluten-free folks, other…</p>
<p>In the soy world, try the Barista Series Pacific Soy and Vanilla Soy. Those have gotten the best steaming & texture results for me. They also have a chai coming out in the next couple of months that I tried this weekend and enjoyed. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>As a vegan, I decided early on to let customers decide for themselves. We offer soy and rice alternatives for everything and offer vegan chocolate & syrups. Because we have a lot of vegan customers, vegetarians, gluten-free folks, other folks with allergens, and just normal people, we try to label things appropriately and educate ourselves on what's what so we can guide folks. The foodservice world is hard to navigate from a vegan standpoint, but it can be done if you spend a little more time researching and a little more money on some products.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I don't use them because of availability here, but the Sweetbird line of syrups are all certified Vegan.</p>
<p>Their chocolate does use high fructose corn syrup like most chocolates, though. If you're against that, the only thing available in the market right now is Holy Kakow out of the Portland area. They have 2 Vegan chocolate sauces that are pretty good.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I also want to echo folks on local farms. If you can find a local organic dairy farm and you can see for yourselves how the cows are treated, it might make a difference for you. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>The fun part about my store not being entirely vegan is the chance to get non-vegan folks to try vegan things and realize they can be made well and can taste just as good. You loose that chance if you isolate folks from the beginning. It's a tough call to decide whether or not you're being vegan by serving other people non-vegan things, but that's something everyone has to answer for themselves.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>If you have any questions along the way on how someone else has dealt with certain products, types of customers, recipes, etc., I'd love to help. I've spent 8 years not dealing with this issue and I'm sure the journey is far from over.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>