I have a whole series of tea latte posts coming. Trying everything from skim to full fat milk and cream but also a crazy number of non-dairy alternatives. The thing with regular milk is that most of them foam ok, you can just use whatever is in the fridge. But non dairy alternatives are another story. The one you use regularly might taste the best, but some don’t even make an attempt at foaming.
All of the lattes will be made in my Chef’s Star Milk Frother with teas I have tried as lattes to be fair to them. Some teas are just not made for lattes and either fizz away the foam or curdle. So keeping it simple. I am starting with my Christmas gift to you, the one that is the absolute best from the 10 I have tried so far. Maybe some of the ones on my to try list will surpass it, but only time will tell. Others did an ok job, but So Nice Barista Blend certainly lived up to the name.
So Nice Barista Blend for Tea Lattes
So Nice Barista Blend is a soy based non-dairy alternative. Almost no taste to it which is great if nut milks turn you off. It has a slight sweetness but not so much that it actually sweetens the tea. At 80 calories per cup, the half cup I use for lattes means my tea latte is only 50ish calories factoring in the tea I used but not the sprinkles! But it also had around 100mg of sodium if you are watching your intake. About double the amount of my usual 2% milk.
So Nice Barista Blend made an amazing amount of foam in my Chef’s Star Milk Frother. Thick, rich and stands up to sprinkles and lasts while you drink it. With most foam, you get milk at the bottom and foam on top in the milk frother. So Nice was almost all foam so the tea looks a bit darker as little milk mixed with it. Shown here with DAVIDsTEA Gingerbread tea you can see how dark the tea looks with only 2 perfect spoons of loose tea in my latte mug.
So Nice Barista Blend was similarly priced to other non-dairy alternatives in the non-refrigerated section. I paid $2.79 at my local Fortinos (the equivalent of Loblaws in my area) while most were $2.49-$2.99. So very affordable for something you know will work. We can drink milk so I am sticking to 2% but will definitely keep a carton of this to serve non-dairy lattes!
Excellent product except the local retailer – Real Canadian Superstore is out of stock more often than not