Review: Alpro Almond and Hazelnut Milks


Nut milks from dairy-free market leader Alpro. Plant-milks made from nuts have been around for years, but only recently has the market for them taken off. Alpro arrived late to the party, but with their huge brand name and supermarket presence they are sure to make an impact. Their almond and hazelnut milks even launched with a major poster campaign.


Vegans tend to be avid readers of ingredients labels and the first thing we noticed about both of these milks is how little nutmeat is in them. The almond milk contains just 2% almonds...coming below sugar in the ingredients list. We do find this quite disturbing because these milks are largely sweetened gummy water. They do have added vitamins and minerals but we'd rather see more natural nutty goodness in there too.


The almond milk is sweet, fairly white, and pleasantly almondy. It's a little thin and doesn't work at all in tea or coffee, although you could probably make a latte with it. The almonds are pretty well ground up and suspended, and don't leave much of a residue on the side of your glass. There is a little gumminess about the mouthfeel (locust bean and gellan in this case) but only really if you're looking for it. It can't really be faulted taste-wise but we wouldn't suggest it is very versatile.


The hazelnut milk is very different. Despite the low 2.5% hazelnut content, this milk has a robust hazelnut flavour and quite a strong nutty colour too. The hazelnut milk is also more gritty than the almond milk and you'll notice this in your glass if you allow it to settle before drinking it. We do really like the taste though and we found it works really well on breakfast cereal in particular. Beyond that, its uses would be limited to anything that wouldn't be harmed by the nutty taste, such as in baking or maybe in milkshakes.

Round up:

These are great tasting milks, but we think they could be better and more versatile with higher nut contents. Alpro's sister-brand Provamel also now offer a range of nut milks...and interestingly they have far higher nut contents. We'll review those shortly too.

Alpro have also introduced 'fresh' versions of these nut milks. As always though, we don't think the extra energy in transport or in the chiller cabinet can really be justified, when the taste of these long life products is just as good.

One more thing - did you notice that Alpro use the word 'milk' on the Almond Milk, but not on the Hazelnut Milk? That old 1994 EU ruling doesn't apply to certain products like coconut milk and almond milk which have historically been labelled as milks. As a vegan website...we use the word 'milk' for any plant-milk of course.

Verdict: Nutty but Nice


Veganoo Score: ★★★
Alpro Almond and Hazelnut Milks


Footnote: Ingredients
Here are the ingredients panels from the packs we reviewed.





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4 comments:

  1. I like both of these but for different things. I prefer almond in sweet baking (i.e. pancakes) and hazelnut in hot chocolate or porridge. I've actually been comparing differing brands recently, to see how they compare. The actual lack of nut content is not surprising when you consider the process by which these 'milks' are made (water is filtered through ground nuts). Diamond almond milk has more or less the same properties as Alpro. Provamel may have a higher nut content, but as they are an organic product, they cannot add calcium or vitamin D (which Alpro do). Therefore it's a bit of a trade-off as to which you consider most important - nut content, or calcium content. I really wish there was a way of combining the two.

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  2. That's interesting. Like you suggest, the only Provamel product with added calcium isn't labelled as organic. Alpro could easily bump up their nut content though and win us over! Perhaps there is also a certain desire to have a low fat content on the nutrition label too though.

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  3. I like both of these in coffee, but I use a lot of milk in my coffee (1/4 to 1/3 of the cup). The hazelnut in particular is nice as it gives a unique taste to the coffee. I think it's dumb that the organic products can't add calcium... I usually choose non-organic over organic because of this.

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  4. Hazelnut latte sounds pretty good actually!

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