Milky Plant – Review

By Steve Crabtree, March 2024

There’s been quite a shift towards plant and nut based milks over the last few years, and although I still drink the dairy based version, the family and I are quite partial to almond and oat milk.  We use it quite often in smoothies, porridge, and occasionally as a morning drink.

The thing is, a carton can be quite expensive. And, it doesn’t always go a long way for a family.  So, after hearing about the Milky Plant and seeing videos of people just adding their own oats or nuts to water to make their own milk, I was quite excited to give the machine a try.

We’ve been using it for a month…

What’s in the box

• 1x Milky Plant machine
• 1x Measuring cup
• 1x glass bottle
• 1x Information pack
• 1x User guide

A simple touch of a button

After opening up the box, I have to say the Milky Plant unit is a nice looking piece of kitchen kit. It’s got the right aesthetic for a milk producing machine, and its modern design means it looks nice, clean and tidy on the kitchen worktop. That said, if you prefer your kitchen to be a bit more minimal, it’s fairly slim and you can store it away if you’d prefer.

The Milky Plant promises to give you delicious milk, simply by adding nuts and water – and after adding a handful of almonds in to the chamber, filling the vessel up with water – it was a simple touch of a button to start the process.

Whilst it’s doing its thing, the Milky Plant is quite loud, with a noticeable rattle. But, I did like how quick and easy the extraction process was. I had 500ml of fresh plant-based goodness ready to go in just three minutes.

“Nutty with a hint of sweetness”

My first shot at using the Milky Plant didn’t go as well as I’d anticipated.  The taste was nice and nutty, but the consistency was a bit disappointing. Not as creamy as I’d hoped, and rather watery.

So, I decided to try again, but tinkering with things by adding a few more nuts into the reckoning. Another button press, another bit of rattling, and three more minutes to see how this version went. I also chose to shake the bottle when it was ready, before opening it and giving it a taste test.

This time, I’d cracked it. The almond milk in my second go was nice; nutty with a hint of sweetness, and wasn’t too different from the supermarket version. It hit the spot with the family too, and we subsequently added it to porridge and smoothies. We found no difference in the resulting texture or taste, and we further experimented with syrup into the mix. The family loved that, me not so much.

But, changing up the ingredients and experimenting with flavour to find your favourites tastes is all part of the fun.

In fact, the Milky Plant website encourages you to do just that. For instance, adding a tablespoon of cocoa powder and a dollop of maple syrup in with almonds gives you a chocolate milk…something I’m yet to have a go at.

What Milky Plant says…

The Milky Plant makes homemade plant milk as easy, fast and fun as possible. No preservatives or additives, just 100% delicious plant milk every time.

Other benefits.

One of the things that we like about the Milky Plant is that it has a self-cleaning function. Once you’ve made your milk, it’s a 60 second job to get the machine free from it’s mess.

You need to empty the filter after each use, but even that’s good for you. Because you can keep the pulp that’s left and reuse it in granola or biscuits. Or you can just throw it away.

But the big question that we had at the beginning of our usage was the finances. Does the Milky Plant actually save you money?

Well, I was most impressed with the savings on oat milk. A 90p spend on 1kg of oats created six litres of milk for us, and that would have cost over £15.00 at Sainsbury’s. Saving £14.10 by going homemade works for me. In fact, we’d normally spend between £16 and £20.00 per month on oat milk, and in the first 30 days of using the Milky Plant, we spent £1.80 – with over 500g of nuts left over.

A great saving, and for those who drink more of it than we do, the financial benefit will come much sooner than it will for us.

The verdict

Well, I wondered at first if the novelty of this machine would wear off. But, it isn’t a novelty. Its use has only increased for us, and I’m sure that’ll keep happening over the coming months.

We’ve started to chill our water first, as occasionally we’ll want the milk instantly and the machine doesn’t cool the water down from the tap.  That’s where planning comes in, and batching the milk up, if you can.  And let’s not forget, we’re reusing the same glass bottle so that’s stopped us buying two to three single-use cartons every week.

Everything about the Milky Plant is a positive.  We love it, and we love the milk. The results taste great, you’ve full control over ingredients, there’s plenty of room for creativity and the milk is quick and easy to make.

The Milky Plant is available to buy from milkyplant.com – Usual RRP: £275.00