It always surprises me when I talk to another vegan who doesn’t realize that chocolate syrup is actually vegan. Yes, I’m talking about the same chocolate syrup you put on ice cream or use to make chocolate milk. In fact, I have a bottle of Hershey’s chocolate syrup in my fridge right now that will probably be put to use as soon as I finish writing this article. I guess most people just see “chocolate” on the bottle and assume it must have milk in it. This is yet another reason you must always check the ingredients because you might be missing out for no reason.
So, now that you know that chocolate syrup is vegan, you can probably see where I’m going with this: any alternative to milk can be turned into vegan chocolate milk. I used to hate buying the chocolate-flavored soymilk because I couldn’t use it for cooking, or anything else that I didn’t want to taste like chocolate, which meant I always had to buy an extra carton of plain soymilk. Then I would feel pressured to drink both cartons as quickly as possible out of fear that one of them would spoil. Needless to say, I felt pretty happy, and sort of foolish, when I realized I could have just been adding chocolate syrup to my regular soymilk the whole time.
Well, that’s enough about that. Let’s get into which substitutes make the best chocolate milk.
Soymilk
Soymilk (plain or vanilla) definitely makes the best chocolate milk in terms of actually resembling real chocolate milk. Soymilk has the most similar consistency, sweetness, and flavor to regular milk, so I think when you add chocolate syrup to it, it makes the most convincing substitute.
Almond Milk
One could argue that almond milk actually makes the best-tasting chocolate milk. I recommend the vanilla flavor. It basically just tastes like a dessert; more like a milkshake than chocolate milk.
Coconut Milk
If you’ve ever had the chocolate-flavored So Delicious coconut milk ice cream, then you can probably imagine what this tastes like. Chocolate coconut milk is really, really, really good; but, it doesn’t taste like real chocolate milk.
Rice Milk
Chocolate rice milk is okay. It’s definitely not my top recommendation. If you happen to really like rice milk, then maybe you’ll prefer chocolate rice milk to the other substitutes. Personally, I don’t think it makes a very convincing, or good-tasting chocolate milk. It’s not bad, it’s just not great.
Read also the article on is bread vegan?
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