Alpro for Professionals – Non-dairy milk that tastes good

I am lactose intolerant, so I should be avoiding all dairy products, but do you know how hard that is, when the highlight of your morning is the 10 o’ clock latte and you btw. live in Dubai where it is ice cream season all year round?  The bloating and cramps that would inevitably follow were just necessary evils that I had learned to live with, because being without dairy was unthinkable to me. 

Though with the increased availability of lactose free products, I have switched to lactose free milk about a year ago, and what a difference it made! I have also been flirting with non-dairy products too, as they in most cases both healthier and more environmentally friendly, but the non-dairy products usually feel like a compromise, especially the non-dairy milk, which is often watery and with a bitter taste that I do not like (soy milk is the worst! I just can’t get myself to drink that stuff). Furthermore, the non-dairy milk I have tried so far has not worked with my Nespresso milk frother. 

I have previously tried some of the products from Alpro, but I have not been very impressed for the reasons mentioned above. Though I got curious when I saw the Alpro for Professionals coconut milk on the shelves in Carrefour the other day. It had a photo of latte art on the packaging, and after reading that it was foamable, just like regular milk, I decided to buy one.

It only took one cup of Alpro For Professionals coconut latte to win me over. It tasted so good, that I did not even finish my cup, but hurried back to Carrefour to buy more, as I was afraid the Alpro for Professionals was only there for a limited time and would sell out. There were only two packs of coconut milk left, but they also had Alpro Almond milk for Professionals, so I got three packs of those too. 

The coconut milk tastes like coconut, but the flavor is smooth and velvety, without any bitterness. The almond milk tastes more like regular milk, but with a subtle hint of marzipan. Poul loves the almond milk with his morning oats, and both variants are super delicious with coffee and black tea. 

What I really love about Alpro for Professionals is that the “milk” behaves like real milk. The first time I used the Nespresso milk frother, I poured in a little extra as I thought it would not foam so much, but it did, and I had coconut milk foam spilling all over the kitchen table. The foam is thick and fluffy, and it stays that way, so if you know how to, you could probably make latte art with it.  

And no, this is not a sponsored post, even though I wish it was, because the Alpro for Professionals is expensive. I bought Alpro for Professionals in Carrefour in Silverene Dubai Marina and it was 20AED for one pack, but I have seen that they also have it in Waitrose in Marina Mall (and it is 1 AED cheaper than in Carrefour). 

Nutritional Information: Comparing cow’s milk with Alpro Almond milk for Professionals and Alpro Coconut milk for Professionals

For this comparison I have used Danish low-fat milk from Arla.

Both the Alpro for Professionals coconut milk and the Alpro for Professionals almond milk contain sugar, but the carbohydrate content from sugars is less (coconut: 3.3g/100g, almond: 2.5g/100) than for cow’s milk (4.7g/100g). The Alpro for Professionals also has less calories (coconut Alpro: 33 Kcal/100g, almond Alpro 24 Kcal) than the low-fat cow’s milk from Arla (46Kcal/100g). The coconut milk also contains saturated fat, which is the bad kind of fat that has been associated with heart disease in some studies, but the coconut milk has slightly less saturated fat than regular milk (0.7g for the coconut milk, 1 g for low-fat Arla milk). The almond milk only contains very little saturated fat (0.1g/100g).

The coconut milk contains soya beans which might be an issue for those allergic to soy. The almond milk contains, well, almonds (surprise surprise), so if you are allergic to nuts then almond milk might not be for you.