“The ordering and delivering is so much easier!” Andrea says. Because oat milk is shelf-stable, there’s no need to invest in costly refrigerators that eat up energy. What was surprising was the other ways switching from dairy to oat helped save energy and labor and promote sustainability.įor the most part, Onyx’s Momentary location operates on a single fridge for milk . Onyx made a conscious choice to serve a milk that was more sustainable than traditional dairy options-the environmental impact of dairy milk was clear. “We ultimately decided to just take orders as they came and just have Oat as the default with no questions asked or no explanations given. “The options are always tricky because I feel like leading with a, ‘okay just so you know our drinks here are XYZ,’ can set a customer up for a kind of weird expectation,” Andrea says, noting that she thought extensively about how to present oat milk in the cafe in order to make customers comfortable. Although customers are aware that oat is the default, it’s not often talked about and most customers are happy with their drinks. I would love to see some places defaulting to plant based because I think it's a natural evolution for coffee.”Īndrea estimates that about 90% of drinks at Onyx’s Momentary location are made with oat milk. “I think that many cafes I see still tend to approach plant based milks as an option but maybe not a default. Dairy milk emits 3.2 kilograms of carbon dioxide per liter versus 0.9 kilograms for oat milk, and uses 628 gallons of water versus 48 gallons for oat (these findings come from a study done by researchers for Science, but is clearly illustrated in this interactive graphic from the New York Times that relies on their data).Īlthough this information is readily available and generally understood by most people-most people could likely articulate that plant milks are better for the environment than dairy milk-plant milks still have the hurdle of being treated as “alternatives.” “I really think that approaching it as an ingredient in drinks and not as a ‘special alternative’ is key,” Andrea says. Plant milks are generally less harmful to the earth than dairy milk (contributor Sierra Wen Xin Yeo details the differences in plant based milks here). “The milk alternative concept kind of naturally positions itself as the choice to make if you can’t drink milk instead of something you might experience as a take on a coffee drink.” Designating oat-or any other plant milk-as the alternative option means that for many, plant milks are only treated as a secondary ingredient, not as an ingredient that can stand on its own with milk. “We’ve been working towards a point of view on our menus for a while that presents plant based beverages as an ingredient to a drink and not as an ‘alternative’ to milk.” says Andrea Allen, 2020 United States Barista Champion, Urnex Ambassador, and the co-owner of Onyx Coffee Lab. In adopting oat as the default, Onyx hoped to change that perspective. Plant milks are often treated as a secondary ingredient-a consolation for people who can’t have dairy.
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