We taste-tested 14 brands of oat milk you’re likely to find at your local supermarket or online. To find the very best one, we sampled each without knowing which was which. Our winner is Oatly Full Fat Oatmilk, but we also crowned one worthy runner-up.

The best dairy alternatives should be just that: an alternative to dairy that will satisfy those who love the real thing. Though we recognize that oat milk will never taste exactly like dairy milk, the best oat milk should have all the qualities of dairy milk, including a rich, mouth-coating texture and a light sweetness, without any graininess or gumminess. Oat milk should be sweet, the way real dairy is—subtle, without tasting like any extra sugar has been added. Its flavor should be free of artificial aromas, and instead have an inobtrusive, pure, nutty flavor of oats.

Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

Overall Winner

Oatly Full Fat Oatmilk

This oatmilk had an oat flavor that our editors enjoyed. "It’s warm and cereal-like," our associate culinary editor, Laila, said. I enjoyed its mild sweetness, and our senior editor, Genevieve, agreed. "It’s neutral and subtly sweet," she said. Associate visuals director, Amanda, gave it a high score for its "nice oatiness," though associate editorial director, Megan, found this oat milk a bit chalky.

What stood out most in this sample was its whole milk–like creaminess. Laila described it as "thick, viscous, and ultra-smooth," and Amanda loved its "milky texture." This was one of the few samples the editors could drink a glass of, with Genevieve noting that she’d be happy to purchase it.

Runner-Up

365 by Whole Foods Original Oatmilk

This oat milk had a natural oat flavor and wasn’t overly sweet. Laila thought it had a "powdery, slightly gritty mouthfeel," but took it as a positive. "The powdery texture may be off-putting for some, but I found it appealing," she said, explaining that it possibly signals minimal processing.

Other tasters didn’t pick out the same graininess Laila did. Instead, Amanda praised the consistency, saying, "Finally, a milk texture." I agreed, noting how thick and creamy it was, while Genevieve wondered if it was too thick. "This has a lot of body," she wrote. "It might be too thick for some, but it would be good for cooking." Overall, she determined that it was a fine option, noting, "It’s not super sweet or overly salty. I like this!"

Of the samples we tried, I thought this option tasted the most like oats. Laila agreed, remarking that it was "clearly oat-forward, with a more natural, less processed taste" than other samples. Amanda caught a hint of a flavor on the backend that she didn’t love but couldn’t quite place, and Megan agreed, noting a bitter aftertaste and a "slightly chalky" finish.

The Contenders

• Califia Farms Extra-Creamy Oat Milk
• Chobani Oat Original
• Chobani Oatmilk Extra Creamy
• Good & Gather Original Oat Milk
• Kirkland Signature, Organic Non-Dairy Oat Beverage
• Malk Organic Original Oat Milk
• Oatly Full Fat Oatmilk
• Oatly Original Oatmilk
• Organic Valley Organic Oat Beverage
• Pacific Foods Original Organic Oat Milk
• Planet Oat Original Oatmilk
• Silk Oat Milk Original
• Trader Joe’s Non-Dairy Oat Beverage

Key Takeaways and Conclusion

Most oat milks are made with water, oats, oil, sugar, and salt. Many brands contain additives, emulsifiers, and stabilizers that give their products a rich, creamy texture and/or improve their ability to foam for coffee drinks. Our winner, Oatly Full Fat Oatmilk, lists an "oat base" of water and oats as its first ingredient. It actually has a patent for its process, which involves mixing oats with water, milling them, then adding "natural enzymes" to the mixture. This breaks down the grain’s starches and converts them into sugar, sweetening the beverage. Once the bran is filtered out, the remaining ingredients are added, and the beverage is heat-treated before being packaged.

Both our winner and runner-up are made with similar ingredients: They both have a base of oats and water, and contain 2% or less of an oil (rapeseed for Oatly; sunflower seed oil for 365 by Whole Foods), calcium carbonate, tricalcium phosphate, sea salt, and vitamins. 365 by Whole Foods also contains gellan gum and potassium phosphate.

While certain brands tout their short ingredient list as a selling point, we found that milks made with just oats and water were extremely thin and watery, and our favorite oat milks used oils and other additives to mimic whole milk’s richness and texture.

It makes sense. Dairy milk has butterfat that coats the tongue, and a blend of oats and water simply won’t replicate that texture. Adding fat via oil and other ingredients that thicken the mixture creates the creamy, smooth body that most people look for in milk.

Some of the lower-performing oat milks use oat flour as a base, which gives the beverages a grittiness and a raw-flour flavor. We also found that milks that relied too heavily on gums—such as gellan or locust bean gum—without balancing them with fat had a gluey or slimy texture.

It’s also worth noting that we preferred the full-fat version of Oatly to the original version as it had the creamiest, most "milk-like" texture of the bunch. The full-fat version has a higher rapeseed oil content than the original, giving it a fuller body.

Our Testing Methodology

All taste tests are conducted with brands completely hidden and without discussion. Tasters taste samples in random order. For example, taster A may taste sample one first, while taster B will taste sample six first. This is to prevent palate fatigue from unfairly giving any one sample an advantage. Tasters are asked to fill out tasting sheets, ranking the samples according to various criteria. All data is tabulated, and results are calculated with no editorial input to provide the most impartial representation of actual results possible.