The Plant Milk Family Tree
Milkapedia documents 28 plant milks — more than in any other category. They span five major ingredient groups, four continents of origin, and thousands of years of culinary history. This guide organises them by ingredient group and explains what makes each group nutritionally and culinarily distinct.
The most important rule for all plant milks
Before exploring the families, one rule applies across all 28 entries: the nutritional properties of the whole plant are not automatically the nutritional properties of the strained milk.
When a nut, seed, or grain is blended and strained to make milk, much of the solid material — and many of the nutrients bound up in that solid material — is filtered out. What remains in the liquid depends on the fat-solubility of the nutrient, the fineness of straining, the ratio of plant to water, and whether the commercial product has been fortified afterward.
Some nutrients transfer well: fat-soluble compounds (such as the omega-3 ALA in hemp and flax) travel with the fat fraction into the liquid. Some transfer partially: certain minerals leach into the water during soaking and blending. Many barely transfer at all: most of a nut's calcium, iron, and fibre stays in the pulp that gets strained out.
This is why many commercial plant milks are fortified — because the natural beverage is often too low in key nutrients to be a useful dairy substitute without them. It is also why claims like "sesame is high in calcium" need qualification: the whole unhulled seed is high in calcium; the strained milk is not reliably so unless fortified.
Milkapedia applies this plant-vs-beverage distinction throughout its entries. Where a nutrient is present in the whole plant but not reliably in the strained milk, the entry says so.
🌰 Nut milks
Made by soaking tree nuts (or tigernut tubers, which are not true nuts) in water, blending, and straining. The resulting liquid carries the nut's flavour and some of its fat, but very little of its protein, fibre, or minerals unless fortified. Nut milks are typically low in protein (0.5–1.5g per cup) and moderate in fat.
🌻 Seed milks
Made from oil-rich or protein-rich seeds. Seed milks span a wider nutritional range than nut milks: hemp milk genuinely delivers omega-3 ALA at the beverage level; flax milk is made from cold-pressed oil (which retains the fatty acids); sesame milk's calcium reputation depends heavily on whether unhulled seeds are used and how much is filtered out. Chia seeds are nutritionally extraordinary as a whole food but the strained milk delivers much less than the whole seed.
🌾 Grain milks
Made from cooked grains or enzymatically processed grain starches. Grain milks are naturally higher in carbohydrates than nut or seed milks and generally lower in fat. The characteristic sweetness of oat milk is not from added sugar — it comes from enzyme treatment that breaks down the grain's starches into simpler sugars. Rice milk similarly derives its sweetness from starch breakdown and has among the highest glycaemic impact of any plant milk tested in published research.
🫘 Legume milks
Made from beans, peas, or peanuts. Legumes are notably higher in protein than other plant sources, which is why soy milk and pea milk are the plant milks that most closely approach cow milk in protein content. The trade-off: legumes also contain antinutritional compounds (phytates, lectins, trypsin inhibitors) that can affect digestibility and mineral absorption. Processing — cooking, soaking, enzymatic treatment — substantially reduces these, which is why the finished beverage is different from raw legume composition.
🥥 Other plant milks
Two plant milks that don't fit neatly into the families above.
How homemade and commercial versions compare
For almost every plant milk, a homemade version and a commercial version are nutritionally quite different — sometimes dramatically so.
🏠 Homemade plant milk
Natural flavour of the source ingredient comes through. No fortification unless added deliberately. Calcium, protein, and vitamins are at natural (usually low) levels. Fat comes from the source plant and transfers into the liquid. Usually requires straining; the pulp (which contains most of the protein and fibre) is discarded or used separately. Shorter shelf life — no stabilisers or emulsifiers.🏪 Commercial plant milk
Usually fortified with calcium, vitamin D, vitamin B12, and sometimes other nutrients. Contains emulsifiers (often sunflower lecithin) and stabilisers (often gellan gum) to maintain texture. May contain natural or added flavours. Protein content is often boosted in the commercial product — particularly visible with pea milk, which uses isolated pea protein to reach 8g per cup rather than whole blended peas. Sugar content varies: original vs. unsweetened versions can differ significantly.The practical implication for nutrition is that "plant milk" is not a single nutritional category — it depends on which plant and which version. An unsweetened commercial oat milk and a homemade almond milk have very different protein, fat, carbohydrate, and micronutrient profiles despite both being called "plant milk."
All 28 plant milk entries
Sources & methodology
All nutritional claims in this guide refer to the plant ingredient or the finished commercial beverage as indicated. Key sources for claims specific to this guide:
- PMC — Hemp Seeds as Natural Ingredients (2024) — Basis for hemp milk omega-3 ALA content (~1,200mg per cup verified at beverage level)
- PMC — Beta-Glucan in Oat Milk (2024) — Basis for oat milk beta-glucan range (~0.5–1.5g per cup, varies with processing)
- PMC — Glycaemic Response to Plant Milks (2023) — Basis for rice milk high GI claim relative to other plant milks
- PMC — Soy Beverage Protein Review (2023) — Basis for soy milk protein content (~7–8g per cup) and amino acid completeness claim
- PMC — Pea Milk Protein Quality (2024) — Basis for pea milk 8g protein per cup and methionine/cysteine limiting amino acid claim
- EU DOOR Database — Horchata de Chufa PDO — Basis for tigernut/horchata EU Protected Designation of Origin claim
- All other composition claims draw from individual entry sources. See individual Milkapedia entry pages for full citations.