How we produce our Oat Drinks
It’s the inside scoop you’ve all been waiting for…how do you turn wholegrain oats into a creamy, foamable milk alternative? Over the next few weeks, we’ll be taking you through the ins and outs of oat drinks – how they’re made, the difference between them and what we mean when we say our products aren’t from concentrate. So, here’s the first part of our trilogy – how our oat drinks are made.
Oat Benefits
Our key starting ingredients are simple: wholegrain oats and water. Oats are a rich source of starch and contain higher levels of healthy fat and proteins than most other grains. They also contain beta-glucan, an amazing soluble fibre rich in oat benefits such as heart health and lowering the risk of diabetes.
Oats and water alone don’t make a silky-smooth oat drink, so to transform this porridge-y mixture into a creamy and full flavoured oat drink we use enzymes. You may remember from your school days that enzymes help to break things down and this is exactly what they do in our oat drinks; they’re tiny natural proteins that change the insoluble whole oats into smaller pieces that dissolve in the water, creating a delicious oat drink that retains much of the fibre, protein and goodness of the oats. They also help to convert the starch to sugars which give a slight sweetness to the oat drink without needing to add extra sugar*. As our gut also contains enzymes, this process is quite similar to what happens naturally when you eat porridge!
Containing vitamins D3, B2, B12 and calcium
We then filter the mixture to create a smooth oat drink and add a little rapeseed oil to give it a creamy mouthfeel and to help it foam in coffee. As coffee is acidic, we also add a type of salt called dipotassium phosphate to our Barista product which acts as an acidity regulator and helps to prevent splitting in hot drinks. Once we have fortified the oat drinks with vitamins D3, B2, B12 and calcium, we add a small amount of salt to help bring out the flavour. To prevent spoiling, the oat drinks are pasteurised and packed directly into our cartons and then they’re ready to go.
*The total sugar in our oat drinks is lower than the amount in semi-skimmed cows’ milk.
