Skip The Fancy Labels, Aldi Has The Best Almond Milk At An Unbeatable Price

If cow's milk isn't your thing, you're lucky to be living in a golden age for milk alternatives. From almond, oat, pea protein, and coconut to cashew, soy, and even macadamia, there's never been a bigger selection of plant-based milks to try. But with so much to choose from, it's actually harder than ever to zero in on a milk alternative that's both delicious and affordable enough to pour over your cereal every morning. For our money at Chowhound, however, nobody can beat Aldi's Friendly Farms almond milk.

Aldi shoppers know that despite the no-frills layout, eating well with dietary restrictions doesn't have to be expensive. In fact, people with dairy, gluten and other allergies, as well as folks following vegetarian and vegan diets, are some of the quirky discount grocery store's most loyal customers. In the case of Aldi's almond milk, the case is clear: It tastes good and it's cheap. The Friendly Farms half-gallon has a creamy, natural flavor with no pulpy mouthfeel or salty aftertaste like other leading brands. It also clocks in at around $2.50 for a 64-ounce carton, which is nearly as half the price of its name-brand competitors depending on where you shop.

In the hunt for an almond milk that's creamy enough for coffee and light enough for soups and cereal, Chowhound tried eight of the most common brands including Califia Farms, Silk, and Almond Breeze. Each milk was sampled on the day they were purchased, for peak freshness, and evaluated alone (not mixed with other ingredients). To decide our ultimate almond milk ranking, we then weighed the pros and cons of each almond milk entry with the cost. MALK, for instance, ranked at the bottom not just because it tasted more like water than milk, but also because it costs around $7 for a 28-ounce container.

Perhaps the only drawback to the Friendly Farms almond milk is that it's a bit thinner than other premium almond milks. This is important if you plan to use it for making lattes, since it's harder to get non-dairy milk to froth when compared to dairy milk, so in that case you're better off shopping for a "barista blend," which has a thicker consistency. The Friendly Farms brand is also only available at Aldi, so it's not as widely available as non-generic brands sold in major grocery stores. But if you're close to any of the 2,200 Aldi stores in the United States, and you're in the market for alternative milk, we rank this almond milk as a certified bargain.